5/1/12 – Hepatitis is a hidden epidemic affecting 3.5-5.3 million people in the United States. And 65-75% of infected Americans are unaware of their infection because Hepatitis does not show symptons for decades. This makes it all the more important for baby boomers and at-risk populations to get tested immediately.
4/23/12 – Reducing the growth in Medicare and Medicaid spending is a key public policy priority. Achieving this objective requires a clear understanding of the drivers of rising health care spending. In the Medicaid program, 83 percent of total spending is associated with chronically ill patients.
4/13/12 – On Thursday, Governor Cuomo issued an Executive Order to create New York’s Health Benefit Exchange. Legislation establishing the Exchange had been included in the Governor’s Executive Budget proposal but had fallen off the table during budget negotiations.
4/12/12 – Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicare’s Shared Savings Program offers financial incentives for physicians, hospitals and other health care providers to join together to form accountable care organizations (ACOs). ACOs are designed to improve care for Medicare beneficiaries and contain increasing costs by changing payment incentives for doctors and hospitals.
4/4/12 – April is National STD Awareness Month, an annual occurrence to raise public awareness about the impact of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the importance of preventing, testing for and treating STDs.
4/3/12 – Eliminating disparities in health care is an important step toward the goals of reducing health care costs and increasing quality of care for all populations. Some leading hospitals and medical organizations have adapted their health care delivery systems to better serve minority populations in an effort to reduce medical errors, shorten lengths of hospital stays, and lower the number of costly emergency room visits attributed to racial and ethnic disparities.
4/2/12 – This weekend, a Wall Street Journal article summed up where various states are on implementing health exchanges, regardless of the Supreme Court outcome…By now, New Yorkers are aware that the final state budget did not include provisions for a health care exchange infrastructure. Governor Cuomo has vowed to move ahead with an Executive Order.
3/30/12 – Several patient advocacy groups released a statement today regarding the fight to restore prescriber prevails in the NYS Budget.
3/26/12 – A little over two years have passed since the Affordable Care Act became the law of the land. Today, the Supreme Court starts its historic three-day run of arguments over the health care reform law.
3/23/12 – Yesterday, radio and TV interviews highlighted the importance of protecting our most vulnerable population by restoring prescriber prevails to the NYS Budget this year.