With help from Jennifer Haberkorn, Joanne Kenen and David Nather
FIRST IN PULSE: HOUSE DEMS SOLID AGAINST ENTITLEMENT CUTS -- More than half of all House Democrats are pledging to oppose any cuts to Medicare or Medicaid or implementing chained CPI in a deal to avert the sequester. Later today, 105 House Dems plan to send a letter to the White House to ?affirm our vigorous opposition to cutting Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits,? according to a copy obtained by POLITICO. ?Earned Social Security and Medicare benefits provide the financial and health protections necessary to keep individuals and families out of poverty,? they write. ?Medicaid is not only a lifeline for low-income children, pregnant women, people with disabilities and families, it is the primary source of long-term care services and supports for 3.6 million individuals.?We cannot overstate their importance for our constituents and our country.?
Happy Friday, and welcome to PULSE, where we?re glad to see the health policy crowd was once again fired up for Twitter #healthpolicyvalentines this year. Good work, everyone.
?We've been watching the PULSE on a monitor twenty floors below sea level, from a bunker.?
DEMS GRILL HHS, THEN BRAG ABOUT IT -- The big news from yesterday?s Senate Finance Committee hearing on exchanges was the heat CCIIO Director Gary Cohen faced from Democrats on implementation challenges. Maria Cantwell of Washington complained about the holdup on Basic Health Plan rules, Ron Wyden of Oregon worried about the so-called ?family glitch,? and Florida?s Bill Nelson demanded to know why CO-OP funding was slashed in last month?s fiscal cliff bill. ICYMI, the Pro story: http://politico.pro/X8g295
--Nelson?s office later Thursday emailed around press coverage of the grilling he gave Cohen, writing: ?Sen. Nelson blasts Florida for refusing to expand Medicaid and implement the new federal health-care law, and also takes federal health officials to task. ?The people of Florida are going to suffer,? he said, at a fiery meeting of the Senate Finance Committee.?
--Wyden?s office touted how the senator pressed Cohen on the family glitch, an issue that Wyden also raised during Jack Lew?s confirmation hearing for Treasury secretary. Cohen told Wyden he?d get back to him within a month on states? options to help employees seek affordable coverage for their families.
--Here?s the subhead on the press release Cantwell?s office emailed yesterday: ?Cantwell to Health and Human Services Official: ?The law says that you?re supposed to implement this in 2014. We?re very concerned about the approach by the agency in trying to thwart this effort.??
THE NO-HEALTH CARE SEQUESTER PLAN ? The Senate Democrats are out with their own sequester replacement plan, and it?s designed to save the NIH and CDC from those painful cuts that are just around the corner. How do they do it? Tax hikes ? $55 billion worth (mostly on people earning more than $1 million). Also, $27.5 billion in ?responsible defense cuts? and $27.5 billion in other non-defense discretionary savings.
--So , problem solved, right? Uh, no. Mitch McConnell's office took about two minutes to blast out an email reminding reporters what McConnell had said in his floor speech Thursday morning:? ?Remember, this is not a solution ? even they know it can?t pass, that?s the idea ? it?s a political stunt designed to mask the fact that they?ve offered no solutions, and don?t plan to offer any. And it?s a total waste of time.?
OHIO REJECTS PARTNERSHIP -- Gov. John Kasich may have signed up for the Medicaid expansion, but he still doesn?t want anything to do with a state-run exchange. Ohio told HHS yesterday it won?t do a partnership exchange, but it wants to exercise its regulatory authority to oversee certification of qualified health plans. ?Continuing this regulation at the state level, as Ohio has done for decades, will preserve the high quality oversight of the industry for which Ohio is known, and also help provide stability to our state?s insurance market at this time of considerable volatility,? wrote Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, who?s also the state?s insurance commissioner. The letter: http://politico.pro/11JJckk
** A message from the American Medical Association: Patient access problems due to Medicare?s flawed physician payment formula would affect millions. Each day 10,000 baby-boomers reach age 65, and there will be 15 million more Medicare enrollees by 2021. Medicare cuts also hurt 10 million military members and families covered by TRICARE. **
WALKER SWIPES AT EXPANSION GOVERNORS ? Defending his Medicaid/exchange coverage proposal yesterday, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker knocked other governors who?ve signed onto the Medicaid expansion ? a list that happens to include six of his GOP colleagues so far. ?Other governors have taken on the expansion, but have exposed their taxpayers to dramatic increases in cost in the future,? Walker said Thursday during a visit to a cancer care center, the Green Bay Press Gazette reported. ?We found a creative way of not being locked into taking federal money and the implications that come with that, while still reducing the number of people that want insurance.? The Press Gazette story: http://gbpg.net/11J0M8c
-- LASZEWSKI: WALKER PROJECTIONS UNREALISTIC -- Longtime insurance industry consultant Bob Laszewksi thinks Walker is overstating the number of low-income Wisconsinites who?ll sign up for exchange coverage under his plan to limit Medicaid eligibility to the federal poverty level. ?These exchange plans were never designed for Medicaid-eligible people,? Laszewski, an ACA critic, told The Associated Press yesterday. ?They're designed for middle-class people who can afford deductibles and co-pays.? The AP interview: http://bit.ly/ZdNdMk
GOP FILLS FINAL WAYS AND MEANS SPOT -- It goes to Rep. Jim Renacci of Ohio, a second-term tea partier who?s filling the spot left behind by Rep.-turned-Sen. Tim Scott.
