With less than two weeks to strike a deal or face a default on the nation’s $14 trillion debt, Congressional leaders are scrambling to piece together a package of program cuts and revenue options can be accepted by Senate Democrats, the White House and conservative House Republicans.

This week the so-called “Gang of Six” released a new proposal that is gaining traction.  Members include Senators Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Mark Warner (D-VA).

Their plan to seeks to reduce national deficit by nearly $4 trillion over 10 years and proposes billions in cuts from Medicare and Medicaid.  A few of members of the Gang of Six have yet to formally sign off on the framework but President Obama, after reviewing the proposal, added his support saying that proposal is on the right track concerning this issue.

The proposal seeks a two-part process with $500 billion in initial cuts followed by a process for congressional committees to pass a larger deficit reduction measure within 6 months.  Committees would be responsible for finding additional discretionary cuts and $800 – $900 billion in entitlement savings, as well as $1.1 trillion in new revenues.

The plan is unlikely to emerge in the short-term discussion of how to address the debt ceiling by August 2, though it could set up a series of short-term extensions giving Congress time to work on a larger measure.

The proposal comes on the heels of a party-line vote in the House this week on the bill referred to as the “cut, cap, and balance” legislation.  The 234-190 vote was backed by the freshmen “tea-party” caucus, even though it’s been widely reported that the legislation is dead on arrival in the Senate and faces a White House veto.

IHA has issued a series of Action Alerts urging Congress to protect hospital payments under Medicare and Medicaid as negotiations continue:

Prospective Payment System Hospitals – Take Action Here
Critical Access Hospitals – Take Action Here
Rural Prospective Payment or “Tweener” Hospitals – Take Action Here

Featuring hospital and health care headlines from the media and the Web.

Iowa News

Iowa Senate approves Medicaid spending plan
The Iowa Senate has approved a measure that calls for spending $1.1 billion on Medicaid, a program shared with the federal government that provides health care for poor and elderly people. (KGAN-TV)

Community gathers for KRHC
The open house was supposed to start at 5 p.m., but by 4 p.m. people were already lining up for tours of Kossuth Regional Health Center’s expansion. Others were gathered behind the hospital for games, balloons, pony rides and a barbecue. (Algona Upper Des Moines)

Focus on Improving Patient Care Motivates Hospital to Upgrade Electronic Health Record
For Cass County Memorial Hospital, electronic health records are nothing new. The 25 bed critical access hospital in Atlantic, Iowa has had a system in place since 1995. Initially, the system was designed for nursing notes and ambulatory order entry. Now, the process is underway to upgrade to the latest and most robust meaningful use certified version of their EHR, bringing state of the art technology to the hospital. (IowaHITREC News)

2 named to UI Health Care posts
Two new administrators have been named to help run operations for University of Iowa Health Care, officials announced Wednesday.  (Iowa City Press-Citizen)

Trinity breaks ground on new Cancer Center

Dozens of guests arrived in mild rain under a gray evening sky Wednesday to applaud the groundbreaking of Trinity Regional Medical Center’s new Cancer Center. (Fort Dodge Messenger)

National News

Condition Gray: Inside the hospital as the Joplin tornado hit
Looking back, they remember the quiet — like a last, deep breath before death. In the nursery of St. John’s Regional Medical Center, newborns napped in bassinets. Ventilators hummed in an intensive-care unit. (Kansas City Star)

HHS Scales Back Rules On Health Insurance Appeals
The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it is scaling back some of its earlier rules under the 2010 health law that governed consumers’ right to appeal denials by health plans, disappointing patient advocates and earning praise from industry groups. (Kaiser Health News)

Attorneys argue in NJ court over constitutionality of federal health care reform law
A federal appeals court hearing arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of last year’s U.S. health reform law focused primarily on whether plaintiffs need to demonstrate they are suffering economic harm now or will when the part of the law mandating that everyone have health coverage takes effect. (Washington Post)

