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While roughly 83% of adults in the United States will visit a health care provider in the next year, an estimated
News
5-25-12 Affordable Care Act Update
May 25, 2012
Federal Update
This week the Senate considered an amendment that would have diverted additional funding from the Prevention and Public Health Fund that was established in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). ACS CAN has consistently opposed legislative attempts to eliminate or divert funding for prevention services and fortunately, the amendment received only 34 votes and failed to pass the Senate.
Read the ACS CAN press release: http://goo.gl/cso1Z
State Update
In the next few months, Massachusetts is expected to pass comprehensive legislation designed to overhaul the way physicians and hospitals are paid for health care services. The legislation creates incentives for payers to replace the current fee-for-service payment system, which reimburses providers for every visit or procedure, with global or flat payments to cover the cost of providing all care given to individual patients or groups of patients for a particular illness. Providers who remain within a set budget and perform well on certain quality measures would be eligible for bonus payments.
The legislation also sets a cap on health care spending for the state, making it the first to aggressively tackle the issue of health care cost growth. ACS CAN provided advice to the New England Division on both the House and Senate bills on issues related to patient appeals, network tiering, quality measurement, and standards for medical necessity. We expect additional states to look to the MA legislation as they debate payment reform and cost containment issues in their own state over the next few years.
Media and Polling
New Poll: Americans with Serious Illnesses Report Many Problems with Health Care
Americans with recently diagnosed serious illnesses or injuries reported significant financial problems and care that is not well-managed, according to a poll released this week by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health. More than 40 percent of sick Americans believe their medical care costs over the past year have caused "very serious" or "somewhat serious" problems for their families' finances. Additionally, one in six Americans said there was a time over the past year when they were unable to get the medical care they needed. The poll also found that 57 percent of the general public thinks that the quality of health care in this country is a serious problem.
To understand the poll further, National Public Radio sent a message through their Facebook page to collect stories of experiences with the health care system. Within 24 hours, they collected more than 1,000 stories. Read some of them here.
As always, thank you for all you do every day to support laws and policies that help cancer patients and their families.