The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David Introcaso

Listen NowThe homeless of course suffer substantial health problems.  The CDC estimates nearly half have one or more chronic health condition (e.g., heart disease, diabetes, cancer), two in five have a mental health diagnosis/es, one-fourth suffer substance abuse, one-third are alcohol addicted.  One 2005 study showed shocking mortality rates, the median age of death was 45.  Over half do not have health insurance - though homeless adults will become eligible in 2014 for Medicaid coverage in states that agree to expand their Medicaid program under the ACA (about half the states) to 133 percent of the federal poverty level ($15,200). During this 24-minute podcast, Dr. Rogers explains how/why he became involved in caring for the homeless.  He discusses the magnitude of the problem, explains the purpose and evolution of the Carpenter's Shelter, the services he provides its patients (as well as care he provides for other homeless Alexandria residents), his frustrations when attempting to find provider for patients needing more intensive care, e.g., surgeries, expectations for Virginia in expanding Medicaid coverage under the ACA in January 2014 and what that would mean for Carpenter's.    Dr. Rogers operates a free medical clinic at the Carpenter's Shelter for the homeless in Alexandria, Virginia.  Dr. Rogers is also the Director of the Physicians Regulatory Issues Team at the Centers forMedicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and is also a member of Georgetown University ospital medical staff working in the Emergency Department and teaching residents and medical students.  He too holds the rank of Colonel in the US Air Force and is the Operational Medical Director for the National Park Service, National Capital Area.  Before joining CMS, Dr. Rogers served as the Regional Director for an ED staffing company responsible for four EDs in Virginia employing 50 physicians.  Dr. Rogers is a member of the American College of Emergency Physicians (Fellow) and the federal Emergency Care Coordinating Committee.   Dr. Rogers received his medical degree from the University of Virginia. Listeners with an interest in Carpenter's Shelter see: http://www.carpentersshelter.org/.For more general information see, for example, the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council's website at: http://www.nhchc.org/.  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thehealthcarepolicypodcast.com

Listen NowIn 2009, or the year before the Affordable Care Act passed, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (used by the FTC and the DoJ) defined hospital ownership as "highly concentrated" in over 80% of the 380 MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas).  Since passage of the ACA, a law that among other things strongly encourages care continuity and coordination between/among providers, hospital mergers and acquisitions continued unabated with over 100 in the past year alone (and over 500 between 2007 and 2012).  This matters because studies commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and others show hospital market consolidation generally results in higher prices. During this 27-minute podcast, Dr. Ginsburg discusses the current state of hospital market concentration and what effect this has on hospital pricing and quality.   He describes the impetus for the ACA encouraging care integration, what effect this has on hospital as well as physician group practice consolidation (both horizontally and vertically), what upsides there are to a less silo-ed industry, effects of similar consolidation within the payer/insurance industry and what are or should be appropriate federal efforts to best regulate mergers and acquisitions within the healthcare industry.   Dr. Paul Ginsburg is President (and Founder) of the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC).  The HSC conducts research to inform policymakers and other audiences about changes inorganization, financing and the delivery of health care.  Prior to HSC Dr. Ginsburg served as the founding Executive Director of the Physician Payment Review Commission (now the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission).  Dr. Ginsburg was a Senior Economist at RAND and served as Deputy Assistant Director at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Before that he served on the faculties of Duke and Michigan State universities.   He has been named to Modern Healthcare’s “100 Most Influential Persons in Health Care” eight times.  He is founding member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, a Public Trustee of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and serves on Health Affairs’ editorial board.  He earned his doctorate in economics from Harvard University. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thehealthcarepolicypodcast.com

