Government analysis

Summary

Introduction

• Political strategies influence the legislative and regulatory processes: President, & state governors.  And they link revenue and health care policies. 
  
• The broad body of legislation including: Hill-Burton Free and Reduced-Cost Health Care act of 1946 gave health facilities including: Hospitals: General, Long-term care, Mental; Nursing homes, Outpatient facilities, Public health centers; grants and loans for construction and modernization.  It specified administration through the HRSA.  It was amended by Congress in 1954 to cover development of nursing homes. 
  , MMA is:
  
  • The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003.  It includes Medicare part D, the Medicare prescription drug benefit, which constrains Medicare from negotiation of its drug prices and created MAC and RAC.  It was sponsored by Senator Bill Tauzin and implemented by Tom Scully.  
  • Mammalian meat allergy which is induced by a month prior tick bite that introduced the allergen alpha-gal.  About 1% of bitten humans develop the allergy & prevalence is increasing.  Humans & old world primates & monkeys don't make alpha-gal (Jul 2018).  Symptoms can include: hives, anaphylactic shock, low blood pressure. 
    
  , BBA is the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.  This act aimed to balance the federal budget by 2002.  It was enacted using the budget reconciliation process.  In part it reduced Medicare (replacing MVPS with the SGR and commissioning the MedPAC) and Hospital inpatient and outpatient payment cuts to do this.  It also enacted Medicare Advantage and SCHIP.  BBA mandated risk adjustment and the HCC coding payment model, through CMS rules.  , ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  , MACRA is Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 is designed to encourage physicians to move to FFV and to link Medicare payment to quality & value.  It alters the way Medicare pays for part B physician services encouraging physicians and other ECs to conform to one of two value based payment schemes: Advanced APMs (where the EC can become a QP) or MIPS.  MACRA does not apply to hospitals which have their own meaningful use.  MACRA is designed to promote transformation and includes: Data reporting by ECs, New practice models, Changing clinical standards, and Physician evaluations; with hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and bonuses.  It authorizes CMS to develop and deploy new rules.  It provides for PCPs in PCMHs to qualify as advanced APMs via a special lower risk pathway.  It replaced the problematic physician SGR formula. 
  , CHIP is:
  
  • The Children's Health Insurance Program started in 1997 as part of the BBA as SCHIP.  It provides health insurance coverage for children in families with income below 200 percent of the poverty line.  The coverage is focused on care specialized for children including: developmental delays, chronic conditions including asthma and obesity.  CHIP's funding must be iteratively re-authorized by Congress.  CHIP is financed federally, but states must enroll eligible children.  In many states one agency administers CHIP and Medicaid.  CHIP is leveraged by families that have employer based insurance with costly premiums, so the families only cover the adults.  
  • Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential, where stem cells develop a somatic mutation cluster pair often found in leukemia, which is expressed in white blood cells they produce.  The mutation clusters give these stem cells a competitive advantage and they accumulate over time.  The white blood cells form inflammatory plaques.  CHIP increases with age, increasing the risk of dying, of clot fragment induced heart attacks and stroke, over the subsequent 10 years by 54%
  , Stark The Stark law constrains certain physician referrals.  It prohibits physician referrals of designated health services for Medicare and Medicaid patients if the physician or a family member has a financial relationship with the entity.  It was written by Californian congressman Peter Stark.  , CHRONIC care act of 2017 is Ron Wyden & Orrin Hatch's Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic Care Act signed into law by President Trump as title III of the BBA of 2018. 
  ; and need to adjust it to evolving circumstances (home care Aug 2015) has allowed legislators to create and leverage significant constraints and evolved amplifiers that affect the health care delivery system.  For example the BBA is the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.  This act aimed to balance the federal budget by 2002.  It was enacted using the budget reconciliation process.  In part it reduced Medicare (replacing MVPS with the SGR and commissioning the MedPAC) and Hospital inpatient and outpatient payment cuts to do this.  It also enacted Medicare Advantage and SCHIP.  BBA mandated risk adjustment and the HCC coding payment model, through CMS rules.   constrained Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  payments to physicians via the SGR is medical Sustainable Growth Rate.  It is a CMS method to control Medicare spending on physician services.  It aims to ensure the yearly increase in expense per Medicare beneficiary does not exceed the growth in GDP.  To do this CMS reports to the MedPAC which advises the U.S. Congress on the previous year's total expenditures and the target expenditures.  The report includes a conversion factor that constrains the payments for physician services to match the target SGR.  On March 1st of each year the physician fee schedule is updated accordingly.  Congress can and does adjust the target SGR outside of these bounds.  SGR replaced MVPS.  It was introduced via the BBA.  , until MACRA is Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 is designed to encourage physicians to move to FFV and to link Medicare payment to quality & value.  It alters the way Medicare pays for part B physician services encouraging physicians and other ECs to conform to one of two value based payment schemes: Advanced APMs (where the EC can become a QP) or MIPS.  MACRA does not apply to hospitals which have their own meaningful use.  MACRA is designed to promote transformation and includes: Data reporting by ECs, New practice models, Changing clinical standards, and Physician evaluations; with hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and bonuses.  It authorizes CMS to develop and deploy new rules.  It provides for PCPs in PCMHs to qualify as advanced APMs via a special lower risk pathway.  It replaced the problematic physician SGR formula. 
  replaced the SGR payment mechanism with FFV is fee-for-value payment.  It may be a bundled payment for a set of services provided by a group of doctors and facilities, or full capitation.  In each case the risk has shifted from the payer to the providers of care. 
  incentives.  Cross state activities have been historically constrained.  The whole network demonstrates extended phenotypic alignment.  
• Medical device legislation is being developed to accelerate the development process, and constrain the cost of releasing and monitoring (21st century cures 2015). 
• The largest non-profit primary care system in the US is staffed and funded via Congressional appropriations (Aug 2015). 
  
• The TPP is the Trans Pacific Partnership, a twelve country, Pacific regional, trade deal between: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States, Vietnam;  The U.S. aims to use the agreement to constrain competition from China.  The initial 12 countries account for more than a quarter of global seafood trade and a quarter of the World's timber and pulp production.  Five of the nations are among the World's most biologically diverse.  The TPP includes:
  • Patents and copyrights chapters. 
    
  • State-owned businesses chapter. 
    
  • Investor-state dispute settlement chapter which enforces extrajudicial tribunals for arbitrating disputes.  The tribunals give investors legal recourse if a government changes policies in ways that hurt the value of their investments. 
    
  • An environmental chapter that covers illegal wildlife trafficking, forestry management, overfishing and marine protection.  Environmentally destructive subsidies, such as cheap fuel for illegal fishing boats and subsidies for boat building in overfished waters are banned.  The chapter enforces Cites with economic sanctions and disallows trade in wildlife taken illegally from a country. 
    
  • Requirements that member countries strengthen port inspections and document checks. 
    
  • Requirements that a country in the agreement take action if they discover contraband that has been harvested illegally, even if the product is not illegal in that country. 
    
  trade agreement, abandoned by President Trump, would have transformed the competitive situation of biologics are drugs made in living cells.  Typically they are proteins developed using genetic engineering to develop the cellular host, and to customize animal source, DNA to produce human target proteins.  Such biologics partially solve the problem of previous protein sources, extracted from animals or human sources, of contamination and immune responses.  The strategy is very effective for blood transported proteins such as antibodies (MABs), hormones and blood factors.  But intra-cellular proteins still demand delivery and accurate cell targeting.  This creates analogous problems to those of gene therapy. 
  and biosimilars are generic drugs made to copy biologics.  They could undermine the pharmaceutical industry's biologic profit model and so are subject to trade constraints: TRIPS, TPP. 
  . 
  
• The federal regulatory bodies implementing the legislation: V.A. - Department of Veterans Affairs.  Includes the Veterans Health Administration. 
  , C.M.S. is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.  , C.D.C. is the HHS's center for disease control and prevention based in Atlanta Georgia.  
  /F.D.A. Food and Drug Administration.  ; and state regulation is also significant. 
  
• C.M.S. outsize influence on reimbursement is the payment process for much of US health care.  Reimbursement is the centralizing mechanism in the US Health care network.  It associates reward flows with central planning requirements such as HITECH.  Different payment methods apportion risk differently between the payer and the provider.  The payment methods include:
  • Fee-for-service,
    
  • Per Diem,
    
  • Episode of Care Payment, 
  • Multi-provider bundled EPC,
    
  • Condition-specific capitation,
    
  • Full capitation.  
  incentives shapes the health care VDS. 
  
• F.D.A. may not be able to constrain truthful, but unapproved marketing of drugs (Aug 2015). 
  
• F.D.A. Food and Drug Administration.   CDRH is the F.D.A.'s center for device and radiological health. 
  's Jeffrey Shuren is struggling to regulate: with too few resources, approval processes that allow 'updated' devices to be marketed untested, under resourced screening, skimpy post-market monitoring, patient issues generating a tepid response from regulators; in the medical device market: Morcellators, a tool to shred tissue via spinning blades, used for example in the removal of uterine fibroids, so that the tissue can be easily removed using MIS techniques.  It has been found to spread cancerous cells around the surgery site reducing long-time survival rates and worsening the disease (Feb 2017). 
  (Feb 17), Essure (Oct 16), Pelvic Mesh are medical devices, surgically deployed to support organs that are prolapsing because of weakened pelvic muscles.  They are built from fiber that is designed to bond with the proximate tissue.   (Apr 18), textured silicon implants are silicone medical devices, used to replace or enhance breast tissue after cosmetic surgery or mastectomy.  ADM has allowed improved surgical strategies to be used with implants (Sep 2018).  There are contoured and smooth silicon shells filled with silicone or brine.  Contoured implants have been associated with anaplastic large cell lymphoma.  Breast implants have a history of inducing medical problems in patients.  Manufacturers include: Allergan, Mentor, Sientra; (Mar 2019)
  (Mar 19, May 19); placing patients at risk: 80,000 deaths & 2 million injuries.  F.D.A. under pressure from press suggested it could do better - but its proposed changes are meager or counter productive: speedup approvals; because of Congress pushing quality responsibility and funding to device companies which benefit from lax regulation and light punishments (May 2019)
  
• Government & medical science: NIH is the National Institute of Health, Bethesda Maryland.  It is the primary federal agency for the support and conduct of biomedical and behavioral research.  It is also one of the four US special containment units of the CDC.   provides basic research funding.  Politicians have funded popular causes: War-on-Cancer;
  
• Government & technology:
• The federal government continues to push for improved technology integration with medical records (EMR refers to electronic medical records which are a synonym of EHR.  EMRs have strengths and weaknesses:
  • The EHR provides an integrated record of the health systems notes on a patient including: Diagnosis and Treatment plans and protocols followed, Prescribed drugs with doses, Adverse drug reactions;
  • The EHR does not necessarily reflect the patient's situation accurately. 
    
  • The EHR often acts as a catch-all.  There is often little time for a doctor, newly attending the patient, to review and validate the historic details. 
    
  • The meaningful use requirements of HITECH and Medicare/Medicaid specify compliance of an EHR system or EHR module for specific environments such as an ambulatory or hospital in-patient setting. 
    
  • As of 2016 interfacing with the EHR is cumbersome and undermines face-to-face time between doctor and patient.  Doctors are allocated 12 minutes to interact with a patient of which less than five minutes was used for recording hand written notes.  With the EHR 12 minutes may be required to update the record!
    
  ): HITECH the Health Information Technology and Economic and Clinical Health Act 2009.  Central to the act is the establishment of the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs which make available $27 Billion over 10 years to encourage eligible professionals and hospitals to adopt and meaningfully use certified EHR technology.  It is assumed that over time use of the new infrastructure will grow exponentially.  HITECH established a formal mechanism for public input into HIT policy - the HITPC and HITSC.  Hitech is a key evolved amplifier driving the migration to and installation of Epic and Cerner EHR systems. 
  , ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  meaningful use is the set of standards defined by CMS Incentive Programs that governs the use of electronic health records and allows eligible providers and hospitals to earn incentive payments by meeting specific criteria.  It aims to ensure that ARRA subsidies for HIS are used to generate health improvements.  It is staged:
  1. 2011-2012 Data capture and sharing - Criteria focus on electronically capturing health information in a standardized format.  Using that information to track key clinical conditions.  Communicating that information for care coordination processes.  Initiating the reporting of clinical quality measures and public health information.  Using information to engage patients and their families in their care.  Achieving meaningful use stage 1 requires meeting all core and selected menu objectives. 
     
  2. 2014 Advance clinical processes - More rigorous health information exchange requirements.  Increased requirements for e-prescribing and incorporating lab results.  Electronic transmission of patient care summaries across multiple settings.  More patient-controlled data.  A patient portal is required.  CMS hospital core measures, CMS hospital menu set measures, NPRMs of stage 2 meaningful use and certification criteria have been announced (2013).  
  • MU2 requires EHR systems to support direct messaging to send PHI to registered users. 
    
  3. 2016 Improved outcomes - Improving quality, safety, and efficiency, leading to improved health outcomes.  Decision support for national high-priority conditions.  Patient access to self-managed tools.  Access to comprehensive patient data through patient-centered HIE.  Improving population health.  
  , DIRECT at ONC specifies (2) a simple, secure, scalable, standards-based way for participants to send via email authenticated, encrypted health information directly to known, trusted recipients over the Internet.  The email addresses are trusted having been issued by ONC.  , SMART; is substitutable medical applications and reusable technology from SMART Health IT. 
  even as its influence distorts the overall HCIT is health care information technology.  The AHRQ argues HCIT consists of a complex set of technologies, policies, standards and user sets.  Technically they represent it as a set of layers: Application: CPOE, CDS, e-prescribing, eMAR, Results reporting, Electronic documentation, Interface engines, etc.; Communication: Messaging standards (HL7, ADT, NCPDP, X12, DICOM, ASTM, etc,) Coding standards (LOINC, ICD10, CPT, NDC, RxNorm, SNOMED CT, etc.), Process: HIE, MPI, HIPAA security & privacy, etc.; Device: Tablet and PC, ASP, PDAs, Bar Coding, etc.; 
  market. 
  
• Technology stretches some government controls: F.D.A. Food and Drug Administration.   control of social media promotion of medicines (Aug 2015). 
  
• Public health is the proactive planning, coordination and execution of strategies to improve and safeguard the wellbeing of the public.  Its global situation is discussed in The Great Escape by Deaton.  Public health in the US is coordinated by the PHS federally but is mainly executed at the state and local levels.  Public health includes:
  • Awareness campaigns about health threatening activities including: Smoking, Over-eating, Alcohol consumption, Contamination with poisons: lead; Joint damage from over-exercise;
    
  • Research, monitoring and control of disease agents, processes and vectors by agencies including the CDC. 
    
  • Monitoring of the public's health by institutes including the NIH.  This includes screening for cancer & heart disease. 
    
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of infrastructure including: sewers, water plants and pipes.  
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of vaccination strategies.  
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of fluoridation. 
    
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of family planning services. 
    
  • Regulation and constraint of foods, drugs and devices by agencies including the FDA.  
  and health care delivery together appear more like an immune system has to support and protect an inventory of host cell types, detect and respond to invaders and maintain the symbiont equilibrium within the microbiome.  It detects microbes which have breached the secreted mucus barrier, driving them back and fortifying the barrier.  It culls species within the microbiome that are expanding beyond requirements.  It destroys invaders who make it into the internal transport networks.  As part of its initialization it has immune cells which suppress the main system to allow the microbiome to bootstrap.  The initial microbiome is tailored by the antibodies supplied from the mother's milk while breastfeeding.  The immune system consists of two main parts the older non-adaptive part and the newer adaptive part.  The adaptive part achieves this property by being schematically specified by DNA which is highly variable.  By rapid reproduction the system recombines the DNA variable regions in vast numbers of offspring cells which once they have been shown not to attack the host cell lines are used as templates for interacting with any foreign body (antigen).  When the immune cell's DNA hyper-variable regions are expressed as y-shaped antibody proteins they typically include some receptor like structures which match the surfaces of the typical antigen.  Once the antibody becomes bound to the antigen the immune system cells can destroy the invader. 
  for the USA than a market. 
  
• Key evolved amplifiers can be setup such as:
  
• Congressionally authorized prosecution exemption is a 1987 congressional act which exempts hospital group purchasing organizations from prosecution for accepting vendor kickbacks. 
  to pricing distortions in hospital supplies.  
• Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  was constrained from releasing details of payments to individual doctors for 30 years until 2014, and its 
• Audit operations have been shutdown by Congress. 
• Political campaign finance, legislation: BBA, MMA; regulation, funding of science & reimbursement; all offer targets for parasitic is a long term relationship between the parasite and its host where the resources of the host are utilized by the parasite without reciprocity.  Often parasites include schematic adaptations allowing the parasite to use the hosts modeling and control systems to divert resources to them or improve their chance of reproduction: Toxoplasma gondii.   influence. 
  

• Trump administration, Federalist Society & Senate: Grassley's Judiciary committee; strategy to reshape the judiciary (Nov 2017)

• President Trump nominates former general counsel to Michael Leavitt & Eli Lilly executive, Alex Azar to be HHS is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   Secretary (Nov 2017)
• Azar prepares for tough questions - Type 1 diabetes Defense Foundation provides some issues (Nov 2017)

• Trump administration leverages DOJ - U.S. Department of Justice.   to remove teeth from federal regulatory rules.  Guidance document's provide the federal government's interpretation of laws.  They are typically written by federal agencies: CMS, F.D.A.; to describe how legislation should be used.  The D.O.J. prosecutors watch for violation of the guidance documents as breaking the rules developed and enforced by agencies and regulators to implement congressional legislation. 
  conversion to rules by DOJ enforcement authority is abandoned, leaving prosecutors and agencies: CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.  , F.D.A. Food and Drug Administration.  ; who use them with guidance that will not be enforced (Feb 2018)
• VA - Department of Veterans Affairs.  Includes the Veterans Health Administration. 
  secretary, Robert Wilkie, released new rules aligned to the VA Mission act of 2018 is the VA Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks act, which consolidates the VA's community care into one program, and requires the agency to implement policies and regulations over the next year.  $5.2 billion of interim funding was appropriated for operation of the current Veterans Choice Program.  Subsequently new care authorizations, scheduling, coordination, and payments will flow between the VA, Veterans and community providers. 
  , allowing veterans who have to drive for more than 30 minutes to use alternative private care for primary care consists of providing accessible, comprehensive, longitudinal, and coordinated care in the context of families and community.  Interpreting the meaning of many streams of information and working together with the patient to make decisions based on the fullest understanding of this information relative to the patient's values and preferences is key to PCP providing value. 
  and mental health, shifting funds from VA Health (Jan 2019)
  

• Zika is a Flaviviridae family virus.  It came from the Zika Forest of Uganda isolated in 1947.  It is related to dengue, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis and West Nile.  Zika is transmitted sexually or via a daytime mosquito vector such as the Aedes genus.  It has resulted in a pandemic in South America.  Zika fever has been associated with a number of troubling complications:
  • Guillain-Barre syndrome
    
  • Microcephaly.  The mechanism may have been identified (May 2016)
  virus (Mar 2016)
• Brazil yellow fever is an infectious disease of primates caused by a flavivirus, yellow fever virus.  The virus is vectored by mosquitos: In the canopies of Rain Forest trees where monkeys are infected, Aedes aegypti in cities; but hunters can act as a reservoir for infection into aegypti.  Monkeys are tracked by public health officials as signals for outbreaks of the disease.  Often asymptomatic but patients who develop severe symptoms die within 10 days.  Symptoms include: Jaundice, High fever and multiple organ failure. 
  outbreak causes alarm.  Limited initial public health is the proactive planning, coordination and execution of strategies to improve and safeguard the wellbeing of the public.  Its global situation is discussed in The Great Escape by Deaton.  Public health in the US is coordinated by the PHS federally but is mainly executed at the state and local levels.  Public health includes:
  • Awareness campaigns about health threatening activities including: Smoking, Over-eating, Alcohol consumption, Contamination with poisons: lead; Joint damage from over-exercise;
    
  • Research, monitoring and control of disease agents, processes and vectors by agencies including the CDC. 
    
  • Monitoring of the public's health by institutes including the NIH.  This includes screening for cancer & heart disease. 
    
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of infrastructure including: sewers, water plants and pipes.  
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of vaccination strategies.  
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of fluoridation. 
    
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of family planning services. 
    
  • Regulation and constraint of foods, drugs and devices by agencies including the FDA.  
  response blamed.  NIAID is the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases, a part of the NIH.   is worried about disease penetrating US is the United States of America.   via Puerto Rico.  W.H.O. is World Health Organization a United Nations organization.   has supplied Brazil with vaccine are a core strategy of public health and have significantly extended global wellbeing over 200 years.  Smallpox & polio were virtually eradicated.  Recent successes include: HPV vaccine: Gardasil.  They induce active acquired immunity to a particular disease.  But the development and deployment of vaccines is complex:
  • The business model for vaccine development has been failing (Aug 2015): 
    
  • No Zika vaccine was available as the epidemic grew (Mar 2016).  No vaccine for: CMV;
    
  • Major foundations: Michael J. Fox, Gates, Wellcome; are working to improve the situation including sponsorship of the GAVI alliance.  A geographic cluster is forming in Seattle including PATH (Apr 2016). 
    
  • Commercial developers include: Affiris, Cell Genesis, Chiron, CSL, Sanofi, Valeant;
    
  • Vaccine deployment traditionally benefited from centrally managed vertical health programs.  But political issues are now constraining success with less than 95-99% coverage required for herd immunity (Aug 2015, Sep 2015, Nov 2015, Nov 2016, Jul 2018).  
  • Where clinics have been driven into local neighborhoods health improves (Apr 2016).  
  • Retail clinics (Mar 2016): CVS Minute Clinics focus on vaccination. 
    
  • NNT is a useful metric for vaccine benefit.  Influenza vaccine has an NNT of between 37 and 77, is cheap and causes little harm, so it is very beneficial. 
    
  • Key vaccines include: BCG, C. difficile (May 2015), Cholera (El Tor), Cervical Cancer (Gardasil HPV Jun 2018, Oct 2018), Dengvaxia (Mexico Dec 2015), Gvax, Influenza, Malaria vaccine, Provenge, Typbar-TCV (XDR typhoid Pakistan Apr 2018);
  • Regulation involves: FDA (CBER), with CMS monitoring (star ratings, PACE (Aug 2016), Report cards (Sep 2015)) & CDC promoting vaccines: as a sepsis measure, To control C. difficile (May 2015);  
  • Coding : CVX, MVX;
    
  • Research on vaccines includes: 
  • NIH: AIDS vaccines (AVRC), Focus on using genetic analysis to improve vaccine response.  
  • NCI:
  • Roswell Park clinical trial of immuno-oncology vaccine cimavax. 
    
  • Geisinger: effective process leverage in treatment. 
    
  • Stanford Edge immuno-oncology for cancer vaccines.  
  • P53-driven-cancer focused, gene therapy (Jun 2015). 
    
  .  CDC is the HHS's center for disease control and prevention based in Atlanta Georgia.  
  warns of limited vaccine in US (May 2017)
• C.D.C. is the HHS's center for disease control and prevention based in Atlanta Georgia.  
  report indicates 3 fold increase in [detection of] Deer/Rodents/Ticks: Anaplasmosis, in humans, is a lxodes ricinus tick vectored disease caused by Anaplasma phagocytophilum bacteria infecting neutrophils. 
  , babesiosis is a parasitic disease, vectored by ticks, transmitting babesia protozoa blood parasites in the human infection.  , Heartland virus is a Lone Star Tick vectored phlebovirus infection in humans.  The host is not known. 
  , RMSF is Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, a tick vectored, rickettsia bacterial infection. 
  , Rabbit fever is a tick vectored rodent hosted Francisella tularensis bacterial infection, causing fever, skin ulcers and enlarged lymph nodes in humans. 
  , Powassan virus is a tick vectored flavivirus disease in humans. 
  , Lyme is an Ixodes tick vectored borrelia bacterial infection. 
  ; flea: Plague is a Yersinia pestis bacterial infection of humans, typically vectored by fleas, although it can be spread through the air between humans via infected droplets.  ; & mosquito: Chikungunya is a mosquito vectored viral infection in humans, causing fever and joint pain. 
  , Dengue is a mosquito vectored virus that can cause high temperature, intense joint and muscle pain, hemorrhagic fever and hence death.  The number of cases has been growing sharply and spreading out beyond its traditional base in the tropics and subtropics to Hawaii, Japan and the Florida Keys.  Between 50 and 100 million people are estimated to be sickened by dengue fever a year. 
  , Zika is a Flaviviridae family virus.  It came from the Zika Forest of Uganda isolated in 1947.  It is related to dengue, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis and West Nile.  Zika is transmitted sexually or via a daytime mosquito vector such as the Aedes genus.  It has resulted in a pandemic in South America.  Zika fever has been associated with a number of troubling complications:
  • Guillain-Barre syndrome
    
  • Microcephaly.  The mechanism may have been identified (May 2016)
  , Malaria, WNV is West Nile virus a single-stranded RNA viral disease, vectored by mosquitoes. 
  ; based infections in the US.  Reasons include: lack of vaccines are a core strategy of public health and have significantly extended global wellbeing over 200 years.  Smallpox & polio were virtually eradicated.  Recent successes include: HPV vaccine: Gardasil.  They induce active acquired immunity to a particular disease.  But the development and deployment of vaccines is complex:
  • The business model for vaccine development has been failing (Aug 2015): 
    
  • No Zika vaccine was available as the epidemic grew (Mar 2016).  No vaccine for: CMV;
    
  • Major foundations: Michael J. Fox, Gates, Wellcome; are working to improve the situation including sponsorship of the GAVI alliance.  A geographic cluster is forming in Seattle including PATH (Apr 2016). 
    
  • Commercial developers include: Affiris, Cell Genesis, Chiron, CSL, Sanofi, Valeant;
    
  • Vaccine deployment traditionally benefited from centrally managed vertical health programs.  But political issues are now constraining success with less than 95-99% coverage required for herd immunity (Aug 2015, Sep 2015, Nov 2015, Nov 2016, Jul 2018).  
  • Where clinics have been driven into local neighborhoods health improves (Apr 2016).  
  • Retail clinics (Mar 2016): CVS Minute Clinics focus on vaccination. 
    
  • NNT is a useful metric for vaccine benefit.  Influenza vaccine has an NNT of between 37 and 77, is cheap and causes little harm, so it is very beneficial. 
    
  • Key vaccines include: BCG, C. difficile (May 2015), Cholera (El Tor), Cervical Cancer (Gardasil HPV Jun 2018, Oct 2018), Dengvaxia (Mexico Dec 2015), Gvax, Influenza, Malaria vaccine, Provenge, Typbar-TCV (XDR typhoid Pakistan Apr 2018);
  • Regulation involves: FDA (CBER), with CMS monitoring (star ratings, PACE (Aug 2016), Report cards (Sep 2015)) & CDC promoting vaccines: as a sepsis measure, To control C. difficile (May 2015);  
  • Coding : CVX, MVX;
    
  • Research on vaccines includes: 
  • NIH: AIDS vaccines (AVRC), Focus on using genetic analysis to improve vaccine response.  
  • NCI:
  • Roswell Park clinical trial of immuno-oncology vaccine cimavax. 
    
