Wednesday, November 8, 2017
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Although only a small percentage of tax payers use it, the elimination of the medical expense deduction in the House tax reform proposal has not gone unnoticed. Taxpayers with qualified medical expenses exceeding 10 percent of adjusted gross income will no longer be able to take the deduction, which represents an estimated $87 billion each year among those who leverage it. The more visible omission from the tax plan, however, is any change to the tax penalty for failing to have health insurance. Much is expected to change in the bill during debate and markup this week. (
Kaiser Health News)
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President Trump’s opioid commission issued its final report Nov. 1, with 56 recommendations to tackle the problem of addiction. The recommendations framed the issue as a public health crisis rather than a law-and-order issue. Key recommendations include expanding data sharing and improving coordination among programs and agencies; referring more users to treatment rather than jail; and mandating that prescribers undergo more training. (
Benefits Pro;
Vox;
PBS NewsHour)
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Innovation & Transformation
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Beginning in January, California will provide meals and groceries to some chronically ill patients enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program. The “Food is Medicine” program follows research demonstrating that patients who received a medically tailored meal program had a 63 percent drop in hospitalizations, a 58 percent reduction in emergency department visits and a 50 percent increase in medication adherence. The state is investing $6 million in the project. (
Hospitals and Health Networks)
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One of the top medical apps on the Apple platform uses weather and phone-based data to predict an individual’s “migraine forecast.” A successful Mayo Clinic trial preceded roll out of the public version of Migraine Alert in August, and development of a version that incorporates Fitbit-generated data to its artificial intelligence capabilities is ongoing. Second Opinion Health, the app developer, is staffed by Mayo Clinic and University of Southern California headache specialists. (
mobihealthnews)
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The doctor of the future is changing. For some, medicine looks like a team sport, with doctors quarterbacking on teams that include nurses, pharmacists and medical assistants. As Americans age and payers shift to bundled payments, distributing work across teams keeps costs down, relieves doctors of busywork and improves productivity. Doctors who prefer the “sole cowboy” model are finding a place in concierge practices. (
Politico)
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By the end of 2016, the health care industry linked about a 29 percent share of payments to alternative models like shared savings, bundled payments or population-based reimbursements. The number fell just shy of the 30 percent benchmark set by the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network, which analyzed payments from both public and private sectors. The shift was attributed to the growing number of accountable care organizations and Medicare’s incentive to shift to alternative payment models. (
RevCycle Intelligence)
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House passes CHIP:
The House passed a bill to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program for five years on Friday, but the bill limits federal subsidies to Medicare beneficiaries making more than $500,000 and takes money from the Prevention and Public Health Fund, among other funding changes. The Senate is unlikely to support the bill in its current form. (
Bloomberg;
The Hill)
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Insurers profit in billions from Medi-Cal: California’s managed Medicaid program, among the nation’s most generous, helped participating plans reap $5.3 billion in profit in its first two years, a new
Kaiser Health News analysis showed. Anthem alone raked in $1.1 billion in profit. The state expects to recoup some of that after audits and retro-active rate adjustments are complete. (
Kaiser Health News)
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Affordable Care Act marketplace plans are leveraging, well,
marketing tactics to reach key audiences to maximize reach within the shorter enrollment window this year. One Florida health plan is using a puppy video with a Spanish-language voiceover to woo Hispanic women (who apparently like to share cute videos on social media). Although the Administration has cut advertising and ACA navigator budgets, health plans and states are stepping up with their own strategies to prompt enrollment. (
National Public Radio via Kaiser Health News;
puppy video)
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MarketVoices...quotes worth reading
“The first deployment of this is migraines, but our technology is then applicable to other chronic and/or neurological diseases because of the technological solution that we have, and we do believe in these enablers of revolutionary outcomes that support personalized care, actionable self-care, availability anytime, anywhere, and treatments and prevention.”– Simon Block, CEO of Second Opinion Health, quoted by
mobihealthnews in an article about his company's app that forecasts migraines.
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Roxanna Guilford-Blake
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