Listen NowThe centerpiece of the Affordable Care Act are the state health insurance exchanges where individuals beginning October 1st will be able to buy health care insurance with coverage beginning January 1st.   There are numerous questions regarding how and how well the exchanges will function.  For example, how may insurance plans will participate in each state, how competetive will these marketplaces be or what premiums participating plans will charge and how many individuals will purchase health insurance through the exchanges. During this 28-minute telephonic interview Professor Jost describes generally how the exchanges will operate, what challenges they face including, for example, adequate participation (particularly among young adults), concern regarding employers self-insuring to avoid ACA mandates, the status of the SHOP exchanges, how related ACA coverage provisions may have been/might be improved and expectations for how well the exchanges will operate in their first year.  Professor Tim Jost holds the Robert L. Willett Family Professorship of Law at the Washington and Lee University School of Law.  Prior to Professor Jost taught for twenty years at Ohio State University where he held appointments in the law and medical schools.  He is a coauthor of a casebook, Health Law, used widely throughout the US.  He is also the author or editor of Health Care at Risk, A Critique of the Consumer-Driven Movement; Health Care Coverage Determinations:  An International Comparative Study; Readings in Comparative Health Law and Bioethics; Medicare and Medicaid Fraud and Abuse; and, Regulation of the Health Care Professions.   Professor Jost blogs regularly for Health Affairs, i.e. he has analyzed virtually every rule and guidance issued by the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury implementing Title I of the Affordable Care Act.  These can be found at: http://healthaffairs.org/blog/author/jost/.   Professor Jost is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, the American Law Institute, and the National Academy of Social Insurance.  He is a member of the American Society of Law and Medicine, the American Health Lawyers Association, the American Society of Comparative Law, and the American Bar Association.    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thehealthcarepolicypodcast.com

Listen NowThe health care sector has substantially lagged all other major industries in the adoption and use of information technology.  For example, per the CDC, in 2011 still slightly more than half of physicians (54%) used an electronic health record (EHR) (though compared to 17% in 2008), among of solo practitioners only 29% and among specialities only 48% of surgeons.  However, since 2009 the federal government has made substantial financial investments in incenting the adoption and use of heath information technology (HIT) such that by the end of 2013 it's anticipated 80 percent of hospitals providing Medicare or Medicaid (ostensibly all hospitals) will be using EHRs (compared to 9% in 2008). During this 27-minute podcast, Ms. Christine Bechtel discusses the 2009 ARRA's HITECH provision that incented hospitals, physicians and others to adopt HIT.  She addresses the law's policy and standards' committee activities, specifically the law's "meaningful use" provision, what meaningful use stages 1, 2, 3 are intended to accomplish and the extent to which HIT adoption has succeeded over the past four years.   She explains Health Information Exchanges (HIEs and what level of success they've achieved to date.  The interview concludes with her assessment of the extent to which HIT has produced cost savings.        Ms. Christine Bechtel is President of the Bechtel Health Advisory Group, an organization that advises clients on how to implement patient- and family-centered, IT-enabled health care and policies.  Among other clients are the National Partnership for Women & Families, where she previously served as Vice-President and the Casey Health Institute, a new non-profit primary care practice in Gaithersburg, MD.  Ms. Bechtel also served previously as vice president of the eHealth Initiative (eHI), a Washington D.C.-based non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health care quality via information technology.  Prior to eHI, Ms. Bechtel worked with American Health Quality Association, she also served as senior research adviser at AARP, worked as Director of Community Development for Louisiana's Medicare Quality Improvement Organization and served on the staff of Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD).  Her BS is in politics and public policy from Goucher College and her master's is in political management from George Washington University. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thehealthcarepolicypodcast.com