  • Geisinger: effective process leverage in treatment. 
    
  • Stanford Edge immuno-oncology for cancer vaccines.  
  • P53-driven-cancer focused, gene therapy (Jun 2015). 
    
  , climate change, air travel, reforestation, lack of foxes that kill rodents, under investment in public health is the proactive planning, coordination and execution of strategies to improve and safeguard the wellbeing of the public.  Its global situation is discussed in The Great Escape by Deaton.  Public health in the US is coordinated by the PHS federally but is mainly executed at the state and local levels.  Public health includes:
  • Awareness campaigns about health threatening activities including: Smoking, Over-eating, Alcohol consumption, Contamination with poisons: lead; Joint damage from over-exercise;
    
  • Research, monitoring and control of disease agents, processes and vectors by agencies including the CDC. 
    
  • Monitoring of the public's health by institutes including the NIH.  This includes screening for cancer & heart disease. 
    
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of infrastructure including: sewers, water plants and pipes.  
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of vaccination strategies.  
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of fluoridation. 
    
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of family planning services. 
    
  • Regulation and constraint of foods, drugs and devices by agencies including the FDA.  
  at local & state level; with no identified solutions and complex eco-systems (May 2018)
• 13 US is the United States of America.   government agencies issue a detailed report showing current climate change trends will reduce the US is the United States of America.   economy is a human SuperOrganism complex adaptive system (CAS) which operates and controls trade flows within a rich niche.  Economics models economies.  Robert Gordon has described the evolution of the American economy.  Like other CAS, economic flows are maintained far from equilibrium by: demand, financial flows and constraints, supply infrastructure constraints, political and military constraints; ensuring wealth, legislative control, legal contracts and power have significant leverage through evolved amplifiers. 
  10% by 2100.  Global supply chains will be impacted: flooding stopping manufacturing etc. slowing US supplies.  Increasing poverty will reduce the opportunity in foreign markets.  Agriculture will be impacted by: heat, drought, wild fires, heavy rain; reducing crop yields & livestock health, and so slowing to levels seen in 1980s.  Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands will lose fresh water supplies to salination.  Heat & vectored diseases will increase deaths and health crisis.  Hydro-power will reduce in the Southwest & the Southeast will become prone to wild fires without the experience to cope.  Alaska will flood.  The farm bill is the US federal government's main agricultural and food policy tool.  It is legislated as an omnibus bill affecting: international trade, the environment, food safety and supporting rural communities across the US; which must be renewed every 5 years, shaping the powers of the US DOA. 
  - designed to help with climate change mitigation of agriculture has stalled in Congress.  Trump administration policy ignores the agencies conclusions, which will undermine its case in court battles (Nov 2018)
• GHSA is global health security agenda, a partnership of nation states, international organizations and NGOs working to strengthen the world's capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to human and higher animal infectious disease threats. 
  , designed to halt epidemics is the rapid spread of infectious disease: AIDS (Oct 2016), Cholera (2010), Clostridium difficile (May 2015), Ebola, Influenza, Polio, SARS, Tuberculosis, Typhoid (Apr 2018), Malaria, Yellow fever, Zika; to large numbers of people in a population within a short period of time -- two weeks or less.  Epidemics are studied and monitored by: NIAID, CDC, WHO; but are managed by states in the US.  Infection control escalation is supported by biocontainment units: Emory, Nebraska.  Once memes are included in the set of infectious schematic materials, human addictions can present as epidemics concludes Dr. Nora Volkow of the NIDA.  CEPI aims to ensure public health networks are effectively prepared for epidemics.  PHCPI aims to strengthen PCPs globally to improve responsiveness to epidemics.  GAVI helps catalyze the development and deployment of vaccines.  Sporadic investment in public health enables development of conditions for vector development: Mosquitos.  The increasing demands of the global population are altering the planet: Climate change is shifting mosquito bases, Forests are being invaded bringing wildlife and their diseases in contact with human networks.  Globalized travel acts as an infection amplifier: Ebola to Texas.  Health clinics have also acted as amplifiers: AIDS in Haiti, C. diff & MRSA infections enabled & amplified by hospitals.  Haiti earthquake support from the UN similarly introduced Cholera. 
  before they cross borders is working.  Trump administration has cut the C.D.C. is the HHS's center for disease control and prevention based in Atlanta Georgia.  
  's budget focusing down from 49 to 10 countries (Mar 2018)
• Limiting antibiotics are compounds which kill bacteria, molds, etc.  Sulfur dye stuffs were found to be effective antibiotics.  The first evolved antibiotic discovered was penicillin.  Antibiotics are central to modern health care supporting the processes of: Surgery, Wound management, Infection control; which makes the development of antibiotic resistance worrying.  Antibiotics are:
  • Economically problematic to develop and sell. 
    
  • Congress enacted GAIN to encourage development of new antibiotics.  But it has not developed any market-entry award scheme, which seems necessary to encourage new antibiotic R&D. 
    
  • Medicare has required hospitals and SNFs to execute plans to ensure correct use of antibiotics & prevent the spread of drug-resistant infections.  
  • C.D.C. is acting to stop the spread of resistant infections and reduce unnecessary use of antibiotics.  
    
  • F.D.A. has simplified approval standards.  It is working with industry to limit use of antibiotics in livestock. 
    
  • BARDA is promoting public-private partnerships to support promising research.
    
  • Impacting the microbiome of the recipient.  Stool banking is a solution  (Sloan-Kettering stool banking).  
  • Associated with obesity, although evidence suggests childhood obesity relates to the infections not the antibiotic treatments (Nov 2016). 
    
  • Monitored globally by W.H.O.
    
  • Regulated in the US by the F.D.A. who promote voluntary labeling by industry to discourage livestock fattening (Dec 2013).  
  • Customer demands have more effect - Perdue shifts to no antibiotics in premier chickens (Aug 2015). 
    
  curbs resistant results from evolutionary pressure of antibiotics, supported by plasmids and R factors: NDN1; which encode resistance properties for otherwise lethal antibiotics.  World leaders hope cooperation can preserve the power of last resort antibiotics: Carbapenems, Colistin (Oct 2016).  Worrying trends include: C. auris resistance to medical antifungals: itraconazole; as well as azole agricultural fungicides (Apr 2019), CRE (May 2016), C. diff (May 2015), MDR & XDR TB; resulting in increased risk of sepsis and death.  The World Bank estimates full resistance would reduce the global economy in 2050 by between 1.1 and 3.8%. 
  Clostridium difficile usually competes with other bacteria in the human gut microbiome.  But antibiotic treatments provide it with an advantage where it becomes the predominant gut bacteria causing diarrhea, abdominal pain, and toxic megacolon.  Repeated treatments select for infections that are progressively more difficult to treat.  C. difficile infections kill more than 25,000 people a year in the US.  Fecal transplants, especially enabled by stool-banking, reintroduce competitive bacteria that limit the success of C. difficile and cure patients with previously recurrent infections.  But the F.D.A. has not approved such transplants as a treatment and the procedure is not covered by insurance. 
  
  infections (Jan 2017)
• XDR typhoid is extrensively drug-resistant typhoid.  It has developed in Pakistan (Apr 2018)
  epidemic is the rapid spread of infectious disease: AIDS (Oct 2016), Cholera (2010), Clostridium difficile (May 2015), Ebola, Influenza, Polio, SARS, Tuberculosis, Typhoid (Apr 2018), Malaria, Yellow fever, Zika; to large numbers of people in a population within a short period of time -- two weeks or less.  Epidemics are studied and monitored by: NIAID, CDC, WHO; but are managed by states in the US.  Infection control escalation is supported by biocontainment units: Emory, Nebraska.  Once memes are included in the set of infectious schematic materials, human addictions can present as epidemics concludes Dr. Nora Volkow of the NIDA.  CEPI aims to ensure public health networks are effectively prepared for epidemics.  PHCPI aims to strengthen PCPs globally to improve responsiveness to epidemics.  GAVI helps catalyze the development and deployment of vaccines.  Sporadic investment in public health enables development of conditions for vector development: Mosquitos.  The increasing demands of the global population are altering the planet: Climate change is shifting mosquito bases, Forests are being invaded bringing wildlife and their diseases in contact with human networks.  Globalized travel acts as an infection amplifier: Ebola to Texas.  Health clinics have also acted as amplifiers: AIDS in Haiti, C. diff & MRSA infections enabled & amplified by hospitals.  Haiti earthquake support from the UN similarly introduced Cholera. 
  in Sindh, Pakistan, due to multi drug resistant strain H58 & a plasmid provide bacteria with a way to transfer parts of their DNA complement with one another.  The effect is to ensure that useful mutations can become rapidly distributed within a population of bacteria.  Because the plasmid reproduces asexually beneficial mutations will result in competition between hosts containing different plasmid variants through clonal interference. 
  carrying ceftriaxone (Rocephin) is a cephalosporin antibiotic. 
  resistance, is expected to spread to other endemic typhoid is an acute bacterial infection from Salmonella typhimurium.  It is transmitted by the fecal-oral route from contaminated water or food.  It grows in the intestines and blood.  Vaccine exists and is 30 to 70% effective.  It is treated with azithromycin, fluoroquinolones or cephalosporins.  As of 2018 about 21 million people suffer from typhoid infections each year with 161,000 deaths. 
  areas and is a global concern, the CDC is the HHS's center for disease control and prevention based in Atlanta Georgia.  
  warns.  Public health officials have started vaccinating are a core strategy of public health and have significantly extended global wellbeing over 200 years.  Smallpox & polio were virtually eradicated.  Recent successes include: HPV vaccine: Gardasil.  They induce active acquired immunity to a particular disease.  But the development and deployment of vaccines is complex:
  • The business model for vaccine development has been failing (Aug 2015): 
    
  • No Zika vaccine was available as the epidemic grew (Mar 2016).  No vaccine for: CMV;
    
  • Major foundations: Michael J. Fox, Gates, Wellcome; are working to improve the situation including sponsorship of the GAVI alliance.  A geographic cluster is forming in Seattle including PATH (Apr 2016). 
    
  • Commercial developers include: Affiris, Cell Genesis, Chiron, CSL, Sanofi, Valeant;
    
  • Vaccine deployment traditionally benefited from centrally managed vertical health programs.  But political issues are now constraining success with less than 95-99% coverage required for herd immunity (Aug 2015, Sep 2015, Nov 2015, Nov 2016, Jul 2018).  
  • Where clinics have been driven into local neighborhoods health improves (Apr 2016).  
  • Retail clinics (Mar 2016): CVS Minute Clinics focus on vaccination. 
    
  • NNT is a useful metric for vaccine benefit.  Influenza vaccine has an NNT of between 37 and 77, is cheap and causes little harm, so it is very beneficial. 
    
  • Key vaccines include: BCG, C. difficile (May 2015), Cholera (El Tor), Cervical Cancer (Gardasil HPV Jun 2018, Oct 2018), Dengvaxia (Mexico Dec 2015), Gvax, Influenza, Malaria vaccine, Provenge, Typbar-TCV (XDR typhoid Pakistan Apr 2018);
  • Regulation involves: FDA (CBER), with CMS monitoring (star ratings, PACE (Aug 2016), Report cards (Sep 2015)) & CDC promoting vaccines: as a sepsis measure, To control C. difficile (May 2015);  
  • Coding : CVX, MVX;
    
  • Research on vaccines includes: 
  • NIH: AIDS vaccines (AVRC), Focus on using genetic analysis to improve vaccine response.  
  • NCI:
  • Roswell Park clinical trial of immuno-oncology vaccine cimavax. 
    
  • Geisinger: effective process leverage in treatment. 
    
  • Stanford Edge immuno-oncology for cancer vaccines.  
  • P53-driven-cancer focused, gene therapy (Jun 2015). 
    
  in Hydrabad with Typbar-TCV is Bharat Biotech's typhoid conjugate vaccine.  The Vi capsular polysaccharide is conjugated to a protein to help induce the immune system to respond.  The vaccine provides long term protection to adults and infants, 6 months or older.  These new vaccines are part of a strategy to use immunization to counter the over-deployment of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. 
  and GAVI funding help (Apr 2018). 
  
• Soil fungus, Candida auris is a fungus resident in soils, which has developed resistance to medical antifungals: itraconazole; as well as azole agricultural fungicides.  90% of C. auris infections are resistant to an antifungal.  30% are resistant to two of the drugs.  Genome analysis indicates four ancient strains persist.  It has been assisted by the widespread use of fungicides enabling it to opportunistically migrate to niches cleared of its normal competitors.  C. auris was first identified in an ear infection of a Japanese patient in 2009.  But it had subsequently colonized all proximate surfaces and was detected in the air.  It infects the very ill and those with weakened immune systems.  50% of those infected die within 90 days. 
  , has grown globally resistant results from evolutionary pressure of antibiotics, supported by plasmids and R factors: NDN1; which encode resistance properties for otherwise lethal antibiotics.  World leaders hope cooperation can preserve the power of last resort antibiotics: Carbapenems, Colistin (Oct 2016).  Worrying trends include: C. auris resistance to medical antifungals: itraconazole; as well as azole agricultural fungicides (Apr 2019), CRE (May 2016), C. diff (May 2015), MDR & XDR TB; resulting in increased risk of sepsis and death.  The World Bank estimates full resistance would reduce the global economy in 2050 by between 1.1 and 3.8%. 
  to azole agricultural fungicides and primary medical antifungals: itraconazole is an antifungal medication, classified by the WHO as an essential medicine.  It is a triazole which stops fungal growth by undermining metabolism and cell membrane integrity.  Effectiveness is being undermined by global agricultural deployment of equivalent azole fungicides on crops. 
  ; grows on most cleaned hospital and human surfaces.  Half the patients infected with C. auris, are already seriously ill at that point and die within 90 days.  C.D.C. is the HHS's center for disease control and prevention based in Atlanta Georgia.  
  monitors C. auris, but does not tell the public, to avoid panic and blacklisting of hospitals: Royal Brompton ICU is intensive care unit.  It is now being realized that the procedures and environment of the ICU is highly stressful for the patients.  In particular sedation with benzodiazepines is suspected to enhance the risk of inducing PTSD.  Intubation and catheterization are also traumatic.  Sometimes seperated into MICU and SICU.  eICU skill centralization may bring down costs. 
  , London, Mount Sinai, Universitari Politecnic La Fe, Valencia, Weill Cornell Medical Center (Apr 2019)
  
• Chicago Northwestern Memorial AMC is Academic medical center.  They perform education, research and patient care.  They include one or more health professions schools, such as a medical school and a hospital.  The major AMCs are represented by the United HealthSystem Consortium.   The costly strategies of the AMCs and increased difficulty of finding enough targeted patients for research studies (Aug 2017) is forcing integration with larger hospital systems.  AMCs offer researchers clinical research support: Virus vectors (Nov 2017);
  lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease, in which many parts of the body can be attacked: joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart, lungs.  Its cause is unknown, there is little linkage within families, but women are affected 4 to 12 times as often as men - especially those of childbearing age.  There are various types: SLE, cutaneous lupus, drug-induced lupus, Neonatal lupus.  It is treated with Belimumab, prednisone corticosteroid;
  patient, Ms. Spoor, collapsed after a lung biopsy resulting in cardiac arrest is a sudden halt in the effective blood circulation due to the heart not contracting effectively.  This prevents delivery of oxygen and glucose to the body.  It can be caused by a heart attack.  CHF in contrast, typically has substandard circulation but the heart is still pumping sufficient blood to sustain life.  Cardiac arrest may be reversed with effective treatment.  The treatment regime and effectiveness vary significantly.  They can include:
  • CPR which needs endurance training to sustain for at least 45 minutes of deployment needed for success.  If no pulse is detected after 20 minutes more powerful treatments should be deployed. 
    
  • ECMO which is more widely used in Japan and South Korea than in the US.  
  • Once circulation is restored additional interventions are required for success, but their application is not benchmarked, standardized or regulated:
  • Therapeutic hypothermia - people who remain comatose after being in cardiac arrest should be cooled for at least 24 hours to a temperature between 89.6 and 96.8 F. 
    
  • Avoiding toxic amounts of oxygen
  • Maintaining normal co2 levels
  • Maintaining high blood pressure
  • If needed cardiac catheterization. 
    
  , provided ECMO is extracorporeal membrane oxygenation where blood is drawn from the patient and passed through an oxygenator and then back into the body. 
  breathing assists, subsequently found by blood test to be infected with Candida auris is a fungus resident in soils, which has developed resistance to medical antifungals: itraconazole; as well as azole agricultural fungicides.  90% of C. auris infections are resistant to an antifungal.  30% are resistant to two of the drugs.  Genome analysis indicates four ancient strains persist.  It has been assisted by the widespread use of fungicides enabling it to opportunistically migrate to niches cleared of its normal competitors.  C. auris was first identified in an ear infection of a Japanese patient in 2009.  But it had subsequently colonized all proximate surfaces and was detected in the air.  It infects the very ill and those with weakened immune systems.  50% of those infected die within 90 days. 
  , possibly HAC is Hospital-Acquired Condition.   from one of the tubes, which proved to be multiple drug resistant results from evolutionary pressure of antibiotics, supported by plasmids and R factors: NDN1; which encode resistance properties for otherwise lethal antibiotics.  World leaders hope cooperation can preserve the power of last resort antibiotics: Carbapenems, Colistin (Oct 2016).  Worrying trends include: C. auris resistance to medical antifungals: itraconazole; as well as azole agricultural fungicides (Apr 2019), CRE (May 2016), C. diff (May 2015), MDR & XDR TB; resulting in increased risk of sepsis and death.  The World Bank estimates full resistance would reduce the global economy in 2050 by between 1.1 and 3.8%. 
  and she died.  She is one of 158 C. auris cases in Illinois since 2016 (Apr 2019)
• Infectious disease specialists are poorly reimbursed is the payment process for much of US health care.  Reimbursement is the centralizing mechanism in the US Health care network.  It associates reward flows with central planning requirements such as HITECH.  Different payment methods apportion risk differently between the payer and the provider.  The payment methods include:
  • Fee-for-service,
    
  • Per Diem,
    
  • Episode of Care Payment, 
  • Multi-provider bundled EPC,
    
  • Condition-specific capitation,
    
  • Full capitation.  
  , by payers include four types:
  • From the 1930s the insurers Blue Cross and Blue Shield catalyzed health care activity by paying a daily per diem to hospitals for the diagnoses and treatments the hospital's dispensed.  At their inception in 1966 Medicare and Medicaid followed this reimbursement model. 
  • From 1983 Medicare and Medicaid switched to the PPS reimbursement mechanism.  This forced alignment of the supplier, diagnosis, treatment, billing and reimbursement processes.  The health care network is still structurally aligned around PPS.  Under scrutiny of ProPAC and its successor MedPAC,  as well as pressure of the BBA after 1997, the payments per DRG have been steadily reduced until it was below the cost of care, forcing hospitals to seek margin from their other payers.  Medicare outlier payments benefited hospitals that inflated charges and thus became eligible. 
    
  • Employers as they experienced cost shifting from the hospital's increased product charges moved their employees over to managed care based payment. 
  • Private payers pay hospitals directly for their diagnosis and treatment.  Typically this group has little power.  There are default rates for private payers - typically 40% of billed charges that are not covered by a fixed payment or a fee schedule.  For the uninsured poor until 2004 they obtained little discount on the hospital's chargemaster list price, because insurers and CMS required to be charged the lowest value offered to any patients.  Medicare has now relaxed this constraint. 
  , for what they do, and the specialty is failing to attract enough trainees to respond to antibiotic resistance results from evolutionary pressure of antibiotics, supported by plasmids and R factors: NDN1; which encode resistance properties for otherwise lethal antibiotics.  World leaders hope cooperation can preserve the power of last resort antibiotics: Carbapenems, Colistin (Oct 2016).  Worrying trends include: C. auris resistance to medical antifungals: itraconazole; as well as azole agricultural fungicides (Apr 2019), CRE (May 2016), C. diff (May 2015), MDR & XDR TB; resulting in increased risk of sepsis and death.  The World Bank estimates full resistance would reduce the global economy in 2050 by between 1.1 and 3.8%. 
  and leverage infection control works to prevent healthcare-associated infections.  It monitors & supports associated hospital processes: Anti-microbial surfaces, Barrier clothing, Cleaning, Disinfection, Hand washing: North shore; Patient access during epidemics, Sterilization; to contain cross infection.  The CDC provides support: Ebola process; and works closely with the primary biocontainment unit at Emory University Hospital. 
  (Apr 2019)

• Poor people living on or close to the poverty line is based on the Johnson War on Poverty valuation of $3000 as the relative needed income.  It was justified using Mollie Orshansky's modelling of the price of food to limit hunger.  It was adopted as an official US poverty line in August 1969 and has remained unchanged except for adjustments for price inflation.   through wellfare programs, since 1996 based on PRWORA is the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.  Bill Clinton followed through on a campaign promise to reshape welfare with the signing of a key aspect of Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" the PRWORA.  It ended the AFDC federal guarantee of direct cash payments to the needy substituting TANF which limited assistance to five years and allowed the states broad freedom in designing their own welfare programs.  Clinton said it was unfair to bar legal immigrants from food stamps, medical assistance and other benefits but would sign.  Congressional Democratic leaders Gephardt and Daschle voted against the act but the Democratic Governors were pleased with the provision of additional state power and regular Americans broadly supported the plan.  It is argued that the act set federal goals for the states to implement.  The goals included:
  
  • Put people to work,
    
  • Discourage child birth,
    
  • Promote marriage. 
    
  .  Since 2008 the time limits on SNAP is the supplemental nutrition action program, food stamps program.  It helps about 40 million low-income Americans in 2018.  One in four children is on SNAP.  The program is federally funded but administered by the states.  Most states outsource the operation to private contractors: Conduent, FIS;   have been lifted but in 2016 they are being redeployed (Apr 2016). 
  

• Short term funding bill includes: six year CHIP is:
  
  • The Children's Health Insurance Program started in 1997 as part of the BBA as SCHIP.  It provides health insurance coverage for children in families with income below 200 percent of the poverty line.  The coverage is focused on care specialized for children including: developmental delays, chronic conditions including asthma and obesity.  CHIP's funding must be iteratively re-authorized by Congress.  CHIP is financed federally, but states must enroll eligible children.  In many states one agency administers CHIP and Medicaid.  CHIP is leveraged by families that have employer based insurance with costly premiums, so the families only cover the adults.  
  • Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential, where stem cells develop a somatic mutation cluster pair often found in leukemia, which is expressed in white blood cells they produce.  The mutation clusters give these stem cells a competitive advantage and they accumulate over time.  The white blood cells form inflammatory plaques.  CHIP increases with age, increasing the risk of dying, of clot fragment induced heart attacks and stroke, over the subsequent 10 years by 54%
  funding; holds on ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  taxs: Cadillac, Device, Health insurance; and funding for two and a half weeks of government operations (Jan 2018)
• Budget deal (BBA is the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, increasing spending caps imposed by the BCA of 2011, and including as part 3, the CHRONIC care act. 
  ) expanding military & nonmilitary spending by $300 billion signed by President Trump (Feb 2018)
• Budget deal includes health care funding changes: ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  IPAB is the independent payment advisory board, with 15 members which the ACA (III) section 3403 and 10320 is tasked with achieving, CMS determined per capita growth rate goal, focused savings in Medicare without affecting coverage or quality.  (But the BBA of Feb 2018 removed the IPAB.)  It has authority to make the CMS goal driven changes which Congress can only overrule with a supermajority vote.  Prior to the ACA, MedPAC could recommend changes to payment rates and program rules but Congress had to enact them. 
  removed, CHIP is:
  
  • The Children's Health Insurance Program started in 1997 as part of the BBA as SCHIP.  It provides health insurance coverage for children in families with income below 200 percent of the poverty line.  The coverage is focused on care specialized for children including: developmental delays, chronic conditions including asthma and obesity.  CHIP's funding must be iteratively re-authorized by Congress.  CHIP is financed federally, but states must enroll eligible children.  In many states one agency administers CHIP and Medicaid.  CHIP is leveraged by families that have employer based insurance with costly premiums, so the families only cover the adults.  
  • Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential, where stem cells develop a somatic mutation cluster pair often found in leukemia, which is expressed in white blood cells they produce.  The mutation clusters give these stem cells a competitive advantage and they accumulate over time.  The white blood cells form inflammatory plaques.  CHIP increases with age, increasing the risk of dying, of clot fragment induced heart attacks and stroke, over the subsequent 10 years by 54%
  funding extended four years to 2027, Community health centers allocated $3.8 billion for 2018 & $4 billion for 2019, Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  prescription drug is a federal program to subsidize the costs of outpatient prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries enacted as part of the MMA and delivered entirely by private companies.  It is an evolved amplifier with MMA schematic rules ensuring catalytic tax subsidies: reinsurance; flow to a broad group of elderly voters and a small but influential group of payers: UnitedHealth, Humana, CVS Health; while pharmaceutical companies also benefited from increased sales of reimbursed drugs.  It includes:
  
  • E-prescribing regulations.  Health care providers that electronically prescribe Part D drugs for Part D eligible individuals under 42 CFR 423.160(a)(3)(iii) may use HL7 or NCPDP SCRIPT standard to transmit prescriptions & related information internally but must use NCPDP SCRIPT (or other adopted standard) to transmit information to another legal entity.  
  • Premium subsidy set by a market average.  Medicare collects bids from all plans that reflect their costs of providing the minimum required level of drug coverage. It then sets the subsidy at 74.5% of the average bid.  
  • Premium coverage gap (doughnut hole) between the 74.5% premium subsidy and the catastrophic-coverage threshold.  The BBA of 2018 required Part D insurers cover 5% of the beneficiaries coverage gap and drug companies provide discounts that reduce federal spending by a total of $7.7 billion through 2027. 
    
  doughnut hole reduced by pharmaceutical company funds, helping insurers, Spending offset by removing ACA funds for public health is the proactive planning, coordination and execution of strategies to improve and safeguard the wellbeing of the public.  Its global situation is discussed in The Great Escape by Deaton.  Public health in the US is coordinated by the PHS federally but is mainly executed at the state and local levels.  Public health includes:
  • Awareness campaigns about health threatening activities including: Smoking, Over-eating, Alcohol consumption, Contamination with poisons: lead; Joint damage from over-exercise;
    
  • Research, monitoring and control of disease agents, processes and vectors by agencies including the CDC. 
    
  • Monitoring of the public's health by institutes including the NIH.  This includes screening for cancer & heart disease. 
    
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of infrastructure including: sewers, water plants and pipes.  
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of vaccination strategies.  
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of fluoridation. 
    
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of family planning services. 
    
