Today’s Headlines – April 10, 2012
Happy Tuesday morning! Here are your morning headlines to get you going:
: Health-Care Law Will Add $340 Billion To Deficit, New Study Finds
President Obamas landmark health-care initiative, long touted as a means to control costs, will actually add more than $340 billion to the nations budget woes over the next decade, according to a new study by a Republican member of the board that oversees Medicare financing. The study is set to be released Tuesday by Charles Blahous, a conservative policy analyst whom Obama approved in 2010 as the GOP trustee for Medicare and Social Security (Montgomery, 4/9).
: For The Elderly, Emergency Rooms Of Their Own
Hospitals also have strong financial incentives to focus on the elderly. People over 65 account for 15 percent to 20 percent of emergency room visits, hospital officials say, and that number is expected to grow as the population ages. Under the Affordable Care Act, hospitals Medicare payments will be tied to scores on patient satisfaction surveys and how frequently patients have to be readmitted to the hospital (Hartocollis, 4/9).
For more headlines …
: Autism Science Is Moving Stunningly Fast
The quest to unravel the mystery and get children and families the help they need has become more urgent as autism has become more widely diagnosed. The condition now affects one in 88 children, according to a report last month from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Szabo, 4/9).
: ICD-10 Likely To Be Pushed Back A Year
Its official the Obama administration is proposing to push back by a year the deadline for a new medical-coding standard that was originally set to go into effect on October 1, 2013 (Mathews, 4/9).
Shots Blog: Calif.s Prescription-Drug Monitoring System Feels Pain From Budget Cuts
California has the oldest continuous prescription-drug monitoring program in the U.S. It used to rely on carbon copies. The system went online in 1998, and that’s when its full power was realized. … So alarm bells went off among doctors and law enforcement when California Gov. Jerry Brown announced last year that, for budget reasons, he was eliminating the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, which had long managed the prescription-drug monitoring program (Varney, 4/10).
: Former Maine Governor Seeks Senate Seat As Independent, Is Critical Of GOP Policies
But Maines former two-term governor, running as an independent to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, calls the GOP budget plan a disaster and the partys position on womens health a mistake. Hes also supporting President Barack Obamas re-election (4/9).
: Utah: Health Department Data Breach May Include 750,000 Records; Many Victims Are Children
Health officials in Utah say 750,000 additional people, including many children, may have had personal information stolen by hackers. Utah Department of Health spokesman Tom Hudachko (HU-dak-ko) said Monday that about 250,000 Social Security numbers were part of the tens of thousands of stolen files, although many numbers didnt include other information (4/9).
: Molina Loses, Aetna Wins In Ohio Medicaid Decision
A surprise decision by Ohio to shake up the providers of its Medicaid health plan marked a sharp setback for incumbent insurer Molina Healthcare Inc., MOH -26.74%which lost its contract (Kamp, 4/9).