Listen NowAfter the doubling of the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) budget between 1998 and 2003, federal funding for medical research and more widely federal R&D has been falling or stagnate over the past several years.  Most recently, the federal budget sequester slashed NIH funding by 5.5  percent leading to a $1.6 billion funding reduction in 2013, the largest cut in the agency’s history.    (The president's proposed 2014 budget calls for a repeal of sequestration and a slight increase in the NIH budget of 1.6 percent or $471 million over the 2012 budget.)   The decline in federal research funding is particularly concerning in light of the growing importance of knowledge-based industries in a global economy.   If current trends in biomedical research investment continue the US government's investment in life sciences research over the ensuring half decade is likely to be barely half that of China's in current dollars and one-quarter of China's level as a share of its GDP.  (China already has more gene sequencing capacity than the US.)   Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, the UK and France also fund more as share of their economies.  This 27-minute podcast begins with a brief description of AAAS's work.   Mr. Hourihan discusses next federal R&D funding generally and NIH funding specifically compared to other developed countries, the recent history of federal NIH funding, proposed White House and Congressional NIH FY'14 funding  (or moreover how Democratic and Republican proposals substantially differ), the effect of budget sequestration on the FY'13 NIH budget and sequestration's effect on NIH funding should sequestration persist through 2021, the consequences funding restraints have had on life sciences research and the economy and the prospects for future NIH funding over the next five to 10 years.     For more on Mr. Hourihan's NIH analysis (and federal R&D funding more generally) see: http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/.Mr. Matt Hourihan has been Director of the R&D Budget and Policy Program at the American Assocation for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) since 2011.  Prior to joining AAAS, he served as a Clean Energy Policy Analyst at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF).   Previous to that, Mr. Hourihan served as Jan Schori Fellow at the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, a coalition of energy firms and utilities working to engage policymakers for market-based solutions to sustainable energy development and climate change and prior still he worked as a journalist at the Ocean Conservancy.   Mr. Hourihan earned a masters degree in public policy with an emphasis on science and technology policy at George Mason University and a undergraduate degree in journalism from Ithaca College. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thehealthcarepolicypodcast.com

Listen NowSince the 1970s Medicare beneficiaries have had the option of receiving their Medicare benefits via private health insurance plans.  Today 27% of Medicare beneficiaries, or 13.3 million seniors, are enrolled in these private plans.  MA program growth in the past few years has been rapid, enrollment almost tripled between 2003 and 2012 and the program is estimated to add another 1.5 million beneficiaries this year.  Medicare, which pays MA plans a capitated rate rather than on a FFS basis, reimbursed MA plans $136b. in 2012.  The program has not been without controversy largely due to payments or over payments made to MA-participating plans.   For example, just prior to the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act the CBO estimated equalizing payments between Medicare Advantage programs and the traditional fee for service Medicare program would generate $170 billion in savings over the ten year budget window.   Despite ACA reforms to MA, MedPAC (the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission) estimated in 2013 overall payments to plans will equal $6 billion more for MA enrollees than would have been paid to cover the same enrollees in Medicare fee for service.  Dr. Biles begins this 27-minute interview by explaining how private insurance plans participte in the MA program including how they bid for services against county benchmark rates.  He explains why MA participation has nearly tripled over the past decade, what MA payment and quality incentive reforms were included in the Affordable Care Act including the star bonus program, MA risk adjustment, the quality of care provided by MA plans and possible future reforms to the MA program are also all discussed.       Since 2000 Dr. Brian Biles has been a Professor in the Health Policy Department at The George Washingtion University and is also a Senior Vice President at the Commonwealth Foundation. Previously Dr. Biles served for seven years as staff director of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, served later as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services in the Clinton Administration and also served as Deputy Secretary for Maryland's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.  Among other professional activities, Dr. Biles chairs the Medical Administrators Conference and is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and an Invited Lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.  Dr. Biles received his Doctor of Medicine and Bachelor of Arts with honors from the University of Kansas and he holds a masters degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thehealthcarepolicypodcast.com