  • Regulation and constraint of foods, drugs and devices by agencies including the FDA.  
  & coverage for low-income people with sudden windfall; (Feb 2018)

• Filling prescriptions for opioids has become more constrained: DEA is the Drug Enforcement Administration.  ; but Congress has pulled back: EPAEDE is the ensuring patient access and effective drug enforcement act of 2016.  It allows patients' access to necessary medications including opioid painkillers (Sep 2015).  And it constrains the powers of the DEA to intervene (May 2016).  It establishes a process for federal agencies to go through before a distribution center can be shut down.  Sponsors include Senators Orrin Hatch and Sheldon Whitehouse and Representatives Tom Marino and Peter Welch. 
  ; responding to pharmacies: CVS, Walgreens; drug distributors: Cardinal, McKesson; leaving states: Vermont (Jan 2014); desparate (May 2016)
  
• Distributors ramped up the opioid crisis, acting as an infrastructure amplifier.  They devised systems to avoid regulation: limited compliance operations, helped pharmacies (Wal-Mart, CVS are the largest they supply) remove restrictions on sales of opioids, warned pharmacies that were indicating questionable sales trends, prepared pharmacies for coming audits; helping shipments and profits grow exponentially.  The rewards were huge, and the penalties light, since the aligned VDS is value delivery system.   provided low cost legal solutions for the big three who distribute more than 90% of US is the United States of America.   drugs and medical supplies: McKesson, Amerisource, Cardinal; leaving Rochester Drug Cooperative as the typical fall guy (Apr 2019)
  
• Congress concludes Chinese distributors ship fentanyl is a synthetic opioid pain medication that acts on micro-opioid receptors in the brain.  It is 50 times more potent than morphine.  It was originally manufactured by Janssen Pharmaceutica in 1959 which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson.  It is branded as: Sublimaze, Actiq, Durogesic, Duragesic, Fentora, Matrifen, Subsys, Instanyl, Abstral, Lazanda; with a variety of deployment formulations.  It is often used, in a transdermal patch such as durogesic, to treat severe ongoing pain which can be induced by cancer.  It has followed heroin into the back-street opioid epidemic (Jun 2017). 
  via e-commerce: UPS, FEDEX, USPS; via third countries, to buyers in US is the United States of America.  : Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida; who pay with Bitcoins is a set of open-source software, used to provide infrastructure that supports a distributed cryptocurrency and payment system, based on the blockchain.   All transaction inputs are unspent outputs from previous transactions.  All transaction inputs are signed.  Change is provided in an additional output to the transaction. 
  (Jan 2018)
• CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   implements CHRONIC care act of 2017 is Ron Wyden & Orrin Hatch's Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic Care Act signed into law by President Trump as title III of the BBA of 2018. 
  through Medicare Advantage (MA) is a private provider administered health insurance plan providing access to Medicare benefits.  It was originally enacted as part of BBA Medicare + Choice or Part C plans.  The government funded the plan with an annual fee, based on age and severity of the subscriber's medical conditions, rather than FFS.  When a Medicare eligible person enrolls in a MA plan the government pays the private provider a set amount each month.  The participant pays the Medicare part B premium and if required a part C premium each month.  The MA plans offer a PCP who coordinates care.  And the plans have an annual limit on out-of-pocket expenses unlike traditional Medicare.  When they obtain treatment they will have to pay a copayment which may be quite high for some specialists.  It is the health plan's responsibility to contract the physician network that will provide the care, leaving the risk with the insurer.  About 36% of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled with Medicare Advantage by 2019.  The ACA introduced quality outcome and patient satisfaction based differential payments into MA.  To measure the performance it added a five-star quality rating scheme.  MA plans report their quality and patient satisfaction data to CMS annually and based on the results are awarded one to five stars.  The highest rated plans are provided with large additional payments.  It was assumed that subscribers would shift to the highest rated plans and the other plans would improve or drop out of MA.  And the ACA eliminated subsidies which the federal government used to establish Medicare Advantage.  However, the Obama administration has used a $8.5 Billion demonstration project to maintain this funding.  It is intended that it will eventually taper off so that the cost of Medicare Advantage coverage will be equivalent to standard Medicare. 
  changes, affecting the costly half of Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  's patients with multiple chronic conditions.  The act offers additional benefits for people suffering from chronic diseases including: diabetes includes type 1 and type 2.  Common side effects include: increased heart disease, hypertension, kidney disease, vision loss, nerve damage, and infections. 
  , Alzheimer's is a dementia which correlates with deposition of amyloid plaques in the neurons.  As of 2015 there are 5 million Alzheimer's patients in the USA.  It was originally defined as starting in middle age which is rare, so it was a rare dementia.  But in 1980s it was redefined as any dementia without another known cause. Early indications include mood and behavioral changes (MBI) and declarative memory and thinking problems (MCI).  Specific cells within the hippocampal circuitry and its gateway, the entorhinal cortex, are damaged.  The amygdala, cerebelum and other areas supporting implicit memory are not impacted during the early stages of the disease.  Grid cell destruction results in a sense of being lost.  The default mode network is disrupted.  Variants include: late-onset sporadic; with risk factors - ApoE4 for late onset Alzheimer's, presenilin, androgen deprivation therapy (Dec 2015), type 2 diabetes.  There are multiple theories of the mechanism of Alzheimer's during aging: Allen Roses argues that it is due to gene alleles that limit the capacity of mitochondria to support neuron operation, Neurons of sporadic Alzheimer's sufferers show greater APP gene diversity due to somatic recombination; It may be initiated by: stress induced HHV-6a, HHV7 herpes activation (Jun 2018) and or an increasingly leaky blood-brain barrier; and a subsequent innate immune response to the infections (May 2016).  The Alzheimer's pathway follows:
  • Plaques form.  These are seen in fMRIs 10 to 15 years prior to detecting memory and thinking changes.  APP deployed in the cell membrane is cut into three parts.  The external part becomes amyloid-beta peptide which aggregates into Amyloid plaques, external to the neurons, if too much is generated or it is not removed fast enough. 
    
  • Solanezumab aimed to inhibit plaque formation but clinical trials failed (Nov 2016). 
    
  • Encouraging the garbage collection of amyloid and tau with gamma rhythms stimulation retards Alzheimer's in mice studies (Mar 2019)
    
  • BACE inhibitors block an enzyme needed to form amyloid. 
    
  • Mutation driven misfolded Tau proteins can form tangles within the cytoplasm of neurons.  The Tau tangles kill nerve cells.  LMTX is a drug treatment targeted at these tangles. 
    
  • The brain becomes inflamed resulting in the killing of many more nerve cells.  The hippocampus disintegrates and the brain loses critical functions and memory loss becomes noticeable. 
    
  , Parkinson's corresponds to the breakdown of certain interneurons in the brain.  It is not fully understood why this occurs.  Dopamine system neuron breakdown generates the classical symptoms of tremors and rigidity.  In some instances an uncommon LRRK2 gene mutation confers a high risk of Parkinson's disease.  In rare cases Italian and Greek families are impacted in their early forties and fifties resulting from a single letter mutation in alpha-synuclein which alters the alpha-synuclein protein causing degeneration in the substantia nigra, after a build up of Lewy bodies in the neurons.  But poisoning from MPTP has also been shown to destroy dopamine system neurons.  DeLong showed that MPTP poisoning results in overactivity in the subthalamic nucleus.  People who have an appendectomy in their 20s are at lower risk of developing Parkinson's disease.  The Alpha-synuclein protein is known to build up in the appendix in association with changes in the gut microbiome.  This buildup may support the 'flow' of alpha-synuclein from the gut along neurons that route to the brain.  Paraquat has also been linked to Parkinson's disease.  Parkinson's disease does not directly kill many sufferers.  But it impacts swallowing which encourages development of pneumonia through inhaling or aspirating food.  And it undermines balance which can increase the possibility of falls.  Dememtia can also develop.  Treatment with deep-brain stimulation, after surgical implantation of electrodes in the subthalamic nucleus removes the symptoms of Parkinson's disease in some patients. 
  , CHF is congestive heart failure which occurs when the heart is unable to generate enough blood flow to meet the body's demands.  There are two main types: failure due to left ventricular dysfunction and abnormal diastolic function increasing the stiffness of the left ventricle and decreasing its relaxation.  Heart expansion in CHF distorts the mitral valve which exacerbates the problems.  MitraClip surgery trials found effective in correcting the mitral valve damage (Sep 2018).  Treatments include: digoxin; , rheumatoid Arthritis is an autoimmune disorder where the immune system attacks the joints and can generate inflammation around the lungs and heart.  It can be treated with: Enbrel, Humira, Ilaris, Xeljanz;
  , and some cancers is the out-of-control growth of cells, which have stopped obeying their cooperative schematic planning and signalling infrastructure.  It results from compounded: oncogene, tumor suppressor, DNA caretaker; mutations in the DNA.  In 2010 one third of Americans are likely to die of cancer.  Cell division rates did not predict likelihood of cancer.  Viral infections are associated.  Radiation and carcinogen exposure are associated.  Lifestyle impacts the likelihood of cancer occurring: Drinking alcohol to excess, lack of exercise, Obesity, Smoking, More sun than your evolved melanin protection level; all significantly increase the risk of cancer occurring (Jul 2016). 
  .  Combinations of social and medical services are funded.  The act will encourage high tech remote capabilities to be deployed (Jun 2018)

• Awareness campaigns about health threatening activities including: Smoking, Over-eating, Alcohol consumption, Contamination with poisons: lead; Joint damage from over-exercise;
  
• Research, monitoring and control of disease agents, processes and vectors by agencies including the CDC is the HHS's center for disease control and prevention based in Atlanta Georgia.  
  . 
  
• Monitoring of the public's health by institutes including the NIH is the National Institute of Health, Bethesda Maryland.  It is the primary federal agency for the support and conduct of biomedical and behavioral research.  It is also one of the four US special containment units of the CDC.  .  This includes screening for cancer is the out-of-control growth of cells, which have stopped obeying their cooperative schematic planning and signalling infrastructure.  It results from compounded: oncogene, tumor suppressor, DNA caretaker; mutations in the DNA.  In 2010 one third of Americans are likely to die of cancer.  Cell division rates did not predict likelihood of cancer.  Viral infections are associated.  Radiation and carcinogen exposure are associated.  Lifestyle impacts the likelihood of cancer occurring: Drinking alcohol to excess, lack of exercise, Obesity, Smoking, More sun than your evolved melanin protection level; all significantly increase the risk of cancer occurring (Jul 2016). 
  & heart disease is cardiovascular disease which refers to:
  • Conditions where narrowed and blocked blood vessels result in angina, hypertension, CHD and heart attacks and hemorrhagic/ischemic strokes.  Mutations of the gene PCSK9 have been implicated in cardiovascular disease.  Rare families with dominant inheritence of the mutations have an overactive protein, very high levels of blood cholesterol and cardiac disease. Other rare PCSK9 mutations result in an 88% reduced risk from heart disease.  Inflammation is associated with cardiovascular disease (Aug 2017). 
    
  . 
  
• Development is a phase during the operation of a CAS agent.  It allows for schematic strategies to be iteratively blended with environmental signals to solve the logistical issues of migrating newly built and transformed sub-agents.  That is needed to achieve the adult configuration of the agent and optimize it for the proximate environment.  Smiley includes examples of the developmental phase agents required in an emergent CAS.  In situations where parents invest in the growth and memetic learning of their offspring the schematic grab bag can support optimizations to develop models, structures and actions to construct an adept adult.  In humans, adolescence leverages neural plasticity, elder sibling advice and adult coaching to help prepare the deploying neuronal network and body to successfully compete. 
  , deployment and maintenance of infrastructure including: sewers, water plants and pipes.  
• Development, deployment and maintenance of vaccination are a core strategy of public health and have significantly extended global wellbeing over 200 years.  Smallpox & polio were virtually eradicated.  Recent successes include: HPV vaccine: Gardasil.  They induce active acquired immunity to a particular disease.  But the development and deployment of vaccines is complex:
  • The business model for vaccine development has been failing (Aug 2015): 
    
  • No Zika vaccine was available as the epidemic grew (Mar 2016).  No vaccine for: CMV;
    
  • Major foundations: Michael J. Fox, Gates, Wellcome; are working to improve the situation including sponsorship of the GAVI alliance.  A geographic cluster is forming in Seattle including PATH (Apr 2016). 
    
  • Commercial developers include: Affiris, Cell Genesis, Chiron, CSL, Sanofi, Valeant;
    
  • Vaccine deployment traditionally benefited from centrally managed vertical health programs.  But political issues are now constraining success with less than 95-99% coverage required for herd immunity (Aug 2015, Sep 2015, Nov 2015, Nov 2016, Jul 2018).  
  • Where clinics have been driven into local neighborhoods health improves (Apr 2016).  
  • Retail clinics (Mar 2016): CVS Minute Clinics focus on vaccination. 
    
  • NNT is a useful metric for vaccine benefit.  Influenza vaccine has an NNT of between 37 and 77, is cheap and causes little harm, so it is very beneficial. 
    
  • Key vaccines include: BCG, C. difficile (May 2015), Cholera (El Tor), Cervical Cancer (Gardasil HPV Jun 2018, Oct 2018), Dengvaxia (Mexico Dec 2015), Gvax, Influenza, Malaria vaccine, Provenge, Typbar-TCV (XDR typhoid Pakistan Apr 2018);
  • Regulation involves: FDA (CBER), with CMS monitoring (star ratings, PACE (Aug 2016), Report cards (Sep 2015)) & CDC promoting vaccines: as a sepsis measure, To control C. difficile (May 2015);  
  • Coding : CVX, MVX;
    
  • Research on vaccines includes: 
  • NIH: AIDS vaccines (AVRC), Focus on using genetic analysis to improve vaccine response.  
  • NCI:
  • Roswell Park clinical trial of immuno-oncology vaccine cimavax. 
    
  • Geisinger: effective process leverage in treatment. 
    
  • Stanford Edge immuno-oncology for cancer vaccines.  
  • P53-driven-cancer focused, gene therapy (Jun 2015). 
    
  strategies.  
• Development, deployment and maintenance of fluoridation. 
  
• Development, deployment and maintenance of family planning services. 
  
• Regulation and constraint of foods, drugs and devices by agencies including the FDA Food and Drug Administration.  .  

• Insurers are not incented to focus on the long term health of their subscribers. 
  
• Subscribers' evolved focus on acute issues at the expense of chronic problems is amplified by the high cost of deductibles, copayments is a fixed payment for a covered service after any deductible has been met.  It is a key strategy of the ACA to make subscribers aware of the costs of treatment and to put pressure on high cost health services.  As such suppliers and providers are keen to undermine the copayment: value based health insurance, Paying the copayment (Oct 2015), Place on the USPSTF list of preventative services (Sep 2016);
  and premiums.  
• Mandatory insurance payments compete with other more acute subscriber needs.  While this allows the ACA to spread the cost of low income patients' health care across the risk pool it builds political resentment with the incumbent Democrats (Nov 2015).  

• Single-payer is a healthcare architecture in which there is a single financing organization.  Significant aspects of single-payer include:
  • Strengths of single-payer:
  • Removes the extensive replication of payer organizations and their different interfaces to the other healthcare entities and subscribers. 
    
  • One payment organization, removing the need to allow subscribers the yearly choice to change payer, encouraging payers to help subscribers remain healthy
    
  • Single-payer instantiates a political monopoly on health insurance. 
    
  • Problematic implementation of single-payer in the US
    
  • Undermines the alignment of the healthcare network, threatening profits, power structures and financial rewards.  This limits the possibility of single-payer in the US: Lobbying juggernaut: Politicians, Providers, Doctors, Insurers; leveraging dislike of tax increases, The 9 out of 10 Americans who are employed or retired are satisfied with their situation, Current insurance costs are hidden from the insured: in lowered pay packages, spread over all tax payers reducing government revenues; Current private insurers would be forced to reduce costs;
  • Alters one sixth of the US economy: Commercial health insurance replaced, investors impacted by transformation of business models; a huge change of high uncertainty, something evolution works to avoid by including mechanisms to force small incremental changes. 
    
  • A state: Vermont (Jan 2014); can use public funds for all health care financing while the delivery of care is provided by non-state organizations.  Analogously Intermountain Healthcare's SelectHealth Share requires organizations to use Intermountain for health care finance (Feb 2016). 
    
  economics is the study of trade between humans.  Traditional Economics is based on an equilibrium model of the economic system.  Traditional Economics includes: microeconomics, and macroeconomics.  Marx developed an alternative static approach.  Limitations of the equilibrium model have resulted in the development of: Keynes's dynamic General Theory of Employment Interest & Money, and Complexity Economics.  Since trading depends on human behavior, economics has developed behavioral models including: behavioral economics. 
  (Jul 2017)
• NYT Paul Krugman explains why the ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  architects didn't adopt single-payer (Jul 2017)
• California, at a risky transition between governors, aligns tax revenue drops with economic downturns, while disintermediation is the shift of operations from one network provider to another lower cost connected network provider.  The first network provider leverages the cost benefits of the shift to increase its profitability but becomes disrupted.  The lower cost network provider gains revenue flows, expertise and increases its active agents.  Over time this disruptive shift will leave the higher cost network as a highly profitable shell, but the agents that performed the operations that migrated to the low cost network will be ejected from the network.  For a company that may imply the costs of layoffs.  For a state the ejected workers imply increased cost impacts and reduced revenue potential which the state are trading off for improved operating efficiency. 
  and rising inequality is pushing the middle class to leave the state.  There is no viable change to prop 13, Gavin Newsom, lieutenant governor, is talking of extra spending on: single-payer health care is a healthcare architecture in which there is a single financing organization.  Significant aspects of single-payer include:
  • Strengths of single-payer:
  • Removes the extensive replication of payer organizations and their different interfaces to the other healthcare entities and subscribers. 
    
  • One payment organization, removing the need to allow subscribers the yearly choice to change payer, encouraging payers to help subscribers remain healthy
    
  • Single-payer instantiates a political monopoly on health insurance. 
    
  • Problematic implementation of single-payer in the US
    
  • Undermines the alignment of the healthcare network, threatening profits, power structures and financial rewards.  This limits the possibility of single-payer in the US: Lobbying juggernaut: Politicians, Providers, Doctors, Insurers; leveraging dislike of tax increases, The 9 out of 10 Americans who are employed or retired are satisfied with their situation, Current insurance costs are hidden from the insured: in lowered pay packages, spread over all tax payers reducing government revenues; Current private insurers would be forced to reduce costs;
  • Alters one sixth of the US economy: Commercial health insurance replaced, investors impacted by transformation of business models; a huge change of high uncertainty, something evolution works to avoid by including mechanisms to force small incremental changes. 
    
  • A state: Vermont (Jan 2014); can use public funds for all health care financing while the delivery of care is provided by non-state organizations.  Analogously Intermountain Healthcare's SelectHealth Share requires organizations to use Intermountain for health care finance (Feb 2016). 
    
  , early childhood education, state universities; and is beholden to unions.  Anyone will be inexperienced compared to Jerry Brown (Oct 2018)
• Chicago SSA is the social securities act of 1935 was part of the second New Deal.  It attempted to limit risks of old age, poverty and unemployment.  It is funded through payroll taxes via FICA and SECA into the social security trust funds.  Title IV of the original SSA created what became the AFDC.  The Social Security Administration controls the OASI and DI trust funds.  The funds are administered by the trustees.  The SSA was amended in 1965 to include:
  • Title V is Maternal and child health services. 
    
  • Title XVIII is Medicare.  
  and public health is the proactive planning, coordination and execution of strategies to improve and safeguard the wellbeing of the public.  Its global situation is discussed in The Great Escape by Deaton.  Public health in the US is coordinated by the PHS federally but is mainly executed at the state and local levels.  Public health includes:
  • Awareness campaigns about health threatening activities including: Smoking, Over-eating, Alcohol consumption, Contamination with poisons: lead; Joint damage from over-exercise;
    
  • Research, monitoring and control of disease agents, processes and vectors by agencies including the CDC. 
    
  • Monitoring of the public's health by institutes including the NIH.  This includes screening for cancer & heart disease. 
    
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of infrastructure including: sewers, water plants and pipes.  
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of vaccination strategies.  
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of fluoridation. 
    
  • Development, deployment and maintenance of family planning services. 
    
  • Regulation and constraint of foods, drugs and devices by agencies including the FDA.  
  sciences professor Harold Pollack reviews liberal strategies for practically improving ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  health care: Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  Available to All, Paul Starr's Midlife Medicare, Yale's Jacob Hacker's Medicare Part E: adds play or pay is a health care policy insurance coverage model that requires employers to offer qualified health insurance coverage to their workers and their families, or pay the federal government for coverage.  Such federal coverage could include a Medicare universal guaranteed insurance scheme that would cover all the benefits of Medicare parts A, B, C (Advantage) and D.   insurance coverage to Medicare; Center for American Progress's Medicare Extra for All (Nov 2018)
  

• Trump administration: HHS is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   Secretary Tom Price; agrees to pay Florida for hospital ED is emergency department.  Pain is the main reason (75%) patients go to an E.D.  It has traditionally been part of an acute care hospital but recently is being deployed standalone as a catchment funnel to the owning hospital.  The EMTALA legislation requires E.D. treatment to stabilize every person seeking treatment by most hospitals.  Unreimbursed care is supported from federal government funds.  E. D. profitability has been helped by hospitals contracting with 3rd party companies who are able to improve margins through surprise billing.  The standalone E.D. competes with the positioning and brand power of lower cost urgent care clinics.  Commercial nature of care requires walk-ins to register to gain access to care.  With the focus on treatment of pain, E.D.s are a major distributor of opioids (5% of opioid prescriptions) and a major starting point of addiction in patients but are cutting back (Jun 2016). 
  losses by expanding LIP is either the
  
  • Medicaid supplemental 'low-income pool' hospital funding program which reimburses hospitals for the cost of care for the uninsured.  LIP is being wound down as the ACA Medicaid expansion occurs.  Or it is the
  • Lateral intraparietal area is involved in saccades of the eyes.  Some neurons in the LIP code the location of visual and auditary targets in an eye-centered reference frame.  Others code the location of a sound in reference frame intermediate between head-centered and eye-centered.  For many cells the magnitude of response is 'gain' modulated by eye, head, body or initial hand position. 
  .  Congressional Democrats warn CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   Seema Verma the strategy is against federal law (May 2017)
• Maine state judge orders LePage administration to immediately implement Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  expansion law (Jun 2018)
  
• 2018 Mid-term election ballot initiatives move Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  expansion forward in Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah.  Term limits replace LePage & new Maine Democratic governor agrees to implement its ballot.  North Carolina democratic governor gained power to start developing expansion (Nov 2018)
• Virginia expands Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  (Jun 2018)
  
• Aaron Carroll reviews Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  expansion studies that indicate rural access/coverage, through community health centers, and quality of health care has risen while urban access/coverage has also improved (Jul 2018)
  

• CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   implements CHRONIC care act of 2017 is Ron Wyden & Orrin Hatch's Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic Care Act signed into law by President Trump as title III of the BBA of 2018. 
  through Medicare Advantage (MA) is a private provider administered health insurance plan providing access to Medicare benefits.  It was originally enacted as part of BBA Medicare + Choice or Part C plans.  The government funded the plan with an annual fee, based on age and severity of the subscriber's medical conditions, rather than FFS.  When a Medicare eligible person enrolls in a MA plan the government pays the private provider a set amount each month.  The participant pays the Medicare part B premium and if required a part C premium each month.  The MA plans offer a PCP who coordinates care.  And the plans have an annual limit on out-of-pocket expenses unlike traditional Medicare.  When they obtain treatment they will have to pay a copayment which may be quite high for some specialists.  It is the health plan's responsibility to contract the physician network that will provide the care, leaving the risk with the insurer.  About 36% of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled with Medicare Advantage by 2019.  The ACA introduced quality outcome and patient satisfaction based differential payments into MA.  To measure the performance it added a five-star quality rating scheme.  MA plans report their quality and patient satisfaction data to CMS annually and based on the results are awarded one to five stars.  The highest rated plans are provided with large additional payments.  It was assumed that subscribers would shift to the highest rated plans and the other plans would improve or drop out of MA.  And the ACA eliminated subsidies which the federal government used to establish Medicare Advantage.  However, the Obama administration has used a $8.5 Billion demonstration project to maintain this funding.  It is intended that it will eventually taper off so that the cost of Medicare Advantage coverage will be equivalent to standard Medicare. 
  changes, affecting the costly half of Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  's patients with multiple chronic conditions.  The act offers additional benefits for people suffering from chronic diseases including: diabetes includes type 1 and type 2.  Common side effects include: increased heart disease, hypertension, kidney disease, vision loss, nerve damage, and infections. 
  , Alzheimer's is a dementia which correlates with deposition of amyloid plaques in the neurons.  As of 2015 there are 5 million Alzheimer's patients in the USA.  It was originally defined as starting in middle age which is rare, so it was a rare dementia.  But in 1980s it was redefined as any dementia without another known cause. Early indications include mood and behavioral changes (MBI) and declarative memory and thinking problems (MCI).  Specific cells within the hippocampal circuitry and its gateway, the entorhinal cortex, are damaged.  The amygdala, cerebelum and other areas supporting implicit memory are not impacted during the early stages of the disease.  Grid cell destruction results in a sense of being lost.  The default mode network is disrupted.  Variants include: late-onset sporadic; with risk factors - ApoE4 for late onset Alzheimer's, presenilin, androgen deprivation therapy (Dec 2015), type 2 diabetes.  There are multiple theories of the mechanism of Alzheimer's during aging: Allen Roses argues that it is due to gene alleles that limit the capacity of mitochondria to support neuron operation, Neurons of sporadic Alzheimer's sufferers show greater APP gene diversity due to somatic recombination; It may be initiated by: stress induced HHV-6a, HHV7 herpes activation (Jun 2018) and or an increasingly leaky blood-brain barrier; and a subsequent innate immune response to the infections (May 2016).  The Alzheimer's pathway follows:
  • Plaques form.  These are seen in fMRIs 10 to 15 years prior to detecting memory and thinking changes.  APP deployed in the cell membrane is cut into three parts.  The external part becomes amyloid-beta peptide which aggregates into Amyloid plaques, external to the neurons, if too much is generated or it is not removed fast enough. 
    
  • Solanezumab aimed to inhibit plaque formation but clinical trials failed (Nov 2016). 
    
  • Encouraging the garbage collection of amyloid and tau with gamma rhythms stimulation retards Alzheimer's in mice studies (Mar 2019)
    
  • BACE inhibitors block an enzyme needed to form amyloid. 
    
  • Mutation driven misfolded Tau proteins can form tangles within the cytoplasm of neurons.  The Tau tangles kill nerve cells.  LMTX is a drug treatment targeted at these tangles. 
    
  • The brain becomes inflamed resulting in the killing of many more nerve cells.  The hippocampus disintegrates and the brain loses critical functions and memory loss becomes noticeable. 
    
