Flu flow chart... courtesy of Kaiser Health. 
VitalSigns Staff: October 2009 Archives
The Wall Street Journal reported today that doctors are fighting penalties for heavy test use.Doctors are trying to remove a provision in the Senate's latest health bill that would cut Medicare payments to those who administer the most tests and treatments.
The proposal -- aimed at reducing waste -- is one of several proposals in the bill by the Senate Finance Committee that could change how doctors are evaluated and paid. Dan Urbach, a Portland, Ore., internist, said the provision is a blunt instrument that would discourage doctors from taking the sickest and oldest. "Those things are very imperfect, imprecise and they depend on data that often doesn't really reflect what's going on," said Dr. Urbach.
The bill calls for the secretary of Health and Human Services to account for doctors with less-healthy patients. But the government has acknowledged that its efforts to collect that type of data haven't fully accounted for all the attributes of Medicare recipients.
Also upsetting to some doctors is a proposal to reduce Medicare payments to specialists in order to give bonuses to qualifying primary-care physicians. However, not everything in the bill is unpopular with this group of physicians...
The group supports several planks of the bill, including new regulations on insurance companies, tax credits to help lower earners buy insurance, expanded Medicaid, free preventive care, and an institute to compare the effectiveness of medical treatments.
You can read the full Wall Street Journal article here.
A long session that ended early this morning for the Senate Finance Committee covered fnancial penalties for not having insurance, modification of a proposed tax on high-cost insurance policies, and the who/what/where/why of middle-class tax increases. "After a marathon session that ran well past midnight, the Senate Finance Committee on Friday passed a major milestone in its work on legislation to remake the health care system and provide coverage to millions of the uninsured. At 2:15 a.m., the committee completed work on the last of dozens of amendments to the bill, written by the panel's chairman, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana.
The committee plans to take a final vote on the legislation next week, after getting a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. Democratic leaders hope the full Senate will begin debate on the legislation -- President Obama's top domestic priority -- later this month."
Read the full NY Times article here.
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