Listen NowIt's estimated the Affordable Care Act will add another 16-17 million lives to the 60 million Americans already receiving Medicaid.  Of these current 60 million Medicaid enrollees, two-thirds receive their health care via managed care companies and over half of Medicaid managed care enrollees are in for profit plans.  Concerning the quality of care for profit plans deliver, a 2011 study published by the Commonwealth Fund found for profit Medicaid plans did significantly worse than non profit plans at ensuring members receive preventive care and managing members chronic disease.  Also too, for profit plans had comparatively higer administration costs than non profit plans.Ms. Alker begins this 24-minute interview discussing reasons for ever-growing Medicaid managed care plan enrollment and the issue of access to, or provider participation in, Medicaid and in Medicaid managed care plans.  She assesses the state of quality data collection and explains why data is generally lacking, spotty and/or not uniformly collected.  She makes comment on for profit  interest in expanding to cover additional Medicaid sub-populations, what relevant ACA reforms promise, the challenges and opportunities for reducing costs since the Medicaid program as already an efficient payer, findings from her recent study of a five-county managed care demonstration in Florida and lastly provides comment on the recent decision in Arkansas to use federal Medicaid subsidies to purchase insurance in 2014 via their state exchange for citizens otherwise eligible for Medicaid under the ACA's expanded coverage provision.             Ms. Joan Alker is the Co-Executive Director at the Center for Children and Families (CCF) and for the past ten years a Research Associate Professor at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute.  Her work focuses on health coverage for low-income children and families, with an emphasis on Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  She has authored numerous reports and studies on a range of issues including Medicaid waivers, child and family coverage, premium assistance and is the principal investigator of a multi-year study on Florida’s Medicaid program.  Ms. Alker holds a Master of Philosophy in politics from St. Antony’s College, Oxford University and a Bachelor of Arts with honors in political science from Bryn Mawr College. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thehealthcarepolicypodcast.com

Listen NowTooth decay affects US children more than any other chronic infectious disease.  It is five times more common than asthma and almost entirely preventable.  Between 41% and 55% of children age 2 to 11 suffer tooth decay and upwards of 34% of this decay is untreated.  Disparities in dental health, the CDC has termed, "profound."  This is explained in part by fact that one-third of the population (over 100 million Americans) lack dental health insurance.  That means uninsured children are 2.5 times less likely to receive dental care than insured children.  All this matters because oral health is an integral part of both overall physical (systemic) health as well as nutritional health.Dr. Edelstein begins this 31-minute podcast assessing children's oral and dental health status including how and why oral health effects overall health status and the relationship between obesity and oral health.  He discusses the level of adequacy of dental care financing or coverage and the subsequent adequacy of (and barriers to) access to dental services particularly under Medicaid.  How relevant provisions of the Affordable Care Act may change care delivery approaches are discussed, the relevant work anticipated by MACPAC and the work of the Children's Dental Health Project.         Dr. Edelstein is a Board Certified pediatric dentist and the 1997 founder of the Children’s Dental Health Project.  Dr. Edelstein practiced pediatric dentistry in Connecticut while teaching at both Harvard and UCONN for 21 years.  He is currently Professor of Dentistry and Health Policy at Columbia University where he chairs the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the College of Dental Medicine.  Edelstein has authored over 100 publications on topics related to pediatric oral health, dental education and health policy.  He presently serves as a Commissioner of the Congressional Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC).  He is a graduate of Harpur College, SUNY Buffalo School of Dentistry, the Harvard School of Public Health, and the Boston Children's Hospital pediatric dentistry residency program. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thehealthcarepolicypodcast.com