Doc shortage fuels hospital-physician employment agreements
As the national physician shortage continues, hospitals are grasping for physicians and hanging onto them with employment arrangements, according to a white paper by consulting firm Deloitte. (Fierce Healthcare)

AMA, others advise HHS to clarify meaningful use regs
A collaborative of seven organizations, including the American Hospital Association (AHA), American Medical Association (AMA) and the Healthcare Information & Management Systems Society (HIMSS), has proposed changes to clarify and streamline the process of achieving meaningful use objectives. (CMIO)

The National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council released the National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy this week.  Members of the Council include Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, as well as Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Domestic Policy Council (DPC) Director Melody Barnes.

“This National Prevention Strategy, called for under the Affordable Care Act, will help us transform our health care system away from a focus on sickness and disease to a focus on prevention and wellness,” said Secretary Sebelius.  “We know that prevention helps people live long and productive lives and can help combat rising healthcare costs.”

Senator Harkin said of the plan, “I applaud the hard work and collaboration of the Surgeon General and representatives of the 17 Federal departments and agencies that comprise the National Prevention Council.  After many years of advocating for wellness and prevention, I am thrilled that public health and health promotion are at the very heart of the historic Affordable Care Act – and also at the heart of the work of so many of our federal agencies.  This coordinated approach will have a dramatic impact on the health and wellness of the American people.”

According to a summary of the plan, the council made recommendations to help increase the number of Americans who are healthy at every stage of life.  The National Prevention Strategy recognizes that good health comes not just from receiving quality medical care, but also from clean air and water, safe work sites and healthy foods.

“Helping Americans live more healthful lives is a top priority for the Obama Administration,” said Melody Barnes.  “The National Prevention Strategy is a road map to help us achieve that goal, and will help public and private partners come together to build healthier communities using evidence-based strategies that we know work.”

The strategy outlines four strategic directions:

• Building Healthy and Safe Community Environments:  Prevention of disease starts in our communities and at home; not just in the doctor’s office.
• Expanding Quality Preventive Services in Both Clinical and Community Settings: When people receive preventive care, such as immunizations and cancer screenings, they have better health and lower health care costs.
• Empowering People to Make Healthy Choices:  When people have access to actionable and easy-to-understand information and resources, they are empowered to make healthier choices.
• Eliminating Health Disparities: By eliminating disparities in achieving and maintaining health, we can help improve quality of life for all Americans.

Featuring hospital and health care headlines from the media and the Web.

Iowa News

Iowa state government will keep running July 1, Branstad insists
Gov. Terry Branstad assured Iowa citizens Tuesday that the full spectrum of state services will continue uninterrupted under his broad emergency powers should he and the Legislature fail to have a new state budget plan approved and signed by July 1. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)

County departments prep for a shutdown
Layoffs are part of Johnson County contingency plans in case state legislators don’t approve a budget by June 30 and cause a government shutdown.  Members of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors met with department heads during a meeting Tuesday to discuss the effects of and possible plans for a shutdown. (Iowa City Press Citizen)

Clinton woman saved by timely screening
LouAnnda Larson may owe her life to her aching feet. The 55-year-old mother of three grown children had long suffered from foot pain that requires her to use a wheel chair to move any more than short distances. In October 2010, she traveled to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics to determine the cause and possible treatments for her foot pain. Doctors performed a comprehensive physical exam that included a fecal occult blood test. The test results showed traces of blood in her stool. (Sioux City Journal)

New Crawford County Memorial Hospital to complete move, officially open June 27
The new, state-of-the-art Crawford County Memorial Hospital located at 100 Medical Parkway in Denison will open to the public on Monday, June 27.  The moving process to transfer furniture and equipment to the new building will begin on Thursday, June 23. (SW Iowa News)

National News

Senate budget chairman says $2 trillion not enough
The debt-reduction package emerging in talks between the White House and congressional leaders would not “fundamentally change” the alarming rate of growth in the national debt, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee said Tuesday.  Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said the goal of slicing more than $2 trillion from the federal budget by 2021 falls far short of the savings needed to stabilize borrowing, reenergize the economy and avert the threat of a debt crisis.  (The Washington Post)