MOST UNEXPECTED FOURSOME BACKS HIV BILL -- You wouldn?t really expect Sens. Barbara Boxer and Tammy Baldwin to agree on much with Sens. Tom Coburn and Rand Paul, but they?re all co-sponsoring a bill reversing a 25-year-old federal research ban on organ donations from HIV-positive donors to HIV-positive recipients. The bill would enable the HHS secretary to lift the ban on such transplants if medical research demonstrates they can be done safely. More on the bill: http://1.usa.gov/WL91wu
IS YOUR SMART PHONE DEAR TO YOUR HEART? -- It might get dearer. HHS (on Valentine?s Day naturally) launched a free new mobile app that helps people assess their risk of heart attack or stroke, and directs them to screening locations in their community. It?s rolling out in a few major cities,?part of the larger ?Million Hearts? initiative to prevent a million incidents of heart attack and stroke by 2107. The app asks questions about height, weight, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, diabetes and smoking status. It lets people track their progress ? with a game, if they want ? toward a more heart-healthy lifestyle. The announcement: http://1.usa.gov/VWYNoS
HAPPENING TODAY -- Bloomberg Government and H&R Blocks? Tax Institute hold a panel discussion on the real-world tax implications of the ACA. ? L.A. Laker Metta World Peace (formerly Ron Artest) will be on the Hill talking mental health with Rep. Grace Napolitano and other members of Congress.
THE DEATH OF A HOSPICE -- The bankruptcy of a San Diego hospice after a Medicare audit reportedly found compliance problems has been a shocker for those who pay attention to end-of-life care. It?s a big, well-known hospice, that a few years ago was funded by the Joan Kroc Foundation, and it had such a lush hilltop campus that some [rivals?] referred to it as the ?Taj Mahal.? It had nationally prominent physicians and researchers and was a premier training ground for palliative care doctors and a testing ground for innovative care. One doctor who trained there recalled the experience on the Pallimed blog ? and asks what?s broken, the hospice or the system? The post: http://bit.ly/VgZ2R2
PROGRAMMING NOTE ? We?ll be celebrating the presidents on Monday, so PULSE will return Tuesday.
SOME VALENTINE?S DAY FUN ? Ever wondered who your real health policy Valentine would actually be? Wonder no more. The website Twitamore yesterday asked ?Who do they love on Twitter?? so we plugged in some health policy names because we?re nerds like that. The results:
--@HHSGov loves @HealthCareGov
-- @gopdoccaucus loves @gopdoccaucus
--@housecommerce loves @RepFredUpton
--@chrisjacobsHC loves @HHSGov (really)
--@JasonMillman loves @POLITICO (also really)
PULSE LYRICS:
Monday: Cake, ?End Of The Movie?
Tuesday: Bob Dylan, ?Mississippi?
Wednesday: Ted Nugent, ?Just What The Doctor Ordered?
Thursday: Barenaked Ladies, ?Rule The World With Love?
Friday: Tenacious D, ?City Hall?
WHAT WE?RE READING, by Kathryn Smith
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell wrote the federal government Thursday to confirm his state won?t undertake a partnership exchange, but said he wants the state to license and regulate health insurance plans, The AP reports. http://wapo.st/YbYqGC
Ohio state Republican lawmakers are arguing that the Medicaid expansion ? which Gov. John Kasich supports ? would be a bad move for their state, according to The Columbus Dispatch. http://bit.ly/YilsNZ
And, per the Kansas City Star, the newly-introduced Missouri state House budget doesn?t include funds for expansion, even though Gov. Jay Nixon included the expansion in his proposed budget. http://bit.ly/WM0Ik0
The AP also says Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal assured reporters Thursday that he?s still very opposed to Medicaid expansion in Louisiana. http://bit.ly/14VDXvP
The New York Times reports on health officials who are focusing on limiting access to guns as a new method for suicide prevention. http://nyti.ms/VXXqGr
The FDA has approved a bionic eye, and The Wall Street Journal has more on what that means for the blind. http://on.wsj.com/12neVY3
** A message from the American Medical Association: The constant threat of Medicare physician pay cuts under the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula makes it difficult for physicians to pursue practice changes that provide opportunities to improve care and lower costs.? To adopt such win-win strategies, physicians need to be supported as they work to effect infrastructure improvements and adopt new payment and delivery models.? Medical practices, specialty societies, private health plans and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are developing many new initiatives that provide a good foundation.? A wide array of payment models needs to be available that will allow all physicians ? specialists as well as primary care, rural as well as urban, and independent private practitioners as well as those in large health systems ? to voluntarily choose delivery and payment models that will best facilitate their efforts to lower costs and improve quality for their own patient population.? Go to www.ama-assn.org/go/medicarepayment for more information. **
Source: http://feeds.politico.com/click.phdo?i=6554822b0db465769c3c1a0f5a8bef70
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