White House Summit Analysis

The Health Affairs blog provides analysis, in two separate posts, of yesterday's White House health care summit, held at Blair House in Washington, DC. Tim Jost of Washington & Lee University Law School provides the commentary.

Click here to read the first post. The second post can be accessed here.

House Votes to Repeal Insurer Antitrust Exemption

While anxiously awaiting comprehensive health reform legislation to regain a foothold, today the House of Representatives passed a narrower bill that repeals health insurers antitrust exemption. By repealing the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act, insurers will be less able to "fix prices, collude with each other, and set their own markets without fear of being investigated", as asserted by the bill's co-sponsors, Reps. Tom Perriello (D-VA) and Betsy Markey (D-CO). Opponents of the measure claim that the legislation is essentially a moot point because state-based regulation already prohibits insurers from engaging in antitrust-related practices. The bill now heads to the Senate where its prospects are, at this point, uncertain.

For more on this story, click here.

Cadillac Tax Would Affect Nonunion Employers

Published just prior to the White House releasing the President's 11-page health reform proposal, a report authored by Ken Jacobs and William Dow from the University of California, Berkeley's Labor Center analyzes the proposed "Cadillac" excise tax on high-cost health benefit plans. In their analysis, the authors find that the vast majority, fully 80 percent, of employees whose plans would be affected by the tax are not protected by collective bargaining agreements.

The President's proposal released on Monday raises the threshold of the excise tax from $23,000 in the Senate bill to $27,000 for a family plan and delays enforcement of the tax until 2018.

Click here to access the analysis by Drs. Jacobs and Dow.
To access the related Washington Post article, click here.
Finally, click here to explore the President's proposal.

Obama Releases Health Care Proposal

Today President Obama released his proposal for reforming America's health care system. Available on the White House website, the proposal is based on the two bills introduced last year, but resembles the current Senate health bill more than the current House health bill. An attempt to bridge the divide between the two bills and frame Thursday's upcoming summit, the President's plan is estimated to cost $950 billion over ten years, although a formal CBO analysis has yet to be released. Most notably, building on the recent debate on Anthem Blue Cross's (CA) estimated 39% rate hike in the individual market, the proposal also calls for the establishment of a federal board granted with power to review and potentially block unreasonable premium rate increases.

To read more from the New York Times, click here.

White House to Release Compromise Health Bill

In anticipation of next Thursday's bipartisan health care summit at Blair House in Washington, the White House is expected to release on Monday a "compromise" draft health reform bill. The intent is to attach the health bill to a budget bill, so as to avoid a Republican filibuster in the Senate and be advanced using a parliamentary procedure known as reconciliation, which requires only 51 votes instead of the usual 60 vote supermajority for passage. The President's plan is expected to be released, and posted on the Internet, on Monday.

Click here to read more.

Safeway NYBGH Event Rescheduled

Due to the inclement weather in the New York tri-state region, the NYBGH event with Safeway's Ken Shachmut on February 10th was canceled.

The event has been rescheduled for Tuesday, March 16th and will still be held from 8:30 to 10:30am at the University Club of New York at One West 54th Street in Manhattan.

Costs to attend:

• NYBGH Employer Members: Complimentary
• NYBGH Non-Employer Members: $50
• Non-Members: $75
  

Click here to register.

Incremental Health Fixes Buried in Jobs Bill

Embedded within the draft jobs bill floating through Congress are several health care quick fixes. Most are temporary in nature, holding in place a number of programs until Congress again addresses a more comprehensive health reform package.

Among the fixes are:

• A seven month extension to the Medicare "doc fix" that prevents a 21% cut to physician reimbursements.
• Revising the definition of "hospital based physician" under the HITECH provisions of ARRA ("the stimulus") so as to ensure certain hospital-based physicians qualify for HIT incentive rewards.
  
• Extending payments to 2010 for certain aspects of the Medicare program, such as Part B caps on therapy, and expanded payments for mental health treatment.
• Making technical corrections to reimburse critical access hospitals at 101% of their reasonable costs for specified outpatient services, and to extend various Medicare payments to long-term care hospitals and rural hospitals through 2010.

Click here to read more from HealthLeaders Media.

Health Wonk Review: What are the Next Steps?

The latest biweekly Health Wonk Review, a compendium of recent and popular health policy blog posts that is hosted on a different blog each issue, is now available at the Managed Care Matters blog and can be accessed by clicking here. This issue highlights, among other things, experts' perspectives on the fate of health reform and the underlying reasons for geographic variation in Medicare spending.

Mental Health Parity Regulations Released

The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has posted the public inspection version of the interim final rules for the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act ("MHPAEA"). Expanding upon laws enacted by the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, these news laws require group health plans and health insurance issuers to ensure that financial requirements (such as co-pays, deductibles) and treatment limitations (such as visit limits) applicable to mental health or substance use disorder (MH/SUD) benefits are no more restrictive than the predominant requirements or limitations applied to substantially all medical/surgical benefits.

Generally, the law became effective for plan years beginning on or after October 3, 2009, and thus January 1, 2010 for calendar year plans. The Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Treasury will publish in the Federal Register final regulation that is effective April 5, 2010, and applicable to plan years beginning on or after July 1, 2010.

EBSA has published a fact sheet that can be found by clicking here.
Click here for the related press release.

Senator-Elect Brown to be Sworn In Feb. 11th

The Hill reports that Senator-elect Scott Brown (R-MA) will be sworn-in to his US Senate seat Thursday, February 11th, giving Republicans 41 seats in the upper chamber.

Democrats, since the Massachusetts special election, have been scrambling to form a strategy for advancing their health reform legislation through Congress and eventually reaching President Obama's desk.

For more, click here.

Event Announcement! Health Reform in New Jersey

This Thursday, February 4th, NYBGH will be hosting a half-day conference on health reform and how it might affect New Jersey employers.

Open to HR professionals and fund administrators only, the event features expert speakers such as Andy Webber, President and CEO of the National Business Coalition on Health; Joel Cantor of the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers University; and Andrew Crighton, MD of Prudential Financial.

Beginning at 8:00 am, the conference will be held at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, located at One Center Street.

There's still time to register! To do so, visit www.nybgh.org.

How to Pass Reform, According to Nancy Pelosi

In an interview last week with the newspaper Politico, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated that the path to passing health reform legislation would take two tracks. First, incremental changes that are mirrored in both bills, such as restricting insurance underwriting practices, establishing a Medicare hospital value-based purchasing program, and providing tax credits to small businesses, will be advanced through Congress as soon as feasible. Other issues of contention will be advanced at a later time, or not at all. These include the establishment of health insurance exchanges, taxes on high cost benefit plans, and new taxes.

Click here to read the HealthLeaders Media story.