Hospital vs. medical center: Consumers favor ‘hospital’ title
When it comes to choosing a name—“hospital” or “medical center”–consumers prefer “hospital,” according to survey released today by Rivkin & Associates LLC and Bauman Research & Consulting LLC, both based in Glen Rock, N.J. Consumers tend to associate hospitals with more services, better care, new medicine, and expert physicians, compared to medical centers’ offerings. (Fierce Healthcare)

Health IT Can Energize National Prevention Strategy
The Obama Administration has made several health IT-related recommendations in its National Prevention Strategy that call for expanded use of electronic health records (EHRs), social media tools, and mobile phone applications to help promote health and wellness.  (InformationWeek)

National Library of Medicine  Launches Medline Plus
The National Library of Medicine, the world’s largest medical library and a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has formally launched MedlinePlus Connect. This free service allows health organizations and health information technology (HIT) providers to link patient portals and electronic health record (EHR) systems to MedlinePlus.gov, a trusted source of authoritative, up-to-date health information for patients, families and health care providers. MedlinePlus brings together information from NIH, other federal agencies, and reputable health information providers. MedlinePlus covers a wide range of health conditions and wellness issues, and includes key resources to inform patients about their health. (Cypress Times)

Medicare Advisory Group Urges Closer Look at Costs for MRIs, CT Scans
A 17-member independent advisory group has urged Congress to get tough on doctors who order too many diagnostic imaging tests for Medicare patients. These tests include MRIs and CT scans, which the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) says are driving up the cost of health care for America’s seniors. (PBS)

AP Exclusive: Medicaid For The Middle Class?
President Barack Obama’s health care law would let several million middle-class people get nearly free insurance meant for the poor, a twist government number crunchers say they discovered only after the complex bill was signed. (NPR)

 

 

Featuring hospital and health care headlines from the media and the Web.

Iowa News

Senate Democrats say budget agreement near
Senate Democrats say they have agreed to Republican demands to limit state spending to $5.9 billion and approve a two-year budget. The Democrats announced their agreement Monday at a Statehouse news conference. Party leaders say a bill fleshing out the budget will move through a committee later in the day and will be debated in the full Senate on Tuesday. (Iowa City Press Citizen)

Levees holding firm in Siouxland, but rain likely coming
Sunday was another day with 150,000 cubic feet per second Missouri River releases from Gavins Point Dam at Yankton, S.D., another day where the river stayed in the mid-33-feet stage in Sioux City and another where levees withstood it at various spots along the river. (Sioux City Journal)

Fighting Cancer for Dad
Two Washington High School students are making a difference in the lives of children battling a deadly disease. (KCRG)

National News

Many hospitals overuse double CT scans, data show
Hundreds of hospitals are routinely performing a type of chest scan that experts say should be used rarely, subjecting patients to double doses of radiation and driving up health-care costs. The government is taking a closer look at scans because imaging tests are among the fastest growing procedures in health care. (The Washington Post)

Mass burial honors those who gave bodies to science
Hundreds of Maryland residents every year — whether by design or circumstance — had their bodies turned over or given to the state anatomy board for science. They will share a final resting place, cremated and placed under a single grave marker in a field at the Springfield Hospital Center in Sykesville.  (The Baltimore Sun)

Goodbye Clipboard, Hello Patient Palm Scanning At NYU
Patients at NYU Langone Medical Center no longer have to fill out the dreaded clipboard with their medical history or insurance data each time they come in for care because the Manhattan academic medical center has switched to palm recognition technology to identify and authenticate its patients.  (InformationWeek)

Obama administration to stop new waivers for healthcare overhaul
The Obama administration on Friday said it would stop granting new waivers to the healthcare overhaul in September following sharp opposition from Republicans who cited the waivers in their bid to undermine the law. (The Wall Street Journal)