  , Parkinson's corresponds to the breakdown of certain interneurons in the brain.  It is not fully understood why this occurs.  Dopamine system neuron breakdown generates the classical symptoms of tremors and rigidity.  In some instances an uncommon LRRK2 gene mutation confers a high risk of Parkinson's disease.  In rare cases Italian and Greek families are impacted in their early forties and fifties resulting from a single letter mutation in alpha-synuclein which alters the alpha-synuclein protein causing degeneration in the substantia nigra, after a build up of Lewy bodies in the neurons.  But poisoning from MPTP has also been shown to destroy dopamine system neurons.  DeLong showed that MPTP poisoning results in overactivity in the subthalamic nucleus.  People who have an appendectomy in their 20s are at lower risk of developing Parkinson's disease.  The Alpha-synuclein protein is known to build up in the appendix in association with changes in the gut microbiome.  This buildup may support the 'flow' of alpha-synuclein from the gut along neurons that route to the brain.  Paraquat has also been linked to Parkinson's disease.  Parkinson's disease does not directly kill many sufferers.  But it impacts swallowing which encourages development of pneumonia through inhaling or aspirating food.  And it undermines balance which can increase the possibility of falls.  Dememtia can also develop.  Treatment with deep-brain stimulation, after surgical implantation of electrodes in the subthalamic nucleus removes the symptoms of Parkinson's disease in some patients. 
  , CHF is congestive heart failure which occurs when the heart is unable to generate enough blood flow to meet the body's demands.  There are two main types: failure due to left ventricular dysfunction and abnormal diastolic function increasing the stiffness of the left ventricle and decreasing its relaxation.  Heart expansion in CHF distorts the mitral valve which exacerbates the problems.  MitraClip surgery trials found effective in correcting the mitral valve damage (Sep 2018).  Treatments include: digoxin; , rheumatoid Arthritis is an autoimmune disorder where the immune system attacks the joints and can generate inflammation around the lungs and heart.  It can be treated with: Enbrel, Humira, Ilaris, Xeljanz;
  , and some cancers is the out-of-control growth of cells, which have stopped obeying their cooperative schematic planning and signalling infrastructure.  It results from compounded: oncogene, tumor suppressor, DNA caretaker; mutations in the DNA.  In 2010 one third of Americans are likely to die of cancer.  Cell division rates did not predict likelihood of cancer.  Viral infections are associated.  Radiation and carcinogen exposure are associated.  Lifestyle impacts the likelihood of cancer occurring: Drinking alcohol to excess, lack of exercise, Obesity, Smoking, More sun than your evolved melanin protection level; all significantly increase the risk of cancer occurring (Jul 2016). 
  .  Combinations of social and medical services are funded.  The act will encourage high tech remote capabilities to be deployed (Jun 2018)
• The implementation is seen as undermining traditional Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  with part D is a federal program to subsidize the costs of outpatient prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries enacted as part of the MMA and delivered entirely by private companies.  It is an evolved amplifier with MMA schematic rules ensuring catalytic tax subsidies: reinsurance; flow to a broad group of elderly voters and a small but influential group of payers: UnitedHealth, Humana, CVS Health; while pharmaceutical companies also benefited from increased sales of reimbursed drugs.  It includes:
  
  • E-prescribing regulations.  Health care providers that electronically prescribe Part D drugs for Part D eligible individuals under 42 CFR 423.160(a)(3)(iii) may use HL7 or NCPDP SCRIPT standard to transmit prescriptions & related information internally but must use NCPDP SCRIPT (or other adopted standard) to transmit information to another legal entity.  
  • Premium subsidy set by a market average.  Medicare collects bids from all plans that reflect their costs of providing the minimum required level of drug coverage. It then sets the subsidy at 74.5% of the average bid.  
  • Premium coverage gap (doughnut hole) between the 74.5% premium subsidy and the catastrophic-coverage threshold.  The BBA of 2018 required Part D insurers cover 5% of the beneficiaries coverage gap and drug companies provide discounts that reduce federal spending by a total of $7.7 billion through 2027. 
    
  & Medigap is additional private insurance purchased to cover health care costs not covered by Medicare: copayments, deductibles and foreign travel insurance. 
  , and generating confusion in the Medicare Advantage (MA) is a private provider administered health insurance plan providing access to Medicare benefits.  It was originally enacted as part of BBA Medicare + Choice or Part C plans.  The government funded the plan with an annual fee, based on age and severity of the subscriber's medical conditions, rather than FFS.  When a Medicare eligible person enrolls in a MA plan the government pays the private provider a set amount each month.  The participant pays the Medicare part B premium and if required a part C premium each month.  The MA plans offer a PCP who coordinates care.  And the plans have an annual limit on out-of-pocket expenses unlike traditional Medicare.  When they obtain treatment they will have to pay a copayment which may be quite high for some specialists.  It is the health plan's responsibility to contract the physician network that will provide the care, leaving the risk with the insurer.  About 36% of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled with Medicare Advantage by 2019.  The ACA introduced quality outcome and patient satisfaction based differential payments into MA.  To measure the performance it added a five-star quality rating scheme.  MA plans report their quality and patient satisfaction data to CMS annually and based on the results are awarded one to five stars.  The highest rated plans are provided with large additional payments.  It was assumed that subscribers would shift to the highest rated plans and the other plans would improve or drop out of MA.  And the ACA eliminated subsidies which the federal government used to establish Medicare Advantage.  However, the Obama administration has used a $8.5 Billion demonstration project to maintain this funding.  It is intended that it will eventually taper off so that the cost of Medicare Advantage coverage will be equivalent to standard Medicare. 
  subscribers (Jul 2018)
• Medicare Advantage (MA) is a private provider administered health insurance plan providing access to Medicare benefits.  It was originally enacted as part of BBA Medicare + Choice or Part C plans.  The government funded the plan with an annual fee, based on age and severity of the subscriber's medical conditions, rather than FFS.  When a Medicare eligible person enrolls in a MA plan the government pays the private provider a set amount each month.  The participant pays the Medicare part B premium and if required a part C premium each month.  The MA plans offer a PCP who coordinates care.  And the plans have an annual limit on out-of-pocket expenses unlike traditional Medicare.  When they obtain treatment they will have to pay a copayment which may be quite high for some specialists.  It is the health plan's responsibility to contract the physician network that will provide the care, leaving the risk with the insurer.  About 36% of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled with Medicare Advantage by 2019.  The ACA introduced quality outcome and patient satisfaction based differential payments into MA.  To measure the performance it added a five-star quality rating scheme.  MA plans report their quality and patient satisfaction data to CMS annually and based on the results are awarded one to five stars.  The highest rated plans are provided with large additional payments.  It was assumed that subscribers would shift to the highest rated plans and the other plans would improve or drop out of MA.  And the ACA eliminated subsidies which the federal government used to establish Medicare Advantage.  However, the Obama administration has used a $8.5 Billion demonstration project to maintain this funding.  It is intended that it will eventually taper off so that the cost of Medicare Advantage coverage will be equivalent to standard Medicare. 
  plans are being provided with more funds by Congress, but even 5 star Star ratings are CMS quality ratings of health care domains.  They reflect measures of outcomes including intermediate outcomes, patient experience, access and process.  Care coordination (assessed by CAHPS survey) and quality improvement measures have been added.  Data is sourced from health and drug plans, from CMS contractors, from surveys of enrollees, and from CMS administrative data.  They reflect HEDIS data.   The ACA established Star Ratings as the basis of QBPs.  5-star health plans benefit from being able to market all year round, and beneficiaries can join at any time via a SEP.  Health plans with less than 3-star ratings can be terminated by CMS starting in 2015.  Star ratings cover 9 domains:
  • Ratings of health plans (part C)
  • Staying healthy: screening, tests, vaccines
    
  • Managing chronic (long-term) conditions
  • Member experience with the health plan
  • Member complaints, problems getting services, and improvements in the health plans performance
    
  • Health plan customer service
    
  • Ratings of drug plans (part D)
  • Drug plan customer service
  • Member complaints, problems getting services, and improvements in the drug plan's performance
    
  • Member experience with the drug plan
    
  • Patient safety and accuracy of drug pricing
    
  plans are denying valid care, via prior authorization is a constraint imposed by some insurance companies prior to their agreeing to cover some prescribed medications or medical procedures.  The constraint may be due to: age, medical necessity, availability of a generic alternative, or to check drug interactions.  After a healthcare provider orders a service for a patient, the provider's staff will contact the patient's insurer to determine if they require prior authorization.  This should result in an exception process which may involve the provider's staff manual faxing a prior authorization form to the insurer.  If the service is rejected, the healthcare provider may file an appeal based on the provider's medical review process.  It may take 30 days for the insurer to approve the request.  , and claims by providers and patients, to improve FFV is fee-for-value payment.  It may be a bundled payment for a set of services provided by a group of doctors and facilities, or full capitation.  In each case the risk has shifted from the payer to the providers of care. 
  profits, the HHS is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   inspector general reports.  The abuse is widespread and persistent.  AHIP's Matt Eyles defended the process.  Few people appeal but 75% of those who do succeed (Oct 2018)
  

• Senator Sherrod Brown, develops select committee to focus on multiemployer pension liabilities: UPS, Kroger, NCCMP; and support PBGC is the pension benefit guarantee corporation.  It is an independent agency of the US government created by ERISA. 
  backstop, lobbied for by USCC is the United States Chamber of Commerce
  (Feb 2018)

• EPA is the Environmental Protection Agency of the Federal government. 
  - which mediates flows of pollutants & toxins throughout the environment: Air, Ground, Water; indirectly affecting health.  
• President Trump's E.P.A. is the Environmental Protection Agency of the Federal government. 
  administrator, Scott Pruitt ignores most staff & enables proposals from energy: Exxon Mobil, Koch Industries, Murray Energy, Southern Company; & chemicals: Dow, DuPont; working with RAGA is the Republican Attorneys General Association. 
  , and a former ACC policy director (Jul 2017)
  
• E.P.A. is the Environmental Protection Agency of the Federal government. 
  political appointees from Reagan & Bush eras, appointed by President Trump, rollback toxic chemical rules:
  
• Dr. Ryan Jackson, E.P.A. administrator Pruitt's chief of staff, ordered recommendations of agency scientists to be ignored 
• Dr. Michael Dourson, formerly a toxicologist, who acted as a consultant to businesses aiming to limit the actions of the E.P.A., as Principal deputy assistant administrator for the E.P.A.'s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (TSC Act is the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 which governs the regulation of chemicals used in consumer products and manufacturing processes.  It was updated in 2016 and signed into law by President Obama.  But it still mainly reflects the needs of the chemical industry (Jul 2016).  )
  
• Dr. Nancy Beck, formerly a scientist & powerhouse lobbyist for the American Chemical Council (president Calvin Dooley), has dispensation to work immediately with her former lobby, as acting assistant administrator for chemical safety. (Oct 2017)
  
• E.P.A. spokeswoman Liz Bowman, formerly a spokeswoman for the American Chemical Council pushed back on the NYT request for answers. 
  
• Trump E.P.A. is the Environmental Protection Agency of the Federal government. 
  follows an American Chemistry Council strategy, limiting the collection of risk, is an assessment of the likelihood of an independent problem occurring.  It can be assigned an accurate probability since it is independent of other variables in the system.  As such it is different from uncertainty. 
  data about chemicals covered by CSIA is the chemical safety improvement act of 2016 (formerly the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act), which updates the TSCA with amendments:
  • EPA mandated to evaluate existing chemicals with clear and enforceable deadlines
  • Chemicals evaluated against a risk-based assessment
  • Unreasonable risks identified by the assessment must be mitigated
  • Increased authority to require development of chemical information
    
  (Jun 2018)
• Doctors critical of TSC Act is the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 which governs the regulation of chemicals used in consumer products and manufacturing processes.  It was updated in 2016 and signed into law by President Obama.  But it still mainly reflects the needs of the chemical industry (Jul 2016).  , leverage Tendr is targeting environmental neurodevelopmental risks, a coalition of scientists, doctors and health advocates lobbying for improved legislation to protect homes from household toxins. 
  in call for tougher E.P.A. is the Environmental Protection Agency of the Federal government. 
  control of household chemical emissions impact on children's: Weight, I.Q; (Jul 2016)
• Syngenta's Paraquat is NN-dimethyl-44-bipyridinium dichloride, a systemic weed killer, used on oranges, coffee and suger cane, manufactured and sold by the Swiss pesticide company Syngenta.  It is banned in the EU, but still allowed to be sold and used in the US.  Drinking even a sip can be lethal.  Recent research by the NIH links paraquat to Parkinson's disease.  The 2011 research found Iowa and North Carolina farmers and family members that handled paraquat or rotenone were 2.5 times more likely to develop Parkinson's disease.  A 2012 study found paraquat increased the likelihood 11 fold for people with certain genetic variations.  The link is disputed by Syngenta. 
  linked by N.I.H. is the National Institute of Health, Bethesda Maryland.  It is the primary federal agency for the support and conduct of biomedical and behavioral research.  It is also one of the four US special containment units of the CDC.   to Parkinson's disease corresponds to the breakdown of certain interneurons in the brain.  It is not fully understood why this occurs.  Dopamine system neuron breakdown generates the classical symptoms of tremors and rigidity.  In some instances an uncommon LRRK2 gene mutation confers a high risk of Parkinson's disease.  In rare cases Italian and Greek families are impacted in their early forties and fifties resulting from a single letter mutation in alpha-synuclein which alters the alpha-synuclein protein causing degeneration in the substantia nigra, after a build up of Lewy bodies in the neurons.  But poisoning from MPTP has also been shown to destroy dopamine system neurons.  DeLong showed that MPTP poisoning results in overactivity in the subthalamic nucleus.  People who have an appendectomy in their 20s are at lower risk of developing Parkinson's disease.  The Alpha-synuclein protein is known to build up in the appendix in association with changes in the gut microbiome.  This buildup may support the 'flow' of alpha-synuclein from the gut along neurons that route to the brain.  Paraquat has also been linked to Parkinson's disease.  Parkinson's disease does not directly kill many sufferers.  But it impacts swallowing which encourages development of pneumonia through inhaling or aspirating food.  And it undermines balance which can increase the possibility of falls.  Dememtia can also develop.  Treatment with deep-brain stimulation, after surgical implantation of electrodes in the subthalamic nucleus removes the symptoms of Parkinson's disease in some patients. 
  .  E.P.A. is the Environmental Protection Agency of the Federal government. 
  considers restrictions in US is the United States of America.   (Dec 2016)
• Syngenta's Eric Fyrwald responds to the NYT December & January articles (Jan 2017)
• FDA Food and Drug Administration.   - which has a huge area of control under the Presidentially nominated (Califf) and Senate confirmed commissioner, but it is typically underfunded and hence under resourced to check validity of supplements (Dec 2013), prescription drugs and medical devices (Mar 2015). 
  
• F.D.A. Food and Drug Administration.   CDRH is the F.D.A.'s center for device and radiological health. 
  's Jeffrey Shuren is struggling to regulate: with too few resources, approval processes that allow 'updated' devices to be marketed untested, under resourced screening, skimpy post-market monitoring, patient issues generating a tepid response from regulators; in the medical device market: Morcellators, a tool to shred tissue via spinning blades, used for example in the removal of uterine fibroids, so that the tissue can be easily removed using MIS techniques.  It has been found to spread cancerous cells around the surgery site reducing long-time survival rates and worsening the disease (Feb 2017). 
  (Feb 17), Essure (Oct 16), Pelvic Mesh are medical devices, surgically deployed to support organs that are prolapsing because of weakened pelvic muscles.  They are built from fiber that is designed to bond with the proximate tissue.   (Apr 18), textured silicon implants are silicone medical devices, used to replace or enhance breast tissue after cosmetic surgery or mastectomy.  ADM has allowed improved surgical strategies to be used with implants (Sep 2018).  There are contoured and smooth silicon shells filled with silicone or brine.  Contoured implants have been associated with anaplastic large cell lymphoma.  Breast implants have a history of inducing medical problems in patients.  Manufacturers include: Allergan, Mentor, Sientra; (Mar 2019)
  (Mar 19, May 19); placing patients at risk: 80,000 deaths & 2 million injuries.  F.D.A. under pressure from press suggested it could do better - but its proposed changes are meager or counter productive: speedup approvals; because of Congress pushing quality responsibility and funding to device companies which benefit from lax regulation and light punishments (May 2019)
  
• Reporting rules for medical device AE is an F.D.A. adverse event, a problem identified in a medical process involving a patient or clinical investigation and reported to the F.D.A.  s agreed between AdvaMed & F.D.A. Food and Drug Administration.   CDRH is the F.D.A.'s center for device and radiological health. 
  (Jul 2017)
• Device issues: J&J's discontinued hip-replacement ASR XL & Pinnacle, Medtronic cardiac implants - sprint fidelis defibrillator, Cyberonics vagus nerve stimulator; demonstrate weaknesses of F.D.A. Food and Drug Administration.   device regulation: 510(k) refers to section 510(k) of the FFDCA.  It is a premarketing submission made to the FDA to demonstrate that a device to be marketed is as safe and effective (substantially equivalent to) another device that is not subject to PMA. 
  ; and the F.D.A.'s legislated structure (Jan 2018)
• F.D.A. Food and Drug Administration.   CDRH is the F.D.A.'s center for device and radiological health. 
  approves direct to consumer genomic testing for three BRCA is breast cancer type 1 or 2 susceptibility gene.  The two types provide related cellular functions maintaining the validity of the cell.  If either gene product fails there is an increased likelihood of cancer.  Still individuals with mutations in BRCA1/2 genes account for only 5 to 10 percent of breast cancers.  The:  
  • Type 1 gene codes for a protein that supports DNA repair and where this is not possible can stimulate cell death.  Hence if the protein becomes defective one or both of these key caretaker functions may stop and increase the susceptibility to cancer.  The BRCA1 protein has multiple actions.  It:
    
  • Combines with other tumor suppressors, DNA damage sensors and cellular signal transducers to form the BASC surveillance complex monitoring the health of the cells DNA. 
    
  • Associates with RNA pol II to support transcription. 
    
  • Interacts with histone deacetylase to regulate transcription.  
  • It is a marker of high risk of breast and uterine cancer. 
    
  • It was collaboratively researched by Dr. Mary-Claire King and Francis Collins's labs studying chromosome 17 using genomics.  
  • In 1990 Dr. King had reported to ASHG evidence of 'this' single gene linked to a highly heritable form of breast cancer.  
  • Over the next two years the labs gathered details of BRCA1, allowing families with the mutation to understand their individual risk and plan for their futures.  
  • In 1993 BRCA1 was identified by Mark Skolnick of Myriad Genetics. 
    
  • Type 2 gene codes for a protein that binds both single stranded DNA and the recombinase RAD51 to facilitate homologous recombination.  
  • Advice from Dr. Collins, for families who have a history of breast or ovarian cancer includes:
  • Counselling women with the high risk BRCA mutations, about the risk of breast and ovarian cancer and the treatments available
  • Telling women who choose watchful waiting to have periodic MRIs.  And warn that watchful waiting is unreliable for ovarian cancer allowing metastasis before detection.  
  • Prophylactically removing the ovaries and Fallopian tubes on completion of childbearing.  
  • Teaching about breast reconstruction and recommending prophylactic mastectomy.  
  • Males with BRCA mutations should have careful surveillance for: Prostate, Pancreatic and breast cancer.  
  • No one being given the test without being fully counselled beforehand about the implications of the result.  Negative results may bring survivor guilt while positive results will need careful management.  
  1&2 mutations by 23andMe (Mar 2018)
  
• F.D.A. Food and Drug Administration.  's Office of Cosmetics & Colors, does not have the resources or backing of Congress, to regulate the powerful cosmetics industry: Johnson & Johnson; with its powerful Personal Care Products Council (Feb 2019)
  
• Commissioner Gottlieb asks for more power for F.D.A. Food and Drug Administration.   to effectively regulate the $40 billion supplement industry, with its lobby, Council for Responsible Nutrition, an industry including companies: TEK Naturals, Pure Nootropics, Sovereign Laboratories; found making false claims aobut curing diseases: Alzheimer's is a dementia which correlates with deposition of amyloid plaques in the neurons.  As of 2015 there are 5 million Alzheimer's patients in the USA.  It was originally defined as starting in middle age which is rare, so it was a rare dementia.  But in 1980s it was redefined as any dementia without another known cause. Early indications include mood and behavioral changes (MBI) and declarative memory and thinking problems (MCI).  Specific cells within the hippocampal circuitry and its gateway, the entorhinal cortex, are damaged.  The amygdala, cerebelum and other areas supporting implicit memory are not impacted during the early stages of the disease.  Grid cell destruction results in a sense of being lost.  The default mode network is disrupted.  Variants include: late-onset sporadic; with risk factors - ApoE4 for late onset Alzheimer's, presenilin, androgen deprivation therapy (Dec 2015), type 2 diabetes.  There are multiple theories of the mechanism of Alzheimer's during aging: Allen Roses argues that it is due to gene alleles that limit the capacity of mitochondria to support neuron operation, Neurons of sporadic Alzheimer's sufferers show greater APP gene diversity due to somatic recombination; It may be initiated by: stress induced HHV-6a, HHV7 herpes activation (Jun 2018) and or an increasingly leaky blood-brain barrier; and a subsequent innate immune response to the infections (May 2016).  The Alzheimer's pathway follows:
  • Plaques form.  These are seen in fMRIs 10 to 15 years prior to detecting memory and thinking changes.  APP deployed in the cell membrane is cut into three parts.  The external part becomes amyloid-beta peptide which aggregates into Amyloid plaques, external to the neurons, if too much is generated or it is not removed fast enough. 
    
  • Solanezumab aimed to inhibit plaque formation but clinical trials failed (Nov 2016). 
    
  • Encouraging the garbage collection of amyloid and tau with gamma rhythms stimulation retards Alzheimer's in mice studies (Mar 2019)
    
  • BACE inhibitors block an enzyme needed to form amyloid. 
    
  • Mutation driven misfolded Tau proteins can form tangles within the cytoplasm of neurons.  The Tau tangles kill nerve cells.  LMTX is a drug treatment targeted at these tangles. 
    
  • The brain becomes inflamed resulting in the killing of many more nerve cells.  The hippocampus disintegrates and the brain loses critical functions and memory loss becomes noticeable. 
    
  , cancer is the out-of-control growth of cells, which have stopped obeying their cooperative schematic planning and signalling infrastructure.  It results from compounded: oncogene, tumor suppressor, DNA caretaker; mutations in the DNA.  In 2010 one third of Americans are likely to die of cancer.  Cell division rates did not predict likelihood of cancer.  Viral infections are associated.  Radiation and carcinogen exposure are associated.  Lifestyle impacts the likelihood of cancer occurring: Drinking alcohol to excess, lack of exercise, Obesity, Smoking, More sun than your evolved melanin protection level; all significantly increase the risk of cancer occurring (Jul 2016). 
  , diabetes includes type 1 and type 2.  Common side effects include: increased heart disease, hypertension, kidney disease, vision loss, nerve damage, and infections. 
  ; currently companies are required by DSHEA is the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994.  It prevents the FDA from approving or evaluating most supplements before they are sold.  The agency must wait until consumers are harmed before officials can remove them from stores.   1994 legislation to tell the F.D.A. they are making a supplement, but do not have what is in it (Feb 2019)
• HHS is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   -> CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.  .  
• President Trump nominates former general counsel to Michael Leavitt & Eli Lilly executive, Alex Azar to be HHS is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   Secretary (Nov 2017)
• Azar prepares for tough questions - Type 1 diabetes Defense Foundation provides some issues (Nov 2017)
• Trump HHS is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   backs doctors: AMA is the American Medical Association. 
  ; shifting CMMI is the center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.  It is a test bed for new ways of financing and delivering care.  It allowed Congress to institutionalize innovation sending a signal to providers that they would be participating in CMS driven programs that could become mainstream.  It funds evaluations of innovative health care models.  Under the ACA if the HHS secretary finds any of its projects would reduce Medicare spending without harming the quality of care the projects may be expanded nationwide.  The CBO estimates the CMMI will save $34 billion between 2016 and 2026.  CMMI projects include:
  • Medicare will make a bundled payment for hip and knee replacement surgery (CJR) and 90 days of follow-up care forcing hospitals to work closely with doctors, nursing homes and home health agencies.  
  • New ways to pay for prescription drugs, medical devices, cancer care (OCM).  
  • HHS secretary has invoked his 3021 authority to institute DPP. 
    
  's charter, and allowing exemptions to MACRA is Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 is designed to encourage physicians to move to FFV and to link Medicare payment to quality & value.  It alters the way Medicare pays for part B physician services encouraging physicians and other ECs to conform to one of two value based payment schemes: Advanced APMs (where the EC can become a QP) or MIPS.  MACRA does not apply to hospitals which have their own meaningful use.  MACRA is designed to promote transformation and includes: Data reporting by ECs, New practice models, Changing clinical standards, and Physician evaluations; with hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and bonuses.  It authorizes CMS to develop and deploy new rules.  It provides for PCPs in PCMHs to qualify as advanced APMs via a special lower risk pathway.  It replaced the problematic physician SGR formula. 
  ; to initiate more support for FFS is fee-for-service payment.  For health care providers the high profits were made in hospitalizations, imaging and surgery.  Due to its inducing excessive treatment activity it may be replaced by FFV bundled payment.   (Nov 2017)
• Insurers: Aetna, Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, Cigna, Humana; have left the ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  individual marketplaces for 2018 and Trump Administration's HHS is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   has automatically reenrolled their former subscribers in new, sometimes costly, plans: Optima Health, Harvard Pilgrim, Community Health Options; enrollment counselors: Community Health Works; have a surge of interest (Dec 2017)
  
• Insurance premiums, for ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  individual market, popular plans, will be lower in 2019 says CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   administrator Verma, with profits pulling insurers: Anthem, Wellmark, Molina, Cigna; back into the markets (Oct 2018)
• HHS is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   secretary Azar, moves to require health insurers and PBM is pharmacy benefit manager.  These companies, such as Caremark, were often originally PPMs.  PBMs are used by payers, such as insurance plans, to manage drug provision from pharmacies to the payer's plans subscribers.  PBMs can constrain drug flow to the pharmacies: CVS, Rite-Aid, Walgreens; through the PBM's formularies. 
  s to pass on rebates to consumers, by making them illegal kickbacks through eliminating the legal protection provided by CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.  .  The HHS OIG is the HHS Office of Inspector General.   enabled the new interpretation.  The government would still provide rebate protection as long as discounts were applied to the list price of prescription drugs.  Insurers (America's Health Insurance Plans) were disappointed.  Drug manufacturers (PhRMA), and oncologists (Community Oncology Alliance) were pleased with the proposals - as Democrats noted (Feb 2019)
• President Trump orders HHS is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   Secretary Azar to expand term of short-term, limited-duration insurance, to replace ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  plans (Feb 2018)
• Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  chief actuary reports that limited-duration insurance plans, will pull 1.4 million healthy people from the ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  individual markets in their first year of operation and increase overall costs by $38 billion over 10 years, due to the increasing federal subsidies to sustain the ACA plan prices.  And since most of these limited-duration plans do not cover prescription drugs it may constrain the drug price containment strategies (May 2018)
  
• CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   administator Verma releases rule allowing states to offer short-term health insurance, and proposes regulations to allow companies to provide health reimbursements for employees to use on personal health plans (Oct 2018) 
  
• HHS is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   secretary Azar, CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   administrator Verma, F.D.A. Food and Drug Administration.   commissioner Gottlieb, say Trump policy, from the CEA is either the:
  
  • Commodity exchange act of 1936, which supported interstate commerce in grains and other commodities and regulates transactions on commodity futures exchanges to limit short selling and manipulation. 
    
