Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Hump Day Headlines

And it's already Wednesday -- YAY! And it's a very light news day. Hey -- is everybody but me on vacation? What am I doing here at 6 am? Oh, well. Might as well get to it.

Five pieces of health reform took effect in 2011. (1) a huge crackdown on fraud, which has brought in billions of dollars; (2) kids under age 26 can stay on their parents' policy; (3) a 50% reduction in prescription drug costs for seniors; (4) preventive care is free; and (5) the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan, an option for people who can't get insurance on the private market. Although we wait until 2014 for the really big stuff, these accomplishments are not for nothing!

State governments, with federal funds, have added 1.2 million children to health care coverage of some kind since 2008. It's mostly CHIP, the Children's Health Insurance Plan, which is funded by the feds and the states.

Weight loss programs will be covered by Medicare starting in January, so get ready for a flood of marketing to doctors and patients.

All metal hip replacements are failing at an alarming rate and expected to cost all of us billions of dollars. It's not too often that a medical device failure makes the top of the front page of the NY Times, so you can bet this is for real.

A doctor's dilemma -- confidentiality unless you're going to hurt yourself or someone else, in which case confidentiality is out the window.

An operator of group homes for the developmentally disabled in NY took a TON of money from the state while declaring bankrutpcy, not paying taxes.

That's it -- that's all I can find. Have a great day! Jennifer

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