Listen NowOver 80 percent of Americans take at least one medication, nearly 30 percent take five or more. That translates to more than 3.5 billion prescriptions written every year making drugs the third highest health care delivery cost after hospital and physician services - amounting to over $250 billion annually. While the benefits of medication therapy are or can be substantial medication errors are among the most common medical error. According to the IOM an estimated 450,000 preventable adverse drug events (ADEs) occur each year in hospitals and another 800,000 preventable ADEs occur in long term care facilities – though these numbers are believed to be under estimates. According to the CDC fatalities from medication errors in 2010 accounted for 35,000 deaths, or more deaths than caused by auto accidents. Medication harm is so pronounced per the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy there is nearly a 1:1 ratio of drug spending to spending on unintended mediation harm.Dr. Isetts begins this 20-minute podcast by noting the importance of rethinking or reframing the problem of medication harm by emphasizing the utility developing a true medication use system, i.e., medication therapy management (MTM) and imbedding MTM into all health care delivery settings.  He emphasizes the importance of understanding first why patients do not appropriately follow their medication regimes.  He discusses the pluses and minuses of physician computer order entry systems.  He defines MTM as primarly insuring patients understand the intended uses for their medications, identifying each patient's goals of therapy and insuring patients understand all relevant drug safety issues.   Dr. Issets describes the work that's been done to improve the Medicare drug benefit by aligning it with Medicare hospital and physician care delivery and what can and is being done to reduce drug-related fatalities.                 Dr. Brian Isetts is Professor of Pharmaceutical Care and Health Systems at the University of Minnesota.  For the past two years he has been a Health Policy Fellow at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) working to improve medication adherence.  Dr. Isetts' field of expertise concerns studying the outcomes of medication therapy management services (MTMS) provided within the practice of pharmaceutical care.  Beyond CMS, Dr. Isetts has worked with the American Medical Association, et al. to ensure MTMS by pharmacists.  He was graduated with a BS from the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy and with a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thehealthcarepolicypodcast.com

Listen NowIn 1997 the Congress reformed how it pays physicians under Medicare.  The new formula was termed the "sustainable growth rate" (SGR).   The impetus for the reform was to control better Medicare cost growth.   (Medicare physician payments now exceed $100 billion annually).   Largely because of the concern physicians would limit seeing Medicare patients if their Medicare reimbursement rates were cut, the Congress has not enforced the SGR since 2002.   Despite the realization the SGR is unalterably broken, the Congress has been unable or unwilling to amend the law.  Though the upaid SGR tab is presently $138 billion this amount is substantially less than previous calculations that approached  $300 billion (due to a recent decline in Medicare utilization).  With debt and deficit reduction talks expected to re-emerge over the next few months will the Congress finally find the wherewithal to fix the docs?    The podcast begins with Dr. Berenson addressing the genesis of the SGR and then proceeding to explain why Congress has routinely ignored enforcing the SGR since 2002.  The discussion proceeds to explain why/how doing away with the SGR would currently cost $138 billion.   What effect the SGR has (still) had and what recent MedPAC and a bipartisan House proposal (Reps. Schwartz and Heck) call for in creating a new payment method while offsetting the accumulated $138 billion.  Dr. Berenson next discusses his recent Congressional testimony where he identified ways to improve or mend Medicare fee for service payments, e.g., reducing distortions in, or improving the accuracy of, physician service relative value units (RVUs), improving payment for evaluation and management services.  He argues in sum for global payment or partial capitation.  Dr. Berenson concludes by noting current Congressional bi-partisan support for SGR reform though noting reform proposals would have to identify some mechanism/s to control for volume growth and an indication that quality and efficiency would be improved.           Dr. Robert Berenson is currently a Fellow at the Urban Institute where his research work concerns health care policy, particularly Medicare.  From 1998-2000, Dr. Berenson was in charge of Medicare payment policy and private health plan contracting in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Previously, he served as an Assistant Director of the Carter White House Domestic Policy Staff.  Dr. Berenson became a Commissioner of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) in 2009 and in 2010 became MedPAC's Vice Chair.  Dr. Berenson is a board-certified internist, for the last twelve years practicing in Washington, D.C.  He is Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the author of numerous research publications.  He is a graduate of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and on the faculty at the George Washington University Schools of Medicine and Public Health and the Fuqua School of Business at Duke.Dr. Berenson's February 2013 Energy and Commerce Committee testimony can be found at:  http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Testimony-Berenson-Health-SGR-Medicare-Payment-2013-2-14.pdfDr. Berenson's (et al.) March 2013 Urban Institute paper, "Can Medicare Be Preserved While Reducing the Deficit?" is available at:http://www.rwjf.org/en/research-publications/find-rwjf-research/2013/03/can-medicare-be-preserved-while-reducing-the-deficit-.html This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thehealthcarepolicypodcast.com