  • White House Council of Economic Advisers, an agency established in 1946, to advise the President on economics in the formulation of domestic and foreign economic policy
    
  , will stop: High list prices for, Rising out of pocket costs for, Freeloader countries from getting low cost access to; US is the United States of America.   drugs (May 2018) 
• President Trump's drug pricing plan: Increase competition in drug markets, Allow Medicare Part D is a federal program to subsidize the costs of outpatient prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries enacted as part of the MMA and delivered entirely by private companies.  It is an evolved amplifier with MMA schematic rules ensuring catalytic tax subsidies: reinsurance; flow to a broad group of elderly voters and a small but influential group of payers: UnitedHealth, Humana, CVS Health; while pharmaceutical companies also benefited from increased sales of reimbursed drugs.  It includes:
  
  • E-prescribing regulations.  Health care providers that electronically prescribe Part D drugs for Part D eligible individuals under 42 CFR 423.160(a)(3)(iii) may use HL7 or NCPDP SCRIPT standard to transmit prescriptions & related information internally but must use NCPDP SCRIPT (or other adopted standard) to transmit information to another legal entity.  
  • Premium subsidy set by a market average.  Medicare collects bids from all plans that reflect their costs of providing the minimum required level of drug coverage. It then sets the subsidy at 74.5% of the average bid.  
  • Premium coverage gap (doughnut hole) between the 74.5% premium subsidy and the catastrophic-coverage threshold.  The BBA of 2018 required Part D insurers cover 5% of the beneficiaries coverage gap and drug companies provide discounts that reduce federal spending by a total of $7.7 billion through 2027. 
    
  private drug plans to negotiate discounts for Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  beneficiaries, provide incentives for drug manufacturers to reduce list prices, Cut consumers' out-of-pocket costs; abandoning campaign promises to allow: Medicare to negoatiate on prices, Drugs imported from lower cost markets; Instead Trump asks trade representative to force price increases on foreign markets (May 2018)
• Trump administration's Medicare Part D is a federal program to subsidize the costs of outpatient prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries enacted as part of the MMA and delivered entirely by private companies.  It is an evolved amplifier with MMA schematic rules ensuring catalytic tax subsidies: reinsurance; flow to a broad group of elderly voters and a small but influential group of payers: UnitedHealth, Humana, CVS Health; while pharmaceutical companies also benefited from increased sales of reimbursed drugs.  It includes:
  
  • E-prescribing regulations.  Health care providers that electronically prescribe Part D drugs for Part D eligible individuals under 42 CFR 423.160(a)(3)(iii) may use HL7 or NCPDP SCRIPT standard to transmit prescriptions & related information internally but must use NCPDP SCRIPT (or other adopted standard) to transmit information to another legal entity.  
  • Premium subsidy set by a market average.  Medicare collects bids from all plans that reflect their costs of providing the minimum required level of drug coverage. It then sets the subsidy at 74.5% of the average bid.  
  • Premium coverage gap (doughnut hole) between the 74.5% premium subsidy and the catastrophic-coverage threshold.  The BBA of 2018 required Part D insurers cover 5% of the beneficiaries coverage gap and drug companies provide discounts that reduce federal spending by a total of $7.7 billion through 2027. 
    
  drug price reduction proposal for 2020, promoted by secretary Azar & administrator Verma, requires Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  drug plans to notify doctors of the price and out-of-pocket costs to the patient of prescribed drugs and removes Bush era requirements that insurers fill prescriptions in 6 MMA is:
  
  • The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003.  It includes Medicare part D, the Medicare prescription drug benefit, which constrains Medicare from negotiation of its drug prices and created MAC and RAC.  It was sponsored by Senator Bill Tauzin and implemented by Tom Scully.  
  • Mammalian meat allergy which is induced by a month prior tick bite that introduced the allergen alpha-gal.  About 1% of bitten humans develop the allergy & prevalence is increasing.  Humans & old world primates & monkeys don't make alpha-gal (Jul 2018).  Symptoms can include: hives, anaphylactic shock, low blood pressure. 
    
  'protected classes' including: immunosuppressants, anti-epilepsy, cancer is the out-of-control growth of cells, which have stopped obeying their cooperative schematic planning and signalling infrastructure.  It results from compounded: oncogene, tumor suppressor, DNA caretaker; mutations in the DNA.  In 2010 one third of Americans are likely to die of cancer.  Cell division rates did not predict likelihood of cancer.  Viral infections are associated.  Radiation and carcinogen exposure are associated.  Lifestyle impacts the likelihood of cancer occurring: Drinking alcohol to excess, lack of exercise, Obesity, Smoking, More sun than your evolved melanin protection level; all significantly increase the risk of cancer occurring (Jul 2016). 
  , AIDS is acquired auto-immune deficiency syndrome, a pandemic disease caused by the HIV.  It also amplifies the threat of tuberculosis.   Initially deadly, infecting and destroying the T-lymphocytes of the immune system, it can now be treated with HAART to become a chronic disease.  And with an understanding of HIV's mode of entry into the T-cells, through its binding to CCR5 and CD4 encoded transmembrane proteins, AIDS may be susceptible to treatment with recombinant DNA to alter the CCR5 binding site, or with drugs that bind to the CCR5 cell surface protein preventing binding by the virus.  Future optimization of drug delivery may leverage nanoscale research (May 2016). 
  , depression is a debilitating episodic state of extreme sadness, typically beginning in late teens or early twenties. This is accompanied by a lack of energy and emotion, which is facilitated by genetic predisposition - for example genes coding for relatively low serotonin levels, estrogen sensitive CREB-1 gene which increases women's incidence of depression at puberty; and an accumulation of traumatic events.  There is a significant risk of suicide: depression is involved in 50% of the 43,000 suicides in the US, and 15% of people with depression commit suicide.  Depression is the primary cause of disability with about 20 million Americans impacted by depression at any time.  There is evidence of shifts in the sleep/wake cycle in affected individuals (Dec 2015).  The affected person will experience a pathological sense of loss of control, prolonged sadness with feelings of hopelessness, helplessness & worthlessness, irritability, sleep disturbances, loss of appetite, and inability to experience pleasure.  Michael Pollan concludes depression is fear of the past.  It affects 12% of men and 20% of women.  It appears to be associated with androgen deprivation therapy treatment for prostate cancer (Apr 2016).  Chronic stress depletes the nucleus accumbens of dopamine, biasing humans towards depression.  Depression easily leads to following unhealthy pathways: drinking, overeating; which increase the risk of heart disease.   It has been associated with an aging related B12 deficiency (Sep 2016).  During depression, stress mediates inhibition of dopamine signalling.  Both depression and stress activate the adrenal glands' release of cortisol, which will, over the long term, impact the PFC.  There is an association between depression and additional brain regions: Enlarged & more active amygdala, Hippocampal dendrite and spine number reductions & in longer bouts hippocampal volume reductions and memory problems, Dorsal raphe nucleus linked to loneliness, Defective functioning of the hypothalamus undermining appetite and sex drive, Abnormalities of the ACC.  Mayberg notes ACC area 25: serotonin transporters are particularly active in depressed people and lower the serotonin in area 25 impacting the emotion circuit it hubs, inducing bodily sensations that patients can't place or consciously do anything about; and right anterior insula: which normally generates emotions from internal feelings instead feel dead inside; are critical in depression.  Childhood adversity can increase depression risk by linking recollections of uncontrollable situations to overgeneralizations that life will always be terrible and uncontrollable.  Sufferers of mild autism often develop depression.  Treatments include: CBT which works well for cases with below average activity of the right anterior insula (mild and moderate depression), UMHS depression management, deep-brain stimulation of the anterior insula to slow firing of area 25.  Drug treatments are required for cases with above average activity of the right anterior insula.  As of 2010 drug treatments: SSRIs (Prozac), MAO, monoamine reuptake inhibitors; take weeks to facilitate a response & many patients do not respond to the first drug applied, often prolonging the agony.  By 2018, Kandel notes, Ketamine is being tested as a short term treatment, as it acts much faster, reversing the effect of cortisol in stimulating glutamate signalling, and because it reverses the atrophy induced by chronic stress.   Genomic predictions of which treatment will be effective have not been possible because: Not all clinical depressions are the same, a standard definition of drug response is difficult;, schizophrenia is a chronic, psychotic, brain disorder impacting thinking and decision making that affects 1.1 percent of the adult U.S. population.  It is characterized by hallucinations, delusions: paranoid, feel they are being sent special messages, feel have special powers; disorganized and unusual thinking, social withdrawal, lack of motivation and cognitive decline: executive functions & working memory; that begins with the first episode and continues throughout life.  Children who eventually struggle with schizophrenia have normal working memory at age seven but are found with impairments by age 13.  MRIs show that people with schizophrenia have lateral ventricles that are enlarged, a thinner cerebral cortex and smaller hippocampus.  The default mode network is disrupted.  It seems to be caused by over pruning of prefrontal cortex pyramidal neurons (Jan 2016), hippocampal pyramidal cells and sometimes thalamus neuron dendrites.  A dopaminergic network is impacted: mesolimbic; suggesting too much dopamine signalling.  Columbia University psychiatrist Franz Kallman found that a person with schizophrenia is much more likely, than non sufferers, to have a parent or sibling with the disorder.  And identical twins are even more likely to share the disorder.  Swedish researchers studying thousands of families in 2009 showed a strong hereditary link between bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, which was corroborated in 2012.  Many of the genes associated with schizophrenia act on the developing fetal brain.  MHC C4 gene supports immunity and synaptic pruning where it tags the synapses to be pruned.  Variant C4-A is associated with schizophrenia where too many synapses are tagged.  DISC1 translocation mutations have greatly increased the risk of schizophrenia.  DISC1 supports the migration of neurons during development.  There is evidence that some cases occur because of particular CNVs in the DNA of the sufferers: ZNF804A.  Autism and schizophrenia risk increases with one particular chromosome 7 CNV.  And de Novo mutations increase the risk.  Treatments include: psychotherapy, chlorpromazine which blocks dopamine receptors of the mesolimbic pathway removing 'positive' characteristics of schizophrenia but it also impacts the nigrostriatal pathway target receptors inducing Parkinson's disease like symptoms;
  ; allowing Insurer/PBM is pharmacy benefit manager.  These companies, such as Caremark, were often originally PPMs.  PBMs are used by payers, such as insurance plans, to manage drug provision from pharmacies to the payer's plans subscribers.  PBMs can constrain drug flow to the pharmacies: CVS, Rite-Aid, Walgreens; through the PBM's formularies. 
  /drug manufacturer negotiations about value of particular drugs and constraints via PBM formulary are lists of drugs that a health plan will cover.  The health plans control where and if the drug is listed in the plan.  A less expensive drug can be assigned a lower copayment to encourage patients to use it.  To counter this attack on their profits drug companies responded with coupons to help patients pay copayments removing the incentive to select the lower-priced drugs.  Health plans reacted to the copayment cards by dropping some drugs from the formulary altogether.  That encourages drug companies to bid for their drug to be the only one listed resulting in some downward price pressure.  .  Insurers can require prior authorization is a constraint imposed by some insurance companies prior to their agreeing to cover some prescribed medications or medical procedures.  The constraint may be due to: age, medical necessity, availability of a generic alternative, or to check drug interactions.  After a healthcare provider orders a service for a patient, the provider's staff will contact the patient's insurer to determine if they require prior authorization.  This should result in an exception process which may involve the provider's staff manual faxing a prior authorization form to the insurer.  If the service is rejected, the healthcare provider may file an appeal based on the provider's medical review process.  It may take 30 days for the insurer to approve the request.  , and tests of lower cost alternative drugs.  AIDS Institute, Biotechnology Innovation Organization, PhRMA all deplored the proposal.  Similar Obama administration strategies were forced back by patient advocate protests (Nov 2018)
• Paul Krugman notes the value delivery system constraints that undermine the Trump administration's drug pricing arguments.  He highlights the constraint point, with Novartis's payment to Michael Cohen, and Representative Bill Tauzin's MMA is:
  
  • The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003.  It includes Medicare part D, the Medicare prescription drug benefit, which constrains Medicare from negotiation of its drug prices and created MAC and RAC.  It was sponsored by Senator Bill Tauzin and implemented by Tom Scully.  
  • Mammalian meat allergy which is induced by a month prior tick bite that introduced the allergen alpha-gal.  About 1% of bitten humans develop the allergy & prevalence is increasing.  Humans & old world primates & monkeys don't make alpha-gal (Jul 2018).  Symptoms can include: hives, anaphylactic shock, low blood pressure. 
    
  legislation and subsequent shift to PhRMA president (May 2018)
• HHS is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   secretary Azar explains how he can: Shift prescription drugs from Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  part B provides coverage for the elderly including: clinical research, ambulance services, DME, Mental health, second opinions before surgery, and limited outpatient prescription drugs to treat: cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, AMD and other conditions.  Part B covers two types of services:
  
  • Medically necessary services and supplies that are accepted standards of medical practice and are needed to diagnose or treat a medical condition.  Hospital based services are outpatient based.  These do not include the 20 days of SNF costs for hospital inpatient rehabilitation. 
    
  • Preventative services that use treatment to help in early detection or prevention of a disease such as flu.  
  to Part D is a federal program to subsidize the costs of outpatient prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries enacted as part of the MMA and delivered entirely by private companies.  It is an evolved amplifier with MMA schematic rules ensuring catalytic tax subsidies: reinsurance; flow to a broad group of elderly voters and a small but influential group of payers: UnitedHealth, Humana, CVS Health; while pharmaceutical companies also benefited from increased sales of reimbursed drugs.  It includes:
  
  • E-prescribing regulations.  Health care providers that electronically prescribe Part D drugs for Part D eligible individuals under 42 CFR 423.160(a)(3)(iii) may use HL7 or NCPDP SCRIPT standard to transmit prescriptions & related information internally but must use NCPDP SCRIPT (or other adopted standard) to transmit information to another legal entity.  
  • Premium subsidy set by a market average.  Medicare collects bids from all plans that reflect their costs of providing the minimum required level of drug coverage. It then sets the subsidy at 74.5% of the average bid.  
  • Premium coverage gap (doughnut hole) between the 74.5% premium subsidy and the catastrophic-coverage threshold.  The BBA of 2018 required Part D insurers cover 5% of the beneficiaries coverage gap and drug companies provide discounts that reduce federal spending by a total of $7.7 billion through 2027. 
    
  so that negotiations on price can occur, Call out prescription drug manufacturers refusing to hand over samples; (May 2018)
• Gottlieb's F.D.A. Food and Drug Administration.   name & shames companies withholding drugs from generic developers: Celgene > Actelion (J&J) > Glaxo, Pfizer, Valeant, Biomarin, Gilead, Novartis, Mylan (May 2018)
  
• Trump administration proposes new policies in Federal Register, saving $900 million annually in subsidies in 2020, 2021 and $1billion in 2022, 2023, and pushing 100,000 from the ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  insurance exchanges, increasing uncompensated care costs but reducing ACA based tax requirements.  They are proposing:
• For high cost drugs with generic alternatives, reducing copayment discounts and reducing insurer's cost sharing is the requirement for patients to pay a portion of the cost of their health care services.  Such out-of-pocket payments include: copayments, deductibles and coinsurance. 
  contributions to the cost of the generic, ignoring coupons.  Patient groups dislike the proposed changes seeing patients not filling their prescriptions for: HIV is human immunodeficiency virus, an RNA retrovirus which causes AIDS.  It infects T-lymphocytes destroying the host's immune system.  Some HIV's enter the lymphocytes by leveraging the T cells CCR5 protein.  The HIV X4 variant leverages CXCR4. 
  - likely increasing costs by $3500 a year, MS is multiple sclerosis. 
  where generic Copaxone is $60,000 to $65,000 a year, Diabetes includes type 1 and type 2.  Common side effects include: increased heart disease, hypertension, kidney disease, vision loss, nerve damage, and infections. 
  patients use coupons to get prescribed drugs with astronomical deductibles
• Reduced qualifications for federal insurance subsidies and a requirement to spend more income on insurance premiums
• Requiring insurers to provide policies that do not cover abortions to assist religious objectors, except in states which require coverage: California, New York, Oregon; (Jan 2019)
  
• F.D.A. Food and Drug Administration.   commissioner Gottlieb champions easier drug approval.  But the approach exposes methodological issues: false positives are correlations between a random variable and markers of some event of interest.  Over a statistically significant period the correlation of a false positive will fail but in small sample sizes it may hold.  Identifying a statistically significant period is non-trivial.  As more data becomes available via the web and it is applied in BI the problem of false positives will become more significant.  , reduced pressure to innovate is the economic realization of invention and combinatorial exaptation.  Keynes noted it provided the unquantifiable beneficial possibility that limits fear of uncertainty.  Innovation operates across all CAS, being supported by genetic and cultural means.  Creativity provides the mutation and recombination genetic operators for the cultural process.  While highly innovative, monopolies: AT&T, IBM; usually have limited economic reach, constraining productivity.  This explains the use of regulation, or even its threat, that can check their power and drive the creations across the economy. 
  , limited impact on value based drug pricing strategy, reduced feedback from smaller trials, targeted is a medical strategy where decisions, practices, and products are tailored to the individual patient.  Research is looking at the impact of providing potentially deleterious genomic testing information to people: The REVEAL study found no increased anxiety induced by hearing that one's genome implied increased risk of developing late onset Alzheimer's disease.  The take-up of personalized medicine benefits from the focus on genomics, enabled by next generation sequencing of DNA, and detailed by the NIH director Francis Collins and includes:
  • NCCN intensive cell therapies
    
  • Direct to consumer genomic testing
    
  • Direct to consumer diagnostics
    
  • Pharmacogenomics tailored drug treatments reducing the risk and cost of adverse drug reactions.   
  cancer is the out-of-control growth of cells, which have stopped obeying their cooperative schematic planning and signalling infrastructure.  It results from compounded: oncogene, tumor suppressor, DNA caretaker; mutations in the DNA.  In 2010 one third of Americans are likely to die of cancer.  Cell division rates did not predict likelihood of cancer.  Viral infections are associated.  Radiation and carcinogen exposure are associated.  Lifestyle impacts the likelihood of cancer occurring: Drinking alcohol to excess, lack of exercise, Obesity, Smoking, More sun than your evolved melanin protection level; all significantly increase the risk of cancer occurring (Jul 2016). 
  therapies 2% success rate.  Faster approval does not affect the patient's price experience (Jun 2018)
  
• Generic EpiPen from Teva gets F.D.A. Food and Drug Administration.   approval (Aug 2018)
• Drug prices continue to rise significantly.  Trump CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   helps by blocking states from constraining which drugs are provided by Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  , while Pfizer is the only manufacturer that holds down prices for six months.  Novartis influences Trump plan (Jul 2018)
• President Trump & secretary Azar, propose using ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  's CMMI is the center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.  It is a test bed for new ways of financing and delivering care.  It allowed Congress to institutionalize innovation sending a signal to providers that they would be participating in CMS driven programs that could become mainstream.  It funds evaluations of innovative health care models.  Under the ACA if the HHS secretary finds any of its projects would reduce Medicare spending without harming the quality of care the projects may be expanded nationwide.  The CBO estimates the CMMI will save $34 billion between 2016 and 2026.  CMMI projects include:
  • Medicare will make a bundled payment for hip and knee replacement surgery (CJR) and 90 days of follow-up care forcing hospitals to work closely with doctors, nursing homes and home health agencies.  
  • New ways to pay for prescription drugs, medical devices, cancer care (OCM).  
  • HHS secretary has invoked his 3021 authority to institute DPP. 
    
  to deploy innovative Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  Part B provides coverage for the elderly including: clinical research, ambulance services, DME, Mental health, second opinions before surgery, and limited outpatient prescription drugs to treat: cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, AMD and other conditions.  Part B covers two types of services:
  
  • Medically necessary services and supplies that are accepted standards of medical practice and are needed to diagnose or treat a medical condition.  Hospital based services are outpatient based.  These do not include the 20 days of SNF costs for hospital inpatient rehabilitation. 
    
  • Preventative services that use treatment to help in early detection or prevention of a disease such as flu.  
  drug payments based on international comparison to: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, UK is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  ; where US is the United States of America.   performs poorly.  PhRMA's Ubl says this denies access and undermines innovation is the economic realization of invention and combinatorial exaptation.  Keynes noted it provided the unquantifiable beneficial possibility that limits fear of uncertainty.  Innovation operates across all CAS, being supported by genetic and cultural means.  Creativity provides the mutation and recombination genetic operators for the cultural process.  While highly innovative, monopolies: AT&T, IBM; usually have limited economic reach, constraining productivity.  This explains the use of regulation, or even its threat, that can check their power and drive the creations across the economy. 
  .  Announced just before the mid-term election, with implementation planned for 2020 or later, it could blunt Democratic leverage of health care (Oct 2018)
• CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   has finalized 2012 Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  Shared Savings is the Medicare Shared Savings Program.  The program began in 2012 with 3 year term contracts.  ACO Physician groups and hospitals are eligible to participate but there must be primary care physicians in the ACO.  Participating ACOs must serve > 5000 Medicare beneficiaries.  The potential for a bonus payment is based on Medicare cost savings and quality metrics.  Two payment models are available.  Only one has downside risk involved.  CMS included 'robust' quality measures to monitor the quality of care provided and beneficiary satisfaction (see fact sheet 'Improving Quality of Care for Medicare Patients: Accountable Care Organizations'). 
  Program rules for ACO is an Accountable Care Organization. These are accredited bundles of companies which together try to offer Dartmouth-Hitchcock like business models (Dec 2015, Sep 2016) focused on wellness, improving the provision of primary care to a large group of Medicare patients, and rewarding doctors for preventing problems.  Advocate health illustrates the idea.  Robert Pearl notes that the transition is difficult: hospitals that find their efficiency improving should reduce the number of doctors they utilize.  But any doctors that are pushed out of the ACO will likely take their patients with them, undermining the revenues that support the FFV business.  The ACA regulates qualification to be a Medicare ACO.  Individual organizations within a Medicare shared savings ACO continue to submit their own claims and are paid by Medicare for FFS.  But the ACO is eligible for shared savings.  Within the shared savings program the CMS innovation center has setup advanced payment ACOs.  As an alternative to shared savings, in a Pioneer ACO, over time 50% of the FFS payments flow directly to the ACO as a bundled payment.  CMS has established quality measures for ACOs for Medicare.  The CMS program's purpose is to reward providers for reducing total cost of care for patients through prevention, disease management, and coordination. 
  
  • CMS initiated its Physician Group Practice Demonstration in 2005.  By 2008 the congressional budget office reported on Bonus-eligible organizations. 
    
  • CMS defines ACOs as organizations that "create incentives for health care providers to work together to treat an individual patient across care settings - including doctors' offices, hospitals and long-term care facilities."
  • CMS has developed APMs which include ACOs, and advanced APMs where the ACOs must be risk bearing. 
    
  • CMMI accepts providers' proposals to test various payment systems including shared savings and partial capitation.  
  • Private market ACOs have formed including: Providence Health & Services, Blue Shield California, Anthem Blue Cross, United Health Care, BCBS Minnesota, BCBS Illinois, Humana, CIGNA, Main Health Management Coalition, BCBS Massachusetts, Aetna.  
  s.  The final version of these rules is less burdensome on providers.  The finalized rules weight Meaningful Use is the set of standards defined by CMS Incentive Programs that governs the use of electronic health records and allows eligible providers and hospitals to earn incentive payments by meeting specific criteria.  It aims to ensure that ARRA subsidies for HIS are used to generate health improvements.  It is staged:
  1. 2011-2012 Data capture and sharing - Criteria focus on electronically capturing health information in a standardized format.  Using that information to track key clinical conditions.  Communicating that information for care coordination processes.  Initiating the reporting of clinical quality measures and public health information.  Using information to engage patients and their families in their care.  Achieving meaningful use stage 1 requires meeting all core and selected menu objectives. 
     
  2. 2014 Advance clinical processes - More rigorous health information exchange requirements.  Increased requirements for e-prescribing and incorporating lab results.  Electronic transmission of patient care summaries across multiple settings.  More patient-controlled data.  A patient portal is required.  CMS hospital core measures, CMS hospital menu set measures, NPRMs of stage 2 meaningful use and certification criteria have been announced (2013).  
  • MU2 requires EHR systems to support direct messaging to send PHI to registered users. 
    
  3. 2016 Improved outcomes - Improving quality, safety, and efficiency, leading to improved health outcomes.  Decision support for national high-priority conditions.  Patient access to self-managed tools.  Access to comprehensive patient data through patient-centered HIE.  Improving population health.  
  more highly than any other measure for quality-scoring purposes.  
• If EMR refers to electronic medical records which are a synonym of EHR.  EMRs have strengths and weaknesses:
  • The EHR provides an integrated record of the health systems notes on a patient including: Diagnosis and Treatment plans and protocols followed, Prescribed drugs with doses, Adverse drug reactions;
  • The EHR does not necessarily reflect the patient's situation accurately. 
    
  • The EHR often acts as a catch-all.  There is often little time for a doctor, newly attending the patient, to review and validate the historic details. 
    
  • The meaningful use requirements of HITECH and Medicare/Medicaid specify compliance of an EHR system or EHR module for specific environments such as an ambulatory or hospital in-patient setting. 
    
  • As of 2016 interfacing with the EHR is cumbersome and undermines face-to-face time between doctor and patient.  Doctors are allocated 12 minutes to interact with a patient of which less than five minutes was used for recording hand written notes.  With the EHR 12 minutes may be required to update the record!
    
  s and ACOs take hold network effects will increase.  But is the activity ISO/CCITT (evolving) or IETF, the internet engineering task force controls the processes that manage the architecture of the internet.   (disruptive) like in its adoption capabilities? 
• Startup Aledade demonstrates a way to integrate the PCP is a Primary Care Physician.  PCPs are viewed by legislators and regulators as central to the effective management of care.  When coordinated care had worked the PCP is a key participant.  In most successful cases they are central.  In certain Medicare ACO models (Pioneer) PCPs are committed to achieve meaningful use requirements.  Working against this is the: replacement of diagnostic skills by technological solutions, low FFS leverage of the PCP compared to specialists, demotivation of battling prior authorization for expensive treatments. 
  with the health care network and lower costs (Aug 2017)
  
• Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  , under CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   administrator Verma, adopts bundled payment is where the purchaser disburses a single predefined payment to cover certain combinations of hospital, physician, post-acute, or other services performed during an episode of care relating to a particular condition (unlike capitation).  This bundling is assumed (Sep 2018) to allow the value delivery system to optimize around low cost high quality long term health care.  With one bundled payment physicians & hospitals must coordinate care and reduce the unit costs to remain profitable.  And to avoid taking on risk of expensive complications physicians & hospitals are incented to standardize and focus on quality.  This optimization is dependent on quantifying the value of the outcome of the episode of care.  Previously FFS payments induced excessive treatment activity.  Bundled payment is included in CMS ACE demonstrations and BPCI initiatives.  There are significant impacts on IT. 
  
  1. It is argued that effective pricing of the bundle requires marketing data which must be extracted from the historic transaction base.  
  2. Billing and payment systems must be updated to handle the receipt and distribution of the bundled payments. 
     
