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A March 19, 2015 McClatchy Washington Bureau post by William Douglas states:

House and Senate leaders Thursday unveiled a bipartisan bill to end recurring pay cuts that doctors face under Medicare.

With participating physicians facing a 21 percent pay cut on April 1, lawmakers released a bill to replace Medicare's "Sustainable Growth Rate" formula...

...The language in the bill...would repeal the SGR while instituting an 0.5 percent payment increases for five years while Medicare transitions doctors to a new system that emphasizes quality care over volume of care.

The bill also requires doctors to receive at least 25 percent of their Medicare revenue through the so-called Alternative Payment Models by 2019-2020.

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If passed this bill would end the so-called "doc fix" - temporary patches that Congress has approved 17 times to prevent slashing pay to doctors.

"I'm not going to say we've got it all resolved yet, but I'm optimistic that we will get it resolved," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters Thursday.

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In a March 17, 2015 Fierce Medical Devices post, Stacy Lawrence reports:

Careful, consistent management of blood sugar levels is key to improving outcomes for diabetes patients. Doctors want easy access to and intelligent analysis of blood glucose, insulin and activity levels for their diabetes patients; payers want to manage their diabetic population more cost-effectively; while patients are looking to make their lives better and simpler.

...startup Glooko hopes... <to provide> its technology to make diabetic device data mobile-compatible and...<to enable>... population analysis of it for providers and payers.

Medtronic...is among the backers of Glooko's $16.5 million Series B financing.

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On the face of it, this seems like terrific news: capital investment in healthcare, innovation and application of cutting edge technology. The fact is, according to Rhea Boyd, MD & Jessica Schumer, MD:

Being well isn't simply having your diabetes under control, it is preventing you from getting diabetes in the first place. If we continue to commoditize patients, valuing their ailments over their wellness, we miss the opportunity to provide the very care we claim to offer, health.

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