Virginia Gains if Obamacare is Replaced
The Obamacare health replacement debate has re-entered the public arena with the dramatic new effort by center-right Senators Lindsay Graham and Bill Cassidy. Their idea is to send block grants to the states to spend on state designed and managed health care systems.A recent study on this bill by the health care industry consulting firm, […]
Carilion Wants it Both Ways
The Roanoke region needs more health care availability according to Carilion, the area’s mega hospital. It now recognizes a problem that other health care providers have long known – the Roanoke area is underserved and has inadequate access to many important health care services. And, of course, Carilion wants to fill this need. Yet, for years […]
Demand Anticipated for Jobs in Health Care, Retail
What jobs will be in hot demand in the Richmond region during the next decade? Jobs in the health care and social assistance sector and in the retail industry top the list. For instance, the health care and social assistance sector is expected to need nearly 40,000 workers in the Richmond metro area over the […]
Making the Case for Medicare Advantage
Government watchers know there are two parts to federal policy. First, there is the law passed by Congress. Second, there is how agencies implement the law. For Medicare Advantage, congressional support remains robust – but the program’s future lies squarely with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS reviews and sets rates, which […]
Cost Cuts Coming in a Post-Obamacare Health System
The University of Virginia Health System will need to dramatically cut costs to adapt to a post-Obamacare world, Dr. Richard P. Shannon, UVa’s executive vice president for health affairs, said yesterday. As the Daily Progress reports, Shannon briefed members of the Medical Center Operating Board: Republican plans, written to replace the Affordable Care Act, likely would […]
Hospitals Do Well Here in Virginia
The recently released annual analysis of Virginia hospitals by the Thomas Jefferson Institute once again confirms that the hospital industry as a whole here in Virginia continues to do well and that its overall financial health continues to improve. As in past years, the Thomas Jefferson Institute used the financial numbers and lists all the […]
Should Non-Profit Hospitals Boost Redskins’ Profits?
Not too long ago, sports facility naming rights were reserved for corporations with big bank accounts and grandiose advertising campaigns: automobile companies, banks, technology giants and beer companies. Now another category of advertiser, a disturbing one, has entered the picture: nonprofit hospitals. Nonprofit hospitals in Virginia, including Inova, have been a part of the chorus […]
The Soaring Costs of the ACA’s Medicaid Expansion
The implementation of major legislation such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) often results in fiscal outcomes that differ significantly from prior projections. Whenever this happens it leads to many questions, much confusion, and several claims and counter-claims. Rarely is it immediately clear whether the law is working differently than envisioned, or whether the unexpected […]
We Don’t Need Taxpayers’ Billions To Prevent Zika
The Zika virus is increasingly linked to serious neurological complications for pregnant women and microcephaly in newborns: smaller than normal heads and brains. It also affects areas of fetal brains that control basic muscular, motor, speech and other functions, leading to severe debilities that require expensive care throughout a person’s life.
Reforming Health Care and Reducing Costs
As I write this, the status of major the health care reform passing the General Assembly is in doubt. It seems that the heavy-handed lobbying of the hospitals might keep costs high and competition at bay. The hospitals actually sponsored a television and radio ad that so distorted the facts that it had to take […]