  3. Care delivery must be re-architected to reduce costs and improve quality. 
     
  4. Monitoring sensors can be used to feed reports to ensure re-architected operations conform.  
  FFV is fee-for-value payment.  It may be a bundled payment for a set of services provided by a group of doctors and facilities, or full capitation.  In each case the risk has shifted from the payer to the providers of care. 
  (Jan 2018)
  
• Austin Frakt explains that the Trump CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   has undermined the CJR is CMS's comprehensive care for joint replacement bundled payment model (formerly CCJR).  It is limited to performing surgeries at hospitals rather than ambulatory surgery centers, and paying only hospitals.  It is novel:
  • CJR is mandatory at 800 hospitals.  It randomly assigned 75 markets to be subject to bundled payments for knee and hip replacements and 121 markets to use FFS payments.  In 2017 the Trump CMS allowed hospitals in half the bundled payments markets to opt out and three quarters of the hospitals did so, obscuring the impact of bundled payments in the experiment (Sep 2018).  
  • The episode payment covers inpatient hospital services, physician fees, & 90 days of care after discharge.  
  • The bundle encourages post-acute care reform to reduce variation in quality & risk. 
    
  randomized trial of Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  bundled payments is where the purchaser disburses a single predefined payment to cover certain combinations of hospital, physician, post-acute, or other services performed during an episode of care relating to a particular condition (unlike capitation).  This bundling is assumed (Sep 2018) to allow the value delivery system to optimize around low cost high quality long term health care.  With one bundled payment physicians & hospitals must coordinate care and reduce the unit costs to remain profitable.  And to avoid taking on risk of expensive complications physicians & hospitals are incented to standardize and focus on quality.  This optimization is dependent on quantifying the value of the outcome of the episode of care.  Previously FFS payments induced excessive treatment activity.  Bundled payment is included in CMS ACE demonstrations and BPCI initiatives.  There are significant impacts on IT. 
  
  1. It is argued that effective pricing of the bundle requires marketing data which must be extracted from the historic transaction base.  
  2. Billing and payment systems must be updated to handle the receipt and distribution of the bundled payments. 
     
  3. Care delivery must be re-architected to reduce costs and improve quality. 
     
  4. Monitoring sensors can be used to feed reports to ensure re-architected operations conform.  
  (Sep 2018)
  
• CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   implements CHRONIC care act of 2017 is Ron Wyden & Orrin Hatch's Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic Care Act signed into law by President Trump as title III of the BBA of 2018. 
  through Medicare Advantage (MA) is a private provider administered health insurance plan providing access to Medicare benefits.  It was originally enacted as part of BBA Medicare + Choice or Part C plans.  The government funded the plan with an annual fee, based on age and severity of the subscriber's medical conditions, rather than FFS.  When a Medicare eligible person enrolls in a MA plan the government pays the private provider a set amount each month.  The participant pays the Medicare part B premium and if required a part C premium each month.  The MA plans offer a PCP who coordinates care.  And the plans have an annual limit on out-of-pocket expenses unlike traditional Medicare.  When they obtain treatment they will have to pay a copayment which may be quite high for some specialists.  It is the health plan's responsibility to contract the physician network that will provide the care, leaving the risk with the insurer.  About 36% of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled with Medicare Advantage by 2019.  The ACA introduced quality outcome and patient satisfaction based differential payments into MA.  To measure the performance it added a five-star quality rating scheme.  MA plans report their quality and patient satisfaction data to CMS annually and based on the results are awarded one to five stars.  The highest rated plans are provided with large additional payments.  It was assumed that subscribers would shift to the highest rated plans and the other plans would improve or drop out of MA.  And the ACA eliminated subsidies which the federal government used to establish Medicare Advantage.  However, the Obama administration has used a $8.5 Billion demonstration project to maintain this funding.  It is intended that it will eventually taper off so that the cost of Medicare Advantage coverage will be equivalent to standard Medicare. 
  changes, affecting the costly half of Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  's patients with multiple chronic conditions.  The act offers additional benefits for people suffering from chronic diseases including: diabetes includes type 1 and type 2.  Common side effects include: increased heart disease, hypertension, kidney disease, vision loss, nerve damage, and infections. 
  , Alzheimer's is a dementia which correlates with deposition of amyloid plaques in the neurons.  As of 2015 there are 5 million Alzheimer's patients in the USA.  It was originally defined as starting in middle age which is rare, so it was a rare dementia.  But in 1980s it was redefined as any dementia without another known cause. Early indications include mood and behavioral changes (MBI) and declarative memory and thinking problems (MCI).  Specific cells within the hippocampal circuitry and its gateway, the entorhinal cortex, are damaged.  The amygdala, cerebelum and other areas supporting implicit memory are not impacted during the early stages of the disease.  Grid cell destruction results in a sense of being lost.  The default mode network is disrupted.  Variants include: late-onset sporadic; with risk factors - ApoE4 for late onset Alzheimer's, presenilin, androgen deprivation therapy (Dec 2015), type 2 diabetes.  There are multiple theories of the mechanism of Alzheimer's during aging: Allen Roses argues that it is due to gene alleles that limit the capacity of mitochondria to support neuron operation, Neurons of sporadic Alzheimer's sufferers show greater APP gene diversity due to somatic recombination; It may be initiated by: stress induced HHV-6a, HHV7 herpes activation (Jun 2018) and or an increasingly leaky blood-brain barrier; and a subsequent innate immune response to the infections (May 2016).  The Alzheimer's pathway follows:
  • Plaques form.  These are seen in fMRIs 10 to 15 years prior to detecting memory and thinking changes.  APP deployed in the cell membrane is cut into three parts.  The external part becomes amyloid-beta peptide which aggregates into Amyloid plaques, external to the neurons, if too much is generated or it is not removed fast enough. 
    
  • Solanezumab aimed to inhibit plaque formation but clinical trials failed (Nov 2016). 
    
  • Encouraging the garbage collection of amyloid and tau with gamma rhythms stimulation retards Alzheimer's in mice studies (Mar 2019)
    
  • BACE inhibitors block an enzyme needed to form amyloid. 
    
  • Mutation driven misfolded Tau proteins can form tangles within the cytoplasm of neurons.  The Tau tangles kill nerve cells.  LMTX is a drug treatment targeted at these tangles. 
    
  • The brain becomes inflamed resulting in the killing of many more nerve cells.  The hippocampus disintegrates and the brain loses critical functions and memory loss becomes noticeable. 
    
  , Parkinson's corresponds to the breakdown of certain interneurons in the brain.  It is not fully understood why this occurs.  Dopamine system neuron breakdown generates the classical symptoms of tremors and rigidity.  In some instances an uncommon LRRK2 gene mutation confers a high risk of Parkinson's disease.  In rare cases Italian and Greek families are impacted in their early forties and fifties resulting from a single letter mutation in alpha-synuclein which alters the alpha-synuclein protein causing degeneration in the substantia nigra, after a build up of Lewy bodies in the neurons.  But poisoning from MPTP has also been shown to destroy dopamine system neurons.  DeLong showed that MPTP poisoning results in overactivity in the subthalamic nucleus.  People who have an appendectomy in their 20s are at lower risk of developing Parkinson's disease.  The Alpha-synuclein protein is known to build up in the appendix in association with changes in the gut microbiome.  This buildup may support the 'flow' of alpha-synuclein from the gut along neurons that route to the brain.  Paraquat has also been linked to Parkinson's disease.  Parkinson's disease does not directly kill many sufferers.  But it impacts swallowing which encourages development of pneumonia through inhaling or aspirating food.  And it undermines balance which can increase the possibility of falls.  Dememtia can also develop.  Treatment with deep-brain stimulation, after surgical implantation of electrodes in the subthalamic nucleus removes the symptoms of Parkinson's disease in some patients. 
  , CHF is congestive heart failure which occurs when the heart is unable to generate enough blood flow to meet the body's demands.  There are two main types: failure due to left ventricular dysfunction and abnormal diastolic function increasing the stiffness of the left ventricle and decreasing its relaxation.  Heart expansion in CHF distorts the mitral valve which exacerbates the problems.  MitraClip surgery trials found effective in correcting the mitral valve damage (Sep 2018).  Treatments include: digoxin; , rheumatoid Arthritis is an autoimmune disorder where the immune system attacks the joints and can generate inflammation around the lungs and heart.  It can be treated with: Enbrel, Humira, Ilaris, Xeljanz;
  , and some cancers is the out-of-control growth of cells, which have stopped obeying their cooperative schematic planning and signalling infrastructure.  It results from compounded: oncogene, tumor suppressor, DNA caretaker; mutations in the DNA.  In 2010 one third of Americans are likely to die of cancer.  Cell division rates did not predict likelihood of cancer.  Viral infections are associated.  Radiation and carcinogen exposure are associated.  Lifestyle impacts the likelihood of cancer occurring: Drinking alcohol to excess, lack of exercise, Obesity, Smoking, More sun than your evolved melanin protection level; all significantly increase the risk of cancer occurring (Jul 2016). 
  .  Combinations of social and medical services are funded.  The act will encourage high tech remote capabilities to be deployed (Jun 2018)
• Driving FFV is fee-for-value payment.  It may be a bundled payment for a set of services provided by a group of doctors and facilities, or full capitation.  In each case the risk has shifted from the payer to the providers of care. 
  transition forward for physicians with assistance from MACRA is Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 is designed to encourage physicians to move to FFV and to link Medicare payment to quality & value.  It alters the way Medicare pays for part B physician services encouraging physicians and other ECs to conform to one of two value based payment schemes: Advanced APMs (where the EC can become a QP) or MIPS.  MACRA does not apply to hospitals which have their own meaningful use.  MACRA is designed to promote transformation and includes: Data reporting by ECs, New practice models, Changing clinical standards, and Physician evaluations; with hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and bonuses.  It authorizes CMS to develop and deploy new rules.  It provides for PCPs in PCMHs to qualify as advanced APMs via a special lower risk pathway.  It replaced the problematic physician SGR formula. 
  .  The added expense of EHR refers to electronic health records which are a synonym of EMR.  EHR analysis suggests strengths and weaknesses:
  • The EHR provides an integrated record of the health systems notes on a patient including: Diagnosis and Treatment plans and protocols followed, Prescribed drugs with doses, Adverse drug reactions;
  • The EHR does not necessarily reflect the patient's situation accurately. 
    
  • The EHR often acts as a catch-all.  There is often little time for a doctor, newly attending the patient, to review and validate the historic details. 
    
  • The meaningful use requirements of HITECH and Medicare/Medicaid specify compliance of an EHR system or EHR module for specific environments such as an ambulatory or hospital in-patient setting. 
    
  • As of 2016 interfacing with the EHR is cumbersome and undermines face-to-face time between doctor and patient.  Doctors are allocated 12 minutes to interact with a patient of which less than five minutes was used for recording hand written notes.  With the EHR 12 minutes may be required to update the record!
    
  requirements may drive independent physicians out of business. 
  
• CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   administrator Verma warns of Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  trust fund is the social securities act of 1935 was part of the second New Deal.  It attempted to limit risks of old age, poverty and unemployment.  It is funded through payroll taxes via FICA and SECA into the social security trust funds.  Title IV of the original SSA created what became the AFDC.  The Social Security Administration controls the OASI and DI trust funds.  The funds are administered by the trustees.  The SSA was amended in 1965 to include:
  • Title V is Maternal and child health services. 
    
  • Title XVIII is Medicare.  
  crisis.  Asks CMMI is the center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.  It is a test bed for new ways of financing and delivering care.  It allowed Congress to institutionalize innovation sending a signal to providers that they would be participating in CMS driven programs that could become mainstream.  It funds evaluations of innovative health care models.  Under the ACA if the HHS secretary finds any of its projects would reduce Medicare spending without harming the quality of care the projects may be expanded nationwide.  The CBO estimates the CMMI will save $34 billion between 2016 and 2026.  CMMI projects include:
  • Medicare will make a bundled payment for hip and knee replacement surgery (CJR) and 90 days of follow-up care forcing hospitals to work closely with doctors, nursing homes and home health agencies.  
  • New ways to pay for prescription drugs, medical devices, cancer care (OCM).  
  • HHS secretary has invoked his 3021 authority to institute DPP. 
    
  to investigate incentives to extend the funds life time.  Democrats fear she is calling for premium support is a Republican strategy for limiting government commitments for Medicare costs.  It includes two key aspects:
  1. Subsidy set to a level established by the market rather than the government following legislative formulas.  This could use the mechanism used by both Medicare part D to set its drug premium subsidy and the ACA (Title I) to set its market place plan subsidies: BCBS MN 2016 premium submission.  
  2. Capping the growth in subsidies.  The current Medicare subsidy grows at the rate of health care inflation but premium support may allow the subsidy to grow at a lower rate.  If traditional Medicare becomes less attractive and loses subscribers to other types of plan it may lose its influence to set premium pricing policy. 
     
  (Oct 2017)
  
• CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   responds to the increasing percentage of elderly in the population by stimulating PACE is either:
  
  • Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees Act of 2015, which amends ACA title 1 to alter the definition of a small business, or
    
  • Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, a Medicare program which pays for facilities and services to keep older and disabled Americans in their own homes instead of their having to enter nursing homes.  It was intended to consequently save Medicare and Medicaid money.  All states are required to pay less than the cost of a nursing home stay.  It leverages the success of Britain's Day Hospitals.  PACE started as On Lok, which provided capitation funded day care, to San Francisco's Asian & Italian immigrant families trying to avoid use of nursing homes.  This payment model should encourage providers to keep their patients healthy.  The services include dentistry, which constrains a problematic cascade of issues and rehabilitation which protects against falls.  Medicare sanctioned the model in 1990.  Its implementation was restricted to non-profit organizations but in 2016 CMS allowed for-profit organizations to participate (Aug 2016). 
    
  based home care for seniors (Aug 2016). 
  
• Long-term home health care issue: Poor pay, little allocated Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  budget at the federal or state level which resisted Obama administration FLSA is the fair labor standards act of 1938 which introduced the 40 hour work week.  Franklin Roosevelt considered it the most important legislation of the New Deal after the SSA. 
  changes, immigrant female staff, demeaning cultural is how we do and think about things, transmitted by non-genetic means as defined by Frans de Waal.  CAS theory views cultures as operating via memetic schemata evolved by memetic operators to support a cultural superorganism.  Evolutionary psychology asserts that human culture reflects adaptations generated while hunting and gathering.  Dehaene views culture as essentially human, shaped by exaptations and reading, transmitted with support of the neuronal workspace and stabilized by neuronal recycling.  Damasio notes prokaryotes and social insects have developed cultural social behaviors.  Sapolsky argues that parents must show children how to transform their genetically derived capabilities into a culturally effective toolset.  He is interested in the broad differences across cultures of: Life expectancy, GDP, Death in childbirth, Violence, Chronic bullying, Gender equality, Happiness, Response to cheating, Individualist or collectivist, Enforcing honor, Approach to hierarchy; illustrating how different a person's life will be depending on the culture where they are raised.  Culture:
  • Is deployed during pregnancy & childhood, with parental mediation.  Nutrients, immune messages and hormones all affect the prenatal brain.  Hormones: Testosterone with anti-Mullerian hormone masculinizes the brain by entering target cells and after conversion to estrogen binding to intracellular estrogen receptors; have organizational effects producing lifelong changes.  Parenting style typically produces adults who adopt the same approach.  And mothering style can alter gene regulation in the fetus in ways that transfer epigenetically to future generations!  PMS symptoms vary by culture. 
    
  • Is also significantly transmitted to children by their peers during play.  So parents try to control their children's peer group.  
  • Is transmitted to children by their neighborhoods, tribes, nations etc. 
    
  • Influences the parenting style that is considered appropriate. 
    
  • Can transform dominance into honor.  There are ecological correlates of adopting honor cultures.  Parents in honor cultures are typically authoritarian. 
    
  • Is strongly adapted across a meta-ethnic frontier according to Turchin.  
  • Across Europe was shaped by the Carolingian empire. 
    
  • Can provide varying levels of support for innovation.  Damasio suggests culture is influenced by feelings: 
    
  • As motives for intellectual creation: prompting detection and diagnosis of homeostatic deficiencies, identifying desirable states worthy of creative effort.
    
  • As monitors of the success and failure of cultural instruments and practices
  • As participants in the negotiation of adjustments required by the cultural process over time 
  • Produces consciousness according to Dennet. 
    
  view of the role; are ensuring a huge shortage of home health care aides who will be needed to support the growing elderly population.  MIT is Massachusetts Institute of Technology.   Sloan's Osterman hopes reducing system errors will justify investment in incentivizing the role (Aug 2017) 
• Fewer people are going to SNF is skilled nursing facility. 
  s.  Many facilities, even with Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  5 star ratings Star ratings are CMS quality ratings of health care domains.  They reflect measures of outcomes including intermediate outcomes, patient experience, access and process.  Care coordination (assessed by CAHPS survey) and quality improvement measures have been added.  Data is sourced from health and drug plans, from CMS contractors, from surveys of enrollees, and from CMS administrative data.  They reflect HEDIS data.   The ACA established Star Ratings as the basis of QBPs.  5-star health plans benefit from being able to market all year round, and beneficiaries can join at any time via a SEP.  Health plans with less than 3-star ratings can be terminated by CMS starting in 2015.  Star ratings cover 9 domains:
  • Ratings of health plans (part C)
  • Staying healthy: screening, tests, vaccines
    
  • Managing chronic (long-term) conditions
  • Member experience with the health plan
  • Member complaints, problems getting services, and improvements in the health plans performance
    
  • Health plan customer service
    
  • Ratings of drug plans (part D)
  • Drug plan customer service
  • Member complaints, problems getting services, and improvements in the drug plan's performance
    
  • Member experience with the drug plan
    
  • Patient safety and accuracy of drug pricing
    
  are closing.  At 70% occupancy, revenue from assisted living is an alternative to parents joining their children's nuclear family or entering a SNF, or Greenhouse Nursinghome.  Atul Gawande's Being Mortal describes the situation.  Federal Medicaid does not directly cover assisted living.  State Medicaid adds coverage through a federal waiver.  Congressional legislation covering assisted living is limited.  Assisted living providers are represented by the National Center for Assisted Living. 
  and independent residents, did not compensate for SNF losses, because of costly regulatory requirements: ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  hospital readmission have become a source of increased revenue for hospitals.  But with government interested in reducing the US health care cost curve ACA's HRRP (pay-for-performance), BPCI and CTI and Interact discharge initiative have all increased the focus on unnecessary readmissions.  Now the end-to-end process is under scrutiny with hospitals reengineering discharge (RED) and PAC providers using RAI and TCN. 
  penalties have driven many patients to be admitted to hospital as observation stays observation stays are inpatient like stays in hospital, except Medicare does not count the stay towards the qualification for SNF reimbursements and the copay for the observation may be considerable.  The volume of outpatient observation stays has been rising. 
  , where Medicare won't cover rehabilitation after discharge, More outpatient surgery is being performed, Medicare Advantage (MA) is a private provider administered health insurance plan providing access to Medicare benefits.  It was originally enacted as part of BBA Medicare + Choice or Part C plans.  The government funded the plan with an annual fee, based on age and severity of the subscriber's medical conditions, rather than FFS.  When a Medicare eligible person enrolls in a MA plan the government pays the private provider a set amount each month.  The participant pays the Medicare part B premium and if required a part C premium each month.  The MA plans offer a PCP who coordinates care.  And the plans have an annual limit on out-of-pocket expenses unlike traditional Medicare.  When they obtain treatment they will have to pay a copayment which may be quite high for some specialists.  It is the health plan's responsibility to contract the physician network that will provide the care, leaving the risk with the insurer.  About 36% of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled with Medicare Advantage by 2019.  The ACA introduced quality outcome and patient satisfaction based differential payments into MA.  To measure the performance it added a five-star quality rating scheme.  MA plans report their quality and patient satisfaction data to CMS annually and based on the results are awarded one to five stars.  The highest rated plans are provided with large additional payments.  It was assumed that subscribers would shift to the highest rated plans and the other plans would improve or drop out of MA.  And the ACA eliminated subsidies which the federal government used to establish Medicare Advantage.  However, the Obama administration has used a $8.5 Billion demonstration project to maintain this funding.  It is intended that it will eventually taper off so that the cost of Medicare Advantage coverage will be equivalent to standard Medicare. 
  plans seek lower cost alternatives, Patients seek other options when they can: assisted living, home care.  The 2005 DRA is the deficit reduction act of 2005.  It includes a critical imperative to CMS to develop a Medicare payment reform demonstration, using standardized patient information to examine consistency of payment incentives for various Medicare populations, treated in various settings.  As the 2006 budget reconciliation bill (S 1932) it included provisions expected to reduce Medicaid spending by $10 billion over 10 years.  Among the rules are:
  • Tighter restrictions on asset transfers.  Aims to reduce seniors transferring substantial amounts of their money and other assetts to relatives to be eligible for Medicaid funded long term care services.  Those with $500,000 or more in home equity would be automatically disqualified from applying for Medicaid. 
    
  • Greater flexibility to impose premiums and cost-sharing and to change benefit design for certain Medicaid beneficiaries.   
  • Gives all states long-term care partnership programs
  • Authorizes states to include home and community-based services as an optional Medicaid benefit.  
  allowed Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  to fund assisted living and home care alternatives to SNF care.  Most SNF businesses are at 82% occupancy.  These businesses will cut staffing to protect margins.  It is expected that as the baby boomers reach 80 the demand for SNF will rise again (Oct 2018)
  
• VA - Department of Veterans Affairs.  Includes the Veterans Health Administration. 
  -
  
• NIH is the National Institute of Health, Bethesda Maryland.  It is the primary federal agency for the support and conduct of biomedical and behavioral research.  It is also one of the four US special containment units of the CDC.  's million person precision medicine is the integration of molecular research: genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, cell signalling; and clinical data through a taxonomy based on CAS modeling overlaid on an information commons.  It aims to support treatment of disease and remove the organ and symptom based methodological flaws in the ICD.  Supporters of the D.S.M. note the aggressive shift to precision medicine at the NIMH under Dr. Insel, constrained useful clinical research (Nov 2015). 
  program All of US makes slow & costly progress - relative to smaller biobanks: UK, Iceland (deCode), VA - Department of Veterans Affairs.  Includes the Veterans Health Administration. 
  , Kaiser, Geisinger; causing some participants to back out: Kaiser, Geisinger (Regeneron); but Francis Collins asserts its scope is essential & Verily is still participating (Mar 2018)
  
• Koch brothers lobby, Concerned Veterans for America, pushes for private treatment of the VA - Department of Veterans Affairs.  Includes the Veterans Health Administration. 
  (Jan 2019)
• VA - Department of Veterans Affairs.  Includes the Veterans Health Administration. 
  secretary, Robert Wilkie, released new rules aligned to the VA Mission act of 2018 is the VA Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks act, which consolidates the VA's community care into one program, and requires the agency to implement policies and regulations over the next year.  $5.2 billion of interim funding was appropriated for operation of the current Veterans Choice Program.  Subsequently new care authorizations, scheduling, coordination, and payments will flow between the VA, Veterans and community providers. 
  , allowing veterans who have to drive for more than 30 minutes to use alternative private care for primary care consists of providing accessible, comprehensive, longitudinal, and coordinated care in the context of families and community.  Interpreting the meaning of many streams of information and working together with the patient to make decisions based on the fullest understanding of this information relative to the patient's values and preferences is key to PCP providing value. 
  and mental health, shifting funds from VA Health (Jan 2019)
  
• VA - Department of Veterans Affairs.  Includes the Veterans Health Administration. 
  uses a 5 star rating Star ratings are CMS quality ratings of health care domains.  They reflect measures of outcomes including intermediate outcomes, patient experience, access and process.  Care coordination (assessed by CAHPS survey) and quality improvement measures have been added.  Data is sourced from health and drug plans, from CMS contractors, from surveys of enrollees, and from CMS administrative data.  They reflect HEDIS data.   The ACA established Star Ratings as the basis of QBPs.  5-star health plans benefit from being able to market all year round, and beneficiaries can join at any time via a SEP.  Health plans with less than 3-star ratings can be terminated by CMS starting in 2015.  Star ratings cover 9 domains:
  • Ratings of health plans (part C)
  • Staying healthy: screening, tests, vaccines
    
  • Managing chronic (long-term) conditions
  • Member experience with the health plan
  • Member complaints, problems getting services, and improvements in the health plans performance
    
  • Health plan customer service
    
  • Ratings of drug plans (part D)
  • Drug plan customer service
  • Member complaints, problems getting services, and improvements in the drug plan's performance
    
  • Member experience with the drug plan
    
  • Patient safety and accuracy of drug pricing
    
  system, SAIL is Strategic Analytics for Improvement  and Learning, the VA's 5 star rating system that rolls up various metrics into a single number. 
  initially developed to monitor and enhance patient care, but subsequently used, to rate and punish hospital administrators: Atlanta, and West Haven.  Dr. Ken Kizer notes that punishing people instead of fixing the system architecture, causes hospitals to hide errors and distort statistics (Nov 2018)
  

• Nov 2015 State health insurance regulators NAIC release model law to constrain narrow networks - When all health insurance plans are comparable on line people are expected to choose narrower less costly plans.  This has the effect of encouraging providers and PCP to compete to be part of the narrow plan by reducing their charges and driving down the prices of the plans.  By limiting the number of providers/doctors offered in the plans the few that are included should get more business.  Across the US in 2015 39% of health plans offered in public exchanges are narrow (30 - 70% of areas providers) or ultra-narrow (30% or less of providers).  In large cities narrow networks are even more common.  Typically if consumers go outside of the choices offered in their narrow network they will be responsible for the high bills.  There are problems induced by narrow network constraints:
  • Queuing issues - while a surgeon and a hospital may be in-network other agents in an operation, such as anesthesiologists or anesthetists, may not have the same set of insurance contracts.  Even if a subset do, once these are allocated to a task the hospital must then manage a complex set of resource constraints to keep its ORs running.  If it does this by ignoring the 'out of network' status of these necessary resources the patient will be impacted by a high bill.  
  • Success is more likely when the plan maintains a broad list of PCPs but a narrow list of specialists and hospitals (Oct 2016). 
    
  . 
  
• Minnesota provides MPSP is the Minnesota Premium Security Plan.  It provides reinsurance to support the ACA individual markets.  The program pays 80% of a claim from $50,000 to $250,000.  The insurer is responsible for claims over $250,000.  It is funded based on the assumption that lower premiums will allow the federal government to provide half the cost via the ACA's risk adjustment.  It is expected the lower premiums will reduce the federal payments for high premium tax credits. 
  reinsurance provides protection to insurers covering a high risk pool of subscribers by paying the reimbursements for health care services of the most costly individuals in the pool.  Legislation, including the MMA, ACA and BBA of 2018, which include reinsurance flows to compensate insurers for subsidizing subscriber expenses, catalyze the transfers and support distortions
  for ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  individual market insurers: HealthPartners; and successfully reduces premium increases.  CareFirst hopes for a similar federal law (Sep 2017)
• California fines Blue Cross and Anthem for inaccurate provider directories (Nov 2015)
  
• State health insurance regulators, with inputs from health access california & review of Centene acquisition of Health Net, asked NAIC to review insurance mergers (Nov 2015)
• President Trump's executive order concerns state regulators and the Kaiser Family Foundation but gains applause from the USCOC (Oct 2017):
  
• Stops federal payments to support cost sharing subsidies are part of the ACA legislation that requires the government to pass-through CSR subsidies via their insurers to patients who cannot afford to pay their cost sharing requirements. 
  
