Chiropractic Breakthrough

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: A new survey from the Center for Studying Health System Change and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that one in five Americans reported trouble paying medical bills last year.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate passed legislation extending a Social Security tax cut, which included a provision that delays–for two months–the 27.4 percent cut in reimbursement to Medicare providers, including doctors of chiropractic.

Most members of the U.S. House of Representatives joined their Senate colleagues on Tuesday in going back home to their districts without agreeing on a tax measure that also contained a provision calling off the scheduled 27.4% cut in reimbursement to Medicare providers, including doctors of chiropractic.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on President Obama’s healthcare law over a three-day span from March 26-28. The schedule further confirms the universal expectation that the court will issue a ruling on the healthcare law next June, at the height of the 2012 campaign.

As part of the 2009 stimulus bill, the federal government provides incentive payments to doctors and hospitals to adopt electronic health records. Some 57 percent of office-based physicians now use electronic health records, a 12 percent jump from last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

In a major surprise on the politically charged new health care law, the Obama administration said Friday that it would not define a single uniform set of “essential health benefits” that must be provided by insurers for tens of millions of Americans. Instead, it will allow each state to specify the benefits within broad categories.

The specter of nursing strikes is looming on both coasts, as newly empowered nurses’ unions confront hospitals pressed to cut costs amid changes in health care financing. In New York, over 6,000 registered nurses are poised to walk out of three of the city’s most prestigious hospitals before the year’s end. A 24-hour walkout is set for Dec. 22 in California.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives, largely on a party-line vote, passed a bill which contained language calling off the scheduled 27.4% cut in reimbursement to Medicare providers, including doctors of chiropractic. The measure calls for a 1% increase in reimbursement rates in years 2012 and 2013.

A state legislative audit says Maryland paid $426,000 in Medicaid to 10 people who were dead. The audit, released Wednesday, also found that between January 2008 and August 2011, $2.5 million in erroneous payments were made for 323 people who may have already been dead.

The latest United Health Foundation’s America’s Health Rankings unveiled today has a scary message for the nation: Obesity has ballooned from 11.6% of the adult population in 1990 to 27.5% in 2011.