  
• Relaxes legislated: ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  , ERISA is the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 signed by President Ford.  It regulated both pension and health benefit plans once an employer had established one.  It setup the PBGC to support voluntary private defined benefit pension plans.  Where self-funded health plans under ERISA are exempt from a state's insurance regulation there will be no solvency or consumer protection in place to support providers that do business with ERISA plans.  States may consequently require provider networks that do business with employer self-insured ERISA plans be licensed as an insurance company (an HMO, medical insurance plan, preferred provider arrangement or general casualty insurer).  ERISA section 404(a)(1)(B) defines the prudent person rule associating prudence with portfolio theory allowing pension funds to invest in stocks (index funds).  The labor department's interpretation of an ERISA employer has been modified to support President Trump's executive order to enable more use of AHPs (Jan 2018). 
  ; implementation of federal insurance regulations and pushes for AHP is association health plan:
  • Allow small businesses and individuals in particular professions, trades or interest groups to join associations that offer insurance to members. 
    
  • Are a form of MEWA
    
  s, in move that NAIC & BCBS and other insurance plans will resist (Oct 2017)
• Labor department acts on executive order issuing proposed new rules for AHP is association health plan:
  • Allow small businesses and individuals in particular professions, trades or interest groups to join associations that offer insurance to members. 
    
  • Are a form of MEWA
    
  s, updating its ERISA is the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 signed by President Ford.  It regulated both pension and health benefit plans once an employer had established one.  It setup the PBGC to support voluntary private defined benefit pension plans.  Where self-funded health plans under ERISA are exempt from a state's insurance regulation there will be no solvency or consumer protection in place to support providers that do business with ERISA plans.  States may consequently require provider networks that do business with employer self-insured ERISA plans be licensed as an insurance company (an HMO, medical insurance plan, preferred provider arrangement or general casualty insurer).  ERISA section 404(a)(1)(B) defines the prudent person rule associating prudence with portfolio theory allowing pension funds to invest in stocks (index funds).  The labor department's interpretation of an ERISA employer has been modified to support President Trump's executive order to enable more use of AHPs (Jan 2018). 
  interpretation, and weakening the ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  's constraints on skimpy health insurance coverage (Jan 2018)
• State health insurance regulators allow individual market silver plan premiums to rise exceptionally, amplifying the number of consumers who get ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  subsidies (Oct 2017) 
• Duke's David Anderson argues the Alexander-Murray bill can help turn ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  individual market silver plan price catalysis, an infrastructure amplifier. 
  into a victory for consumers, state regulators & President Trump (Oct 2017)
  
• State health insurance regulators & government officials: California, Maryland, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Vermont; block deployment of 3 year limited-duration health plans, seeing them as substandard products.  Insurers: Health Insurance Innovations; leverage former NAIC leaders: Senator Ben Nelson; to demonstrate compliance.  Regulators at NAIC meeting expressed deep concern about the aggressive and misleading marketing.  New York banned the products to limit confusion (Aug 2018)
• CVS + Aetna merger is allowed by regulators with the requirement that some Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  plans are sold to WellCare Health Plans.  No discrete large PBM is pharmacy benefit manager.  These companies, such as Caremark, were often originally PPMs.  PBMs are used by payers, such as insurance plans, to manage drug provision from pharmacies to the payer's plans subscribers.  PBMs can constrain drug flow to the pharmacies: CVS, Rite-Aid, Walgreens; through the PBM's formularies. 
  is left: UHG (OptumRx), Cigna + Express Scripts, Anthem building a PBM; limiting drug cost management for smaller insurers and PBMs.  PBMs have been criticised for secret deals that have helped keep drug prices high.  Health plan control of where prescription drugs are purchased will limit Amazon's disruption of pharmacies, and likely limit consumers opportunities to bargain.  State regulators will start to look at the operations of PBMs.  Large insurers are also entering health care provision of low cost care for chronic conditions and chain care in the community (Oct 2018)
  

• Weill Cornell healthcare policy researcher & New York-Presbyterian physician Dhruv Khullar reviews state relative health outcomes and state level improvement strategies (Nov 2017)
• Kentucky applies work requirements Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  Waiver, but advocates for the poor: NHLP; said they would oppose it with legal action (Jan 2018)
• Judge rules Kentucky policy is illegal & HHS is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   Secretary Azar is remiss in not considering data that should have stopped CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   administrator Verma allowing the work requirements (Jul 2018)
• CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   administrator Verma agrees Arkansas can implement Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  work requirements, but delays allowing the state to roll back Medicaid expansion (Mar 2018)
  
• Aaron Carroll reviews Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  expansion studies that indicate rural access/coverage, through community health centers, and quality of health care has risen while urban access/coverage has also improved (Jul 2018)
  
• Massachusetts proposes a Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  waiver to develop a formulary are lists of drugs that a health plan will cover.  The health plans control where and if the drug is listed in the plan.  A less expensive drug can be assigned a lower copayment to encourage patients to use it.  To counter this attack on their profits drug companies responded with coupons to help patients pay copayments removing the incentive to select the lower-priced drugs.  Health plans reacted to the copayment cards by dropping some drugs from the formulary altogether.  That encourages drug companies to bid for their drug to be the only one listed resulting in some downward price pressure.   (Apr 2018).  They are opposed by:
  
• Consumer advocates: Health Care for All, AMA is the American Medical Association. 
  , AAP, ACS's Cancer Action Network, ADA, National Alliance on Mental Illness, American Lung Association; who are worried that Medicaid recipients will be denied access to lifesaving treatments. 
  
• Drug manufacturers: Amgen, J&J, Eli Lilly, Merck, Pfizer, Teva, BMS;

• California, at a risky transition between governors, aligns tax revenue drops with economic downturns, while disintermediation is the shift of operations from one network provider to another lower cost connected network provider.  The first network provider leverages the cost benefits of the shift to increase its profitability but becomes disrupted.  The lower cost network provider gains revenue flows, expertise and increases its active agents.  Over time this disruptive shift will leave the higher cost network as a highly profitable shell, but the agents that performed the operations that migrated to the low cost network will be ejected from the network.  For a company that may imply the costs of layoffs.  For a state the ejected workers imply increased cost impacts and reduced revenue potential which the state are trading off for improved operating efficiency. 
  and rising inequality is pushing the middle class to leave the state.  There is no viable change to prop 13, Gavin Newsom, lieutenant governor, is talking of extra spending on: single-payer health care is a healthcare architecture in which there is a single financing organization.  Significant aspects of single-payer include:
  • Strengths of single-payer:
  • Removes the extensive replication of payer organizations and their different interfaces to the other healthcare entities and subscribers. 
    
  • One payment organization, removing the need to allow subscribers the yearly choice to change payer, encouraging payers to help subscribers remain healthy
    
  • Single-payer instantiates a political monopoly on health insurance. 
    
  • Problematic implementation of single-payer in the US
    
  • Undermines the alignment of the healthcare network, threatening profits, power structures and financial rewards.  This limits the possibility of single-payer in the US: Lobbying juggernaut: Politicians, Providers, Doctors, Insurers; leveraging dislike of tax increases, The 9 out of 10 Americans who are employed or retired are satisfied with their situation, Current insurance costs are hidden from the insured: in lowered pay packages, spread over all tax payers reducing government revenues; Current private insurers would be forced to reduce costs;
  • Alters one sixth of the US economy: Commercial health insurance replaced, investors impacted by transformation of business models; a huge change of high uncertainty, something evolution works to avoid by including mechanisms to force small incremental changes. 
    
  • A state: Vermont (Jan 2014); can use public funds for all health care financing while the delivery of care is provided by non-state organizations.  Analogously Intermountain Healthcare's SelectHealth Share requires organizations to use Intermountain for health care finance (Feb 2016). 
    
  , early childhood education, state universities; and is beholden to unions.  Anyone will be inexperienced compared to Jerry Brown (Oct 2018)
• California Governor Gavin Newsom, releases first budget: spending big $209 billion: education, homelessness, poverty (CalWorks); & paying down debt with $13.5 billion.  He promises to make California's tax system less volatile as well.  Prior Governor Brown was worried about a California recession, unlike Newsom (Jan 2019)

• The DOD - U.S. Department of Defense. 
  and VA - Department of Veterans Affairs.  Includes the Veterans Health Administration. 
  are investing to upgrade their HCIT is health care information technology.  The AHRQ argues HCIT consists of a complex set of technologies, policies, standards and user sets.  Technically they represent it as a set of layers: Application: CPOE, CDS, e-prescribing, eMAR, Results reporting, Electronic documentation, Interface engines, etc.; Communication: Messaging standards (HL7, ADT, NCPDP, X12, DICOM, ASTM, etc,) Coding standards (LOINC, ICD10, CPT, NDC, RxNorm, SNOMED CT, etc.), Process: HIE, MPI, HIPAA security & privacy, etc.; Device: Tablet and PC, ASP, PDAs, Bar Coding, etc.; 
  infrastructure. 
  
• DOD Defense Healthcare Management System Modernization first phase was awarded to Cerner.  
• The VA is failing to process Veteran's medical care.  Its patient scheduling modernization was awarded (Aug 2015) to Epic. 
  
• It was caught falsifying wait list records
• A year later (Jul 2015) the wait lists are even longer.  
• VA - Department of Veterans Affairs.  Includes the Veterans Health Administration. 
  secretary, Robert Wilkie, released new rules aligned to the VA Mission act of 2018 is the VA Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks act, which consolidates the VA's community care into one program, and requires the agency to implement policies and regulations over the next year.  $5.2 billion of interim funding was appropriated for operation of the current Veterans Choice Program.  Subsequently new care authorizations, scheduling, coordination, and payments will flow between the VA, Veterans and community providers. 
  , allowing veterans who have to drive for more than 30 minutes to use alternative private care for primary care consists of providing accessible, comprehensive, longitudinal, and coordinated care in the context of families and community.  Interpreting the meaning of many streams of information and working together with the patient to make decisions based on the fullest understanding of this information relative to the patient's values and preferences is key to PCP providing value. 
  and mental health, shifting funds from VA Health (Jan 2019)
  

1. Expand health coverage to millions of Americans without insurance. 
   
2. Make the healthcare system more efficient by forcing doctors and hospitals to deliver care in a more cost-effective way. 
   

• Growth in U.S. is the United States of America.   healthcare spending slowed in 2017 to 3.9% - back to levels of 2008-13: Total federal healthcare spending of $1 trillion + huge tax subsidies for healthcare and coverage to a total of $3.5 trillion - 17.9% of the economy is a human SuperOrganism complex adaptive system (CAS) which operates and controls trade flows within a rich niche.  Economics models economies.  Robert Gordon has described the evolution of the American economy.  Like other CAS, economic flows are maintained far from equilibrium by: demand, financial flows and constraints, supply infrastructure constraints, political and military constraints; ensuring wealth, legislative control, legal contracts and power have significant leverage through evolved amplifiers. 
  ; total Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  spending, for 70 million people, increased 2.9% to $582 billion, vs. 4.2% in 2016, 9% in 2015, 11.8% in 2014; federal Medicaid payments increased < 1%, vs. 4.6% in 2016; Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  spending growth slowed with a shift to 1/3 using private Advantage (MA) is a private provider administered health insurance plan providing access to Medicare benefits.  It was originally enacted as part of BBA Medicare + Choice or Part C plans.  The government funded the plan with an annual fee, based on age and severity of the subscriber's medical conditions, rather than FFS.  When a Medicare eligible person enrolls in a MA plan the government pays the private provider a set amount each month.  The participant pays the Medicare part B premium and if required a part C premium each month.  The MA plans offer a PCP who coordinates care.  And the plans have an annual limit on out-of-pocket expenses unlike traditional Medicare.  When they obtain treatment they will have to pay a copayment which may be quite high for some specialists.  It is the health plan's responsibility to contract the physician network that will provide the care, leaving the risk with the insurer.  About 36% of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled with Medicare Advantage by 2019.  The ACA introduced quality outcome and patient satisfaction based differential payments into MA.  To measure the performance it added a five-star quality rating scheme.  MA plans report their quality and patient satisfaction data to CMS annually and based on the results are awarded one to five stars.  The highest rated plans are provided with large additional payments.  It was assumed that subscribers would shift to the highest rated plans and the other plans would improve or drop out of MA.  And the ACA eliminated subsidies which the federal government used to establish Medicare Advantage.  However, the Obama administration has used a $8.5 Billion demonstration project to maintain this funding.  It is intended that it will eventually taper off so that the cost of Medicare Advantage coverage will be equivalent to standard Medicare. 
  plans, which use more PCP is a Primary Care Physician.  PCPs are viewed by legislators and regulators as central to the effective management of care.  When coordinated care had worked the PCP is a key participant.  In most successful cases they are central.  In certain Medicare ACO models (Pioneer) PCPs are committed to achieve meaningful use requirements.  Working against this is the: replacement of diagnostic skills by technological solutions, low FFS leverage of the PCP compared to specialists, demotivation of battling prior authorization for expensive treatments. 
  and less hospital services, Growth in hospital prescribed drugs slowed, Growth in retail spending on prescription drugs was 0.4% (totaling $333 billion), Drug prices - generics declined, brand-name drug increases slowed, pain killer prescription volume growth slowed; household spending grew 3.8%, vs. 4.8% in 2016, Out-of-pocket spending grew 2.6%, vs. 4.4% in 2016, to $365.5 billion.  ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  driven spending grew rapidly in 2014/15: Medicaid expansion, Added public insurance coverage; hepatitis C is a virus which destroys the liver during infection.  In 2016 it affects 185 million people worldwide.  Once the virus genome was sequenced in 1989 Dr. Bartenschlager and Dr. Rice worked to replicate the virus in the laboratory.  Rice realized the genome sequence was missing details that stopped the lab replication.  Bartenschlager was then successful at replicating the virus in cells in his laboratory.  The replication technique allowed Pharmasset's Dr. Sofia to develop a new hepatitis C drug, by enhancing an RNA-polymerase inhibitor with a coat that allowed the drug to enter the liver, where the coat was destroyed and the polymerase inhibitor was activated.  With high concentrations of the drug, sofosbuvir, in the liver it could eradicate the hepatitis C virus.   Sovaldi was the first sofosbuvir approved by the F.D.A. 
  drugs also generated high spending in 2014/15; Health insurance coverage dropped slightly in 2017 & more people selected HDHP is a high-deductible health plan which has lower premiums and a higher deductable than traditional health insurance plan such as a HMO plan or PPO plan. 
  s (Dec 2018)
  

• Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  for all proposals induce health care (hospitals, PhRMA) and health insurance (fear powerful new competitor taking profits) industries to respond, with advice from Forbes Tate, to setup Partnership for America's Health Care Future with Hillary Clinton's Lauren Shaver in charge, which is pushing for Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  expansion and maintaining the ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  and sustaining Employer based insurance, which pays doctors and hospitals higher fees than Medicare.  ACP is the American College of Physicians.   supports Medicare buyin (Feb 2019)
  

• The House appropriation committee approved an appropriations bill (Jun 2015) will eliminate money to administer the ACA and prevent use of user fees paid by insurers to support operation of the federal marketplaces. 
  
• The House passed a bill to repeal the tax on makers of medical devices that partly funds the ACA (Jun 2015).  Device makers lobby in home states ensuring repeated acts passed to nullify the tax:
  
• Short term funding bill includes: six year CHIP is:
  
  • The Children's Health Insurance Program started in 1997 as part of the BBA as SCHIP.  It provides health insurance coverage for children in families with income below 200 percent of the poverty line.  The coverage is focused on care specialized for children including: developmental delays, chronic conditions including asthma and obesity.  CHIP's funding must be iteratively re-authorized by Congress.  CHIP is financed federally, but states must enroll eligible children.  In many states one agency administers CHIP and Medicaid.  CHIP is leveraged by families that have employer based insurance with costly premiums, so the families only cover the adults.  
  • Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential, where stem cells develop a somatic mutation cluster pair often found in leukemia, which is expressed in white blood cells they produce.  The mutation clusters give these stem cells a competitive advantage and they accumulate over time.  The white blood cells form inflammatory plaques.  CHIP increases with age, increasing the risk of dying, of clot fragment induced heart attacks and stroke, over the subsequent 10 years by 54%
  funding; holds on ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  taxs: Cadillac, Device, Health insurance; and funding for two and a half weeks of government operations (Jan 2018)
• The House passed a bill to eliminate the independent board that is tasked with ensuring Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  spending remains within specified targets (Jun 2015).  
• The House adopted a budget-reconciliation is a fast-track Senate procedure defined in title III of the CBIC act.  In response to a stagnant economy and President Nixon's spending controls it was hoped this process would help with acting rapidly on the rising budget deficit and increasing entitlement spending.  The process is constrained by Senate rules that limit its use to provisions that deal with government tax and spending activities, but not policy:
  • Senators can object to a reconciliation bill if they see the rules being broken & ask for the parliamentarian to judge if a provision of a bill fails the rules. 
    
  • If the parliamentarian judges the proposal does fail the rules, the bill must be passed by 60 votes to overcome the objections, rather than a simple majority of the Senate or the provision must be stripped from the bill. 
    
  package repealing core elements of the ACA (Oct 2015):
• Remove the requirement for Americans to have health insurance. 
  
• Remove requirement for larger employers to offer coverage to full time employees.  
• Remove requirements for small employers to offer coverage to full time employees.
• NYT Sep 2015 Bipartisan effort to change rule that could raise premiums for some mid-size businesses, approved by Congress and accepted for signature by President Obama  (Oct 2015). 
• Repeal taxes on medical devices & Cadillac plans.  
• NYT Dec 2015 Proposed tax extender package delays repeal of Cadillac tax and delays start of device tax.  
• Short term funding bill includes: six year CHIP is:
  
  • The Children's Health Insurance Program started in 1997 as part of the BBA as SCHIP.  It provides health insurance coverage for children in families with income below 200 percent of the poverty line.  The coverage is focused on care specialized for children including: developmental delays, chronic conditions including asthma and obesity.  CHIP's funding must be iteratively re-authorized by Congress.  CHIP is financed federally, but states must enroll eligible children.  In many states one agency administers CHIP and Medicaid.  CHIP is leveraged by families that have employer based insurance with costly premiums, so the families only cover the adults.  
  • Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential, where stem cells develop a somatic mutation cluster pair often found in leukemia, which is expressed in white blood cells they produce.  The mutation clusters give these stem cells a competitive advantage and they accumulate over time.  The white blood cells form inflammatory plaques.  CHIP increases with age, increasing the risk of dying, of clot fragment induced heart attacks and stroke, over the subsequent 10 years by 54%
  funding; holds on ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  taxs: Cadillac, Device, Health insurance; and funding for two and a half weeks of government operations (Jan 2018)
• Removal of risk corridor funding
• NYT Dec 2015 Rubio provision in the 2014 funding law is undermining the ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  's risk corridor are a federal program established in 2010 to protect health insurers against the uncertainties they faced in setting the level of insurance premiums when they did not know who would sign up for coverage under the ACA.  HHS collects funds from plans with lower than expected claims and transfers them to plans with higher than expected claims.  The ACA was designed to capture back excess insurance profits while supporting initial losses with the goal of making the corridors tax payer neutral.  They phase out in 2016 (Dec 2015). 
  provision protection for health insurers. 
  
• New York State's NorthWell is to close CareConnect insurance which has been losing money after Rubio attacks on ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  insurance risk corridors are a federal program established in 2010 to protect health insurers against the uncertainties they faced in setting the level of insurance premiums when they did not know who would sign up for coverage under the ACA.  HHS collects funds from plans with lower than expected claims and transfers them to plans with higher than expected claims.  The ACA was designed to capture back excess insurance profits while supporting initial losses with the goal of making the corridors tax payer neutral.  They phase out in 2016 (Dec 2015). 
  & ACA risk adjustment aims to lessen the: Influence of risk selection on the premiums that health insurance plans charge, Incentive for plans to avoid sicker enrollees.  ACA legislated risk adjustment also has three additional issues: New populations, Cost & rating factors, Balanced transfers within a state/market.  CMS developed a methodology that includes a risk adjustment model and a risk transfer formula to ensure premiums reflect the insurance plans scope of coverage rather than health status.  Companies with healthier client pools have to transfer money to insurers with sicker populations. 
  drained reserves (Aug 2017)
  
• The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bill that substantially cuts funding of CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   and weakens its ability to operate the ACA and manage Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  and Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  (Jun 2015).   
• Senate Republicans aim to dismantle or defund the ACA using a fast-track procedure needing only a simple majority but
  
• Senate rules may constrain Republican moves to fast-track the repeal the ACA (Nov 2015) &
  
• President Obama said he would veto any such law.  
• Republican led Congress developed a small government tax bill that will need reduced health care funding to limit expansion of the national debt. 
  
• Tax bill written by Kevin Brady, passes Senate 51-48 allowing House to vote to send it to President Trump's Desk.  The bill sets up an evolved amplifier.  It contains: Removal of ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  individual mandate pushing insurers out of the markets as risk pools collapse, Opening of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge for oil & gas drilling, $1.5 trillion allowed deficit justifying Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  & Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  defunding, limits to state & local tax deductions impacting large Democratic states: California, New York, New Jersey; of $10,000, Top corporate tax rate reduced from 35% to 21%, Individual rates reduced from 39.6% to 37% but with sunsets in 2025, Inheritances of $22 million shielded from tax, Pass-through businesses able to deduct 20% of their business income (Dec 2017)
• President Trump will sign the legislation
• White House OMB is the Office of Management and Budget.  It:
  • Creates and promotes the President's federal budget and hence indirectly his priorities. 
    
  • Has the power to advance or constrain federal regulation as many proposed rules must be signed off by the O.M.B. (OIRA) before they are issued.  The rules it can constrain include those relating to:
  • Energy
  • Environmental standards
  • Labor protections
  • Food safety
  • All administration policies affect the budget directly or indirectly so they are constrained by the O.M.B.  
  , admits debt is climbing much faster than they had assumed, but CEA remains upbeat.  Government revenues have been reduced by the tax cuts and jobs act of 2017 is the Republican tax cut signed into law by President Trump.  The act includes:
  • Permanent tax cuts for corporations
  • Temporary tax cuts for individuals expiring in 2025; and will increase the size of the economy 0.7% between 2018 and 2028.  It will add $1.8 trillion to the deficits during that period from reduced tax revenue and higher interest payments.  
  • Repeal of the individual mandate of the ACA.  
  • Limiting deductions for state and local income tax and property taxes - impacting high tax Democratic leaning states
  • Reducing the AMT for individuals and eliminating it for corporations
    
  • Reducing the number of states affected by the estate tax
    
  to a historically low level, even as the economy is a human SuperOrganism complex adaptive system (CAS) which operates and controls trade flows within a rich niche.  Economics models economies.  Robert Gordon has described the evolution of the American economy.  Like other CAS, economic flows are maintained far from equilibrium by: demand, financial flows and constraints, supply infrastructure constraints, political and military constraints; ensuring wealth, legislative control, legal contracts and power have significant leverage through evolved amplifiers. 
  is at the top of a cycle (Jul 2018)

• King v. Burwell was rejected by the Supreme Court (Jun 2015)
• House of Representatives v. Burwell (Aug 2015, Sep 2015)
• Texas, along with 19 other states, argues removal of the revenue collecting aspects of the individual mandate makes key parts of the ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  unconstitutional.  Trump DOJ - U.S. Department of Justice.   concludes it cannot defend the constitutionality of the ACA pre-existing conditions clauses (Jun 2018)
• Texas federal judge Reed O'Connor invalidates the ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  as unconstitutional.  President Trump is pleased but the White House notes the ACA continues in effect until appeals are resolved (Dec 2018)
• Trump administration DOJ - U.S. Department of Justice.   shifts position on ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  : now agrees with Texas (Jun 2018, Dec 2018) that the ACA is completely unconstitutional (Mar 2019)

• Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  access restrictions have proved fatal: Tennessee; while expansion has reduced mortality Chicago's Baicker & Harvard's Sommers & Epstein found (Jan 2018)
  
• Trump CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   administrator Verma, Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  director Neale, leverages work as a health improvement benefit to justify Medicaid funding of States: Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah, Wisconsin; waivered eliigibility work requirements; angering Medicaid beneficiary advocates: CBPP;  (Jan 2018)
• Kentucky applies work requirements Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  Waiver, but advocates for the poor: NHLP; said they would oppose it with legal action (Jan 2018)
• Judge rules Kentucky policy is illegal & HHS is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   Secretary Azar is remiss in not considering data that should have stopped CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   administrator Verma allowing the work requirements (Jul 2018)
• CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   administrator Verma agrees Arkansas can implement Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  work requirements, but delays allowing the state to roll back Medicaid expansion (Mar 2018)
  

• Chronic kidney disease or CKD is
  
  • Where there is permanent damage to the Kidneys.  Diabetes and high blood pressure are the leading causes of CKD.  This has driven up the percentage of American's suffering from CKD. 
    
  •  CKD is diagnosed via a GFR of less than 60, or another marker such as protein in the urine, for atleast three months. 
    
  • The disease, classed as having five stages, causes no symptoms until the later stages.  The fifth stage of CKD is ESRD.  CKD is associated with: Atherosclerosis, Cardiovascular disease, Iron deficiency anemia from reduced EPO synthesis, Fluid volume overload, Hyperphosphatemia, Hypertension, Metabolic acidosis, Mineral bone disorder, Potassium accumulation, & Urea accumulation. 
    
  affects 50 percent of the elderly and the diagnosis encourages them to demand treatment but it is not likely to reach stage 5 and kill them so why treat it? Maybe due to its effects on cardiovascular disease refers to:
  
  • Conditions where narrowed and blocked blood vessels result in angina, hypertension, CHD and heart attacks and hemorrhagic/ischemic strokes.  Mutations of the gene PCSK9 have been implicated in cardiovascular disease.  Rare families with dominant inheritence of the mutations have an overactive protein, very high levels of blood cholesterol and cardiac disease. Other rare PCSK9 mutations result in an 88% reduced risk from heart disease.  Inflammation is associated with cardiovascular disease (Aug 2017). 
    
  .  (Sep 2015) 
• CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   implements CHRONIC care act of 2017 is Ron Wyden & Orrin Hatch's Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic Care Act signed into law by President Trump as title III of the BBA of 2018. 
  through Medicare Advantage (MA) is a private provider administered health insurance plan providing access to Medicare benefits.  It was originally enacted as part of BBA Medicare + Choice or Part C plans.  The government funded the plan with an annual fee, based on age and severity of the subscriber's medical conditions, rather than FFS.  When a Medicare eligible person enrolls in a MA plan the government pays the private provider a set amount each month.  The participant pays the Medicare part B premium and if required a part C premium each month.  The MA plans offer a PCP who coordinates care.  And the plans have an annual limit on out-of-pocket expenses unlike traditional Medicare.  When they obtain treatment they will have to pay a copayment which may be quite high for some specialists.  It is the health plan's responsibility to contract the physician network that will provide the care, leaving the risk with the insurer.  About 36% of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled with Medicare Advantage by 2019.  The ACA introduced quality outcome and patient satisfaction based differential payments into MA.  To measure the performance it added a five-star quality rating scheme.  MA plans report their quality and patient satisfaction data to CMS annually and based on the results are awarded one to five stars.  The highest rated plans are provided with large additional payments.  It was assumed that subscribers would shift to the highest rated plans and the other plans would improve or drop out of MA.  And the ACA eliminated subsidies which the federal government used to establish Medicare Advantage.  However, the Obama administration has used a $8.5 Billion demonstration project to maintain this funding.  It is intended that it will eventually taper off so that the cost of Medicare Advantage coverage will be equivalent to standard Medicare. 
  changes, affecting the costly half of Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  's patients with multiple chronic conditions.  The act offers additional benefits for people suffering from chronic diseases including: diabetes includes type 1 and type 2.  Common side effects include: increased heart disease, hypertension, kidney disease, vision loss, nerve damage, and infections. 
  , Alzheimer's is a dementia which correlates with deposition of amyloid plaques in the neurons.  As of 2015 there are 5 million Alzheimer's patients in the USA.  It was originally defined as starting in middle age which is rare, so it was a rare dementia.  But in 1980s it was redefined as any dementia without another known cause. Early indications include mood and behavioral changes (MBI) and declarative memory and thinking problems (MCI).  Specific cells within the hippocampal circuitry and its gateway, the entorhinal cortex, are damaged.  The amygdala, cerebelum and other areas supporting implicit memory are not impacted during the early stages of the disease.  Grid cell destruction results in a sense of being lost.  The default mode network is disrupted.  Variants include: late-onset sporadic; with risk factors - ApoE4 for late onset Alzheimer's, presenilin, androgen deprivation therapy (Dec 2015), type 2 diabetes.  There are multiple theories of the mechanism of Alzheimer's during aging: Allen Roses argues that it is due to gene alleles that limit the capacity of mitochondria to support neuron operation, Neurons of sporadic Alzheimer's sufferers show greater APP gene diversity due to somatic recombination; It may be initiated by: stress induced HHV-6a, HHV7 herpes activation (Jun 2018) and or an increasingly leaky blood-brain barrier; and a subsequent innate immune response to the infections (May 2016).  The Alzheimer's pathway follows:
  • Plaques form.  These are seen in fMRIs 10 to 15 years prior to detecting memory and thinking changes.  APP deployed in the cell membrane is cut into three parts.  The external part becomes amyloid-beta peptide which aggregates into Amyloid plaques, external to the neurons, if too much is generated or it is not removed fast enough. 
    
  • Solanezumab aimed to inhibit plaque formation but clinical trials failed (Nov 2016). 
    
  • Encouraging the garbage collection of amyloid and tau with gamma rhythms stimulation retards Alzheimer's in mice studies (Mar 2019)
    
  • BACE inhibitors block an enzyme needed to form amyloid. 
    
  • Mutation driven misfolded Tau proteins can form tangles within the cytoplasm of neurons.  The Tau tangles kill nerve cells.  LMTX is a drug treatment targeted at these tangles. 
    
  • The brain becomes inflamed resulting in the killing of many more nerve cells.  The hippocampus disintegrates and the brain loses critical functions and memory loss becomes noticeable. 
    
  , Parkinson's corresponds to the breakdown of certain interneurons in the brain.  It is not fully understood why this occurs.  Dopamine system neuron breakdown generates the classical symptoms of tremors and rigidity.  In some instances an uncommon LRRK2 gene mutation confers a high risk of Parkinson's disease.  In rare cases Italian and Greek families are impacted in their early forties and fifties resulting from a single letter mutation in alpha-synuclein which alters the alpha-synuclein protein causing degeneration in the substantia nigra, after a build up of Lewy bodies in the neurons.  But poisoning from MPTP has also been shown to destroy dopamine system neurons.  DeLong showed that MPTP poisoning results in overactivity in the subthalamic nucleus.  People who have an appendectomy in their 20s are at lower risk of developing Parkinson's disease.  The Alpha-synuclein protein is known to build up in the appendix in association with changes in the gut microbiome.  This buildup may support the 'flow' of alpha-synuclein from the gut along neurons that route to the brain.  Paraquat has also been linked to Parkinson's disease.  Parkinson's disease does not directly kill many sufferers.  But it impacts swallowing which encourages development of pneumonia through inhaling or aspirating food.  And it undermines balance which can increase the possibility of falls.  Dememtia can also develop.  Treatment with deep-brain stimulation, after surgical implantation of electrodes in the subthalamic nucleus removes the symptoms of Parkinson's disease in some patients. 
  , CHF is congestive heart failure which occurs when the heart is unable to generate enough blood flow to meet the body's demands.  There are two main types: failure due to left ventricular dysfunction and abnormal diastolic function increasing the stiffness of the left ventricle and decreasing its relaxation.  Heart expansion in CHF distorts the mitral valve which exacerbates the problems.  MitraClip surgery trials found effective in correcting the mitral valve damage (Sep 2018).  Treatments include: digoxin; , rheumatoid Arthritis is an autoimmune disorder where the immune system attacks the joints and can generate inflammation around the lungs and heart.  It can be treated with: Enbrel, Humira, Ilaris, Xeljanz;
  , and some cancers is the out-of-control growth of cells, which have stopped obeying their cooperative schematic planning and signalling infrastructure.  It results from compounded: oncogene, tumor suppressor, DNA caretaker; mutations in the DNA.  In 2010 one third of Americans are likely to die of cancer.  Cell division rates did not predict likelihood of cancer.  Viral infections are associated.  Radiation and carcinogen exposure are associated.  Lifestyle impacts the likelihood of cancer occurring: Drinking alcohol to excess, lack of exercise, Obesity, Smoking, More sun than your evolved melanin protection level; all significantly increase the risk of cancer occurring (Jul 2016). 
  .  Combinations of social and medical services are funded.  The act will encourage high tech remote capabilities to be deployed (Jun 2018)

• Humana partners with private equity is the pooling of commitments from fund investors, to: buy assets that are not publicly traded: companies, real estate, and debt; improve their acquisition's value and sell them again, returning the sale cash to the fund investors.  Private equity companies gain competitive advantage from being lightly regulated, and wealth from the fees and special tax privileges.  Private equity companies were initially corporate raiders. 
  firms: TPG, and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe; to become the largest player in hospice has the key goal of helping people with a fatal illness to have the fullest possible life right now.  There are major hospice chains focused on providing palliative care. 
  care, by acquiring a Kindred Healthcare hospice division and Curo Health Services.  UHG has already entered & exited the market, in which the government is enforcing quality measures (Jun 2018)
  

• Austin Frakt highlights findings that patients follow doctors recommendations about where to get treatment, even for highly elective items: MRI is magnetic resonance imaging where the nucleus of any atom with a net spin will produce a response to the signal.  The variety of molecules that can be detected has generated a variety of specialized medical applications. 
  ; where tools provide details of cost and quality, but patients travel past low cost providers to get to recommended ones (Jul 2018)
• Report offers mixed view of health care costs (Mar 2016)

• Strict regulation of prices or
  
• Preseting of payment levels as exemplified by Medicare is a social insurance program that guarantees access to health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, and younger people with disabilities and end stage renal disease or ALS.  Medicare is currently missing a cap on out-of-pocket costs and direct prescription drug coverage.  It includes:
  
  • Benefits
  • Part A: Hospital inpatient insurance.  As of Dec 2013 Medicare pays for home care in only limited circumstances, such as when a person needs temporary nursing care after a hospitalization.  Part A covers 20 days of inpatient rehabilitation at a SNF after discharge from inpatient care at a hospital. 
    
  • Part B: Medical insurance for non-hospital services including: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs, ambulances, physical therapy;
    
  • Part C: Medicare Advantage 
  • Part D: indirect prescription drug coverage The MMA prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating drug prices. 
    
  • Eligibility
    
  • All persons 65 years of age or older who are legal residents for at least 5 years.  If they or a spouse have paid Medicare taxes for 10 years the Medicare part A payments are waived.  Medicare is legislated to become the primary health plan. 
    
  • Persons under 65 with disabilities who receive SSDI. 
    
  • Persons with specific medical conditions:
  • Have end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. 
    
  • They have ALS. 
    
  • Some beneficiaries are dual eligible. 
    
  • Part A requires the person has been admitted as an inpatient at a hospital.  This is constrained by a rule that they stay for three days after admission.  
    
  • Sign-up
  • Part A has automatic sign-up if the person is drawing social security.  Otherwise the person must sign-up for Part A and Part B. 
    
  • Should sign-up for Part B during the Initial Enrollment Period, of seven months centered around 65th birthday, online or at a social security office.  But if still covered by spouse's insurance or not yet retired then may only join during the 3 month general enrollment period (January to March) each year, with coverage initiated the following July.  Incremental yearly 10% penalties apply for not signing up at 65.  These penalties apply to all subsequent premiums. 
    
  • Premiums
  • Part A premium
  • Part B insurance premium
    
  • Part C & D premiums are set by the commercial insurer.  
  .  
• Make patients more responsible for bills via copays is a fixed payment for a covered service after any deductible has been met.  It is a key strategy of the ACA to make subscribers aware of the costs of treatment and to put pressure on high cost health services.  As such suppliers and providers are keen to undermine the copayment: value based health insurance, Paying the copayment (Oct 2015), Place on the USPSTF list of preventative services (Sep 2016);
  and deductables.  But with no access to upfront pricing this is not possible. 
  
• Fair price corridors for procedures and drugs.  -- Hepatitis C is a virus which destroys the liver during infection.  In 2016 it affects 185 million people worldwide.  Once the virus genome was sequenced in 1989 Dr. Bartenschlager and Dr. Rice worked to replicate the virus in the laboratory.  Rice realized the genome sequence was missing details that stopped the lab replication.  Bartenschlager was then successful at replicating the virus in cells in his laboratory.  The replication technique allowed Pharmasset's Dr. Sofia to develop a new hepatitis C drug, by enhancing an RNA-polymerase inhibitor with a coat that allowed the drug to enter the liver, where the coat was destroyed and the polymerase inhibitor was activated.  With high concentrations of the drug, sofosbuvir, in the liver it could eradicate the hepatitis C virus.   Sovaldi was the first sofosbuvir approved by the F.D.A. 
  (Aug 2015, Sep 2015), like AIDS is acquired auto-immune deficiency syndrome, a pandemic disease caused by the HIV.  It also amplifies the threat of tuberculosis.   Initially deadly, infecting and destroying the T-lymphocytes of the immune system, it can now be treated with HAART to become a chronic disease.  And with an understanding of HIV's mode of entry into the T-cells, through its binding to CCR5 and CD4 encoded transmembrane proteins, AIDS may be susceptible to treatment with recombinant DNA to alter the CCR5 binding site, or with drugs that bind to the CCR5 cell surface protein preventing binding by the virus.  Future optimization of drug delivery may leverage nanoscale research (May 2016). 
  before it, presents a focus for what is fair in drug pricing. 
  
• Require hospitals and doctors to provide price lists and up front estimates. 
  
• Replace FFS is fee-for-service payment.  For health care providers the high profits were made in hospitalizations, imaging and surgery.  Due to its inducing excessive treatment activity it may be replaced by FFV bundled payment.   with a fixed monthly fee is a global payment for all care for a patient during a specified time period.  It forces the provider of care to take a high risk.  Managing the risk implies successful population health management. 
  for taking care of a patient.  Otherwise strategic billing - service activation and treatment fees are added to hospital bills to work around regulations and sustain profits.  Specialized consultants identify and highlight the opportunities to hospital management.  Examples include:
  • Hospital is losing money treating trauma patients so it adds a $10,000 fee for trauma treatment activation.  
  • Medicare payment for broken wrists is below costs - Add a seperate 'casting fee' to the bill.  
  will continue to undermine price controls based on reimbursement constraints and contractual discounts.  
• Pay for preventative care to reduce the rate of illness and consequent testing and treatments.  Capitation is a global payment for all care for a patient during a specified time period.  It forces the provider of care to take a high risk.  Managing the risk implies successful population health management. 
  can encourage this strategy.  ACO is an Accountable Care Organization. These are accredited bundles of companies which together try to offer Dartmouth-Hitchcock like business models (Dec 2015, Sep 2016) focused on wellness, improving the provision of primary care to a large group of Medicare patients, and rewarding doctors for preventing problems.  Advocate health illustrates the idea.  Robert Pearl notes that the transition is difficult: hospitals that find their efficiency improving should reduce the number of doctors they utilize.  But any doctors that are pushed out of the ACO will likely take their patients with them, undermining the revenues that support the FFV business.  The ACA regulates qualification to be a Medicare ACO.  Individual organizations within a Medicare shared savings ACO continue to submit their own claims and are paid by Medicare for FFS.  But the ACO is eligible for shared savings.  Within the shared savings program the CMS innovation center has setup advanced payment ACOs.  As an alternative to shared savings, in a Pioneer ACO, over time 50% of the FFS payments flow directly to the ACO as a bundled payment.  CMS has established quality measures for ACOs for Medicare.  The CMS program's purpose is to reward providers for reducing total cost of care for patients through prevention, disease management, and coordination. 
  
  • CMS initiated its Physician Group Practice Demonstration in 2005.  By 2008 the congressional budget office reported on Bonus-eligible organizations. 
    
  • CMS defines ACOs as organizations that "create incentives for health care providers to work together to treat an individual patient across care settings - including doctors' offices, hospitals and long-term care facilities."
  • CMS has developed APMs which include ACOs, and advanced APMs where the ACOs must be risk bearing. 
    
  • CMMI accepts providers' proposals to test various payment systems including shared savings and partial capitation.  
  • Private market ACOs have formed including: Providence Health & Services, Blue Shield California, Anthem Blue Cross, United Health Care, BCBS Minnesota, BCBS Illinois, Humana, CIGNA, Main Health Management Coalition, BCBS Massachusetts, Aetna.  
  s are encouraged by the ACA.  
• Tax cadillac health plans to limit over use of health services.  (Push back)
  
• Medicare VBP Value-Based Purchasing is a Medicare program which predefines process and outcome performance measures and then rewards or punishes hospitals through payment adjustments based on their performance.  Its purpose is to create a material link between reimbursement and clinical quality and patient satisfaction scores.  CMMI is dedicating $500M to Partnership for Patients, targeting HAC readmissions.  It is part of a broad push towards pay-for-performance. 
  
  • Phase 1 2012 - 2014 focuses on quality.
  • Phase 2 2014 - 2020 focuses on efficiency.
  .  
• Private insurers may use reference pricing constrains a policy holder to a reimbursement for the reference price of a treatment rather than the specific hospitals billed price.  Patients have to pay the difference.  It can allow subscribers broader access to different health care providers than narrow networks.  It is only applicable for elective procedures where the patient can shop around (Aug 2016). 
  to incent patients to control the cost of treatments they select.  
• Reduce the bredth of the treatment provider network is the owned health system and its extended network of partners.  .  By increasing competition among providers for access to patients their charges should go down.  
• Promote single-payer is a healthcare architecture in which there is a single financing organization.  Significant aspects of single-payer include:
  • Strengths of single-payer:
  • Removes the extensive replication of payer organizations and their different interfaces to the other healthcare entities and subscribers. 
    
  • One payment organization, removing the need to allow subscribers the yearly choice to change payer, encouraging payers to help subscribers remain healthy
    
  • Single-payer instantiates a political monopoly on health insurance. 
    
  • Problematic implementation of single-payer in the US
    
  • Undermines the alignment of the healthcare network, threatening profits, power structures and financial rewards.  This limits the possibility of single-payer in the US: Lobbying juggernaut: Politicians, Providers, Doctors, Insurers; leveraging dislike of tax increases, The 9 out of 10 Americans who are employed or retired are satisfied with their situation, Current insurance costs are hidden from the insured: in lowered pay packages, spread over all tax payers reducing government revenues; Current private insurers would be forced to reduce costs;
  • Alters one sixth of the US economy: Commercial health insurance replaced, investors impacted by transformation of business models; a huge change of high uncertainty, something evolution works to avoid by including mechanisms to force small incremental changes. 
    
  • A state: Vermont (Jan 2014); can use public funds for all health care financing while the delivery of care is provided by non-state organizations.  Analogously Intermountain Healthcare's SelectHealth Share requires organizations to use Intermountain for health care finance (Feb 2016). 
    
  as patients lose faith in health care market based strategies. 
  
• Make medical school free but require service as a repayment.  

• To control costs major employers are likely to follow Wal-Mart in contracting with only major medical centers for major treatments like transplants or heart or spine surgery. 
  
• Online education will provide broad access to the courses of top tier universities undermining the demand for local university courses. 
  

• Trump administration: HHS is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   Secretary Tom Price; agrees to pay Florida for hospital ED is emergency department.  Pain is the main reason (75%) patients go to an E.D.  It has traditionally been part of an acute care hospital but recently is being deployed standalone as a catchment funnel to the owning hospital.  The EMTALA legislation requires E.D. treatment to stabilize every person seeking treatment by most hospitals.  Unreimbursed care is supported from federal government funds.  E. D. profitability has been helped by hospitals contracting with 3rd party companies who are able to improve margins through surprise billing.  The standalone E.D. competes with the positioning and brand power of lower cost urgent care clinics.  Commercial nature of care requires walk-ins to register to gain access to care.  With the focus on treatment of pain, E.D.s are a major distributor of opioids (5% of opioid prescriptions) and a major starting point of addiction in patients but are cutting back (Jun 2016). 
  losses by expanding LIP is either the
  
  • Medicaid supplemental 'low-income pool' hospital funding program which reimburses hospitals for the cost of care for the uninsured.  LIP is being wound down as the ACA Medicaid expansion occurs.  Or it is the
  • Lateral intraparietal area is involved in saccades of the eyes.  Some neurons in the LIP code the location of visual and auditary targets in an eye-centered reference frame.  Others code the location of a sound in reference frame intermediate between head-centered and eye-centered.  For many cells the magnitude of response is 'gain' modulated by eye, head, body or initial hand position. 
  .  Congressional Democrats warn CMS is the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.   Seema Verma the strategy is against federal law (May 2017)
• Maine state judge orders LePage administration to immediately implement Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  expansion law (Jun 2018)
  
• 2018 Mid-term election ballot initiatives move Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  expansion forward in Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah.  Term limits replace LePage & new Maine Democratic governor agrees to implement its ballot.  North Carolina democratic governor gained power to start developing expansion (Nov 2018)
• Virginia expands Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  (Jun 2018)
  
• Aaron Carroll reviews Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  expansion studies that indicate rural access/coverage, through community health centers, and quality of health care has risen while urban access/coverage has also improved (Jul 2018)
  

• Is consuming an ever larger part of the US GDP is:
  • Gross domestic product which measures the total of goods and services produced in a given year within the borders of a given country (output) according to Piketty.  Gordon argues to include products produced in the home & market-purchased goods and services, following Becker's theory of time use.  Gordon stresses innovation is the ultimate source of all growth in output per worker-hour.  GDP growth per person is equal to the growth in labor productivity + growth in hours worked per person.  GDP has many problems.  Gordon concludes that between 1870 and 1940 all available measures GDP is hugely understated because:
  • GDP is a poor measure of:
  • Value & wealth
    
  • Who gets what
  • Global supply chains
    
  • GDP excludes:
  • Reduction in infant mortality between 1890 (22%) and 1950 (1%)
    
  • Brightness & safety of electric light,
    
  • Increased variety of food including refrigeration transported fresh meat and processed food
  • Convenience and economies of scale of the department store and mail order catalog and resulting product price reductions
    
  • Services by house makers
  • Time & health gains from having flush toilets, integrated sewer networks; rather than having to physically remove effluent and cope with fecal-oral transmission
    
  • Leisure
  • Costs & benefits of different length work weeks
    
  • Speed and flexibility of motor vehicles - which were not included in the CPI until 1935, after the transformation had occurred.  And competition from improved foreign vehicles, while it provides purchaser/user with improved standard of living (less breakdowns, repairs, etc.) is measured as reduced domestic manufacture
    
  • Coercion and corruption to obtain resources 
  • Consumption impact of finite resources: coal, oil;
  • Destruction impact of loss of entire irreplaceable species
    
  • GDP includes items that should be excluded:
  • Cost of waste - cleaning up pollution (single use indestructible plastic bags), building prisons, commuting to work, and cars left parked most of the time; should be subtracted
    
  • Guanine-di-phosphate is a nucleotide base. 
    
  (Aug 2015) which they feel will undermine the popularity of 'big government' and limit Democrats options to use funds for social programs. 
  
• Significantly affects the size of government.  The ACA individual mandate is ACA quality affordable care for all Americans.  It mandates community rating & essential health benefits.  It includes:
  • Subtitle A: Immediate improvements in health care for all Americans. 
    
  • Subtitle B: Immediate actions to preserve and expand coverage. 
    
  • Subtitle C: Quality health insurance coverage for all Americans.  Which reforms the health insurance markets and prohibits preexisting condition exclusions and forms of health status discrimination.  
  • Subtitle D: Available coverage choices for all Americans. 
    
  • Subtitle E: Affordable coverage choices for all Americans. 
    
  • Subtitle F: Shared responsibility for health care which mandates individuals and employers to pay for insurance.  
  • The employer mandate requires employers with more than 50 full-time workers to offer most of their employees insurance or face penalties. 
    
  drives subsidized health care to large numbers of poor Americans.  For small government and state's rights advocates this must be underimined.  Once a benefit has been given it is almost impossible to take it away again.  It is also a political rallying point (Sep 2013, Dec 2013).  
• Heritage Action drives seven year fight against President Obama, focused on the ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  : a law architected & designed by Heritage Foundation's Butler, Moffit & Haislmaier (Feb 2017)
• Captures government revenues and transforms them into corporate profits for Wall Street and health care corporations with close ties to Republican politicians.  Bill Frist of HCA. 
  

• Before the 2016 primaries Jeb Bush offers details of and ACA replacement plan (Oct 2015)
  

• Arkansas, Rural Baxter Regional Medical Center, hovers at break even: dependent on ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  Medicaid is the state-federal program for the poor.  Originally part of Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Bill, eligibility and services vary by state.  Medicaid currently pays less for care than Medicare, resulting in many care providers refusing to participate in the program.  Less than 10 percent of Medicaid recipients, those in long-term care including nursing homes where 64% are dependent on Medicaid, use one-third of all Medicaid spending which is a problem.  The ACA's Medicaid expansion program, made state optional by the SCOTUS decision, was initially taken up by fifty percent of states.  As of 2016 it covers 70 million Americans at a federal cost of $350 billion a year.  In 2017 it pays for 40% of new US births. 
  expansion, is center of regional economy is a human SuperOrganism complex adaptive system (CAS) which operates and controls trade flows within a rich niche.  Economics models economies.  Robert Gordon has described the evolution of the American economy.  Like other CAS, economic flows are maintained far from equilibrium by: demand, financial flows and constraints, supply infrastructure constraints, political and military constraints; ensuring wealth, legislative control, legal contracts and power have significant leverage through evolved amplifiers. 
  ; Arkansas State University-Mountain Home 2 year college focuses on supplying the hospital with workers (Oct 2017)
  
• 85 rural hospitals (5% of them) have closed since 2010: CHY strategy.  Less than half the US is the United States of America.  's rural counties have a hospital that covers maternity, due to business model issues: collapsing birth rate, specialists clustered in large cities; which cascades added risks, is an assessment of the likelihood of an independent problem occurring.  It can be assigned an accurate probability since it is independent of other variables in the system.  As such it is different from uncertainty. 
  : medical visits cost more & take up more time - NICU is neonatal ICU also called an intensive care nursery.   babies need to be visited regularly increasing the impact on mother and family, women go less often to visit doctors, more babies born prematurely, deliveries occur outside hospital or at ED is emergency department.  Pain is the main reason (75%) patients go to an E.D.  It has traditionally been part of an acute care hospital but recently is being deployed standalone as a catchment funnel to the owning hospital.  The EMTALA legislation requires E.D. treatment to stabilize every person seeking treatment by most hospitals.  Unreimbursed care is supported from federal government funds.  E. D. profitability has been helped by hospitals contracting with 3rd party companies who are able to improve margins through surprise billing.  The standalone E.D. competes with the positioning and brand power of lower cost urgent care clinics.  Commercial nature of care requires walk-ins to register to gain access to care.  With the focus on treatment of pain, E.D.s are a major distributor of opioids (5% of opioid prescriptions) and a major starting point of addiction in patients but are cutting back (Jun 2016). 
  , hospital is often a large employer and closure impacts the community economics (Oct 2015), but eventually rebalancing occurs with urgent care is an efficient and less costly 'alternative' to the ER.  There is no accepted standard.  Urgent care clinics also compete with Primary care based on extended hours and accessible locations including Medical Malls.  Most have a physician on staff and treat ailments like feavers, sprains and sinus and urinary tract infection, but they also can perform X-rays, stitch up cuts and set broken bones.  Unlike an ER they can not admit patients to a hospital.  Some also offer services like pre-employment drug screening and summer camp physicals. 
  units opening, maternity opening at a remaining hospital in the region, helicopters taking serious cases to hub hospitals (Jul 2018)
  
• Florida's rural Immokalee, in Collier County, needs a hospital, with increasing: births (in ambulances|out of hospital), baby death rate, deaths in fields and parking lots, stroke is when brain cells are deprived of oxygen and begin to die.  750,000 patients a year suffer strokes in the US.  85% of those strokes are caused by clots.  There are two structural types: Ischemic and hemorrhagic.  Thrombectomy has been found to be a highly effective treatment for some stroke situations (Jan 2018). 
  death rate, no nearby ED is emergency department.  Pain is the main reason (75%) patients go to an E.D.  It has traditionally been part of an acute care hospital but recently is being deployed standalone as a catchment funnel to the owning hospital.  The EMTALA legislation requires E.D. treatment to stabilize every person seeking treatment by most hospitals.  Unreimbursed care is supported from federal government funds.  E. D. profitability has been helped by hospitals contracting with 3rd party companies who are able to improve margins through surprise billing.  The standalone E.D. competes with the positioning and brand power of lower cost urgent care clinics.  Commercial nature of care requires walk-ins to register to gain access to care.  With the focus on treatment of pain, E.D.s are a major distributor of opioids (5% of opioid prescriptions) and a major starting point of addiction in patients but are cutting back (Jun 2016). 
  , lack of ambulance service; only a 9 to 5 weekday federal health clinic, regulators granted a certificate of need, but Naples Hospital wants the patient base and is objecting to the hospital development as rural hospitals close (Sep 2018)

Health and education as local growth drivers

Oct 2013 The bad news for local job markets

Growth in education and health care may not meet expectations

Wal-Mart strategy may dis-intermediate general hospitals

Jul 2017 NYT The Private Equity Firm That Quietly Profits on Top-Selling Drugs

• Emory University 40% of $525 million sale of rights on Emtriva.  
• Northwestern University $700 million and researcher Richard Silverman $100 million on sale of partial rights on Lyrica. 
  
• UCLA and co-owners of prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate gland.  Genomics detected several common DNA variants associated with increased risk of prostate cancer.  Dr. Francis Collins explains that a cluster of these risk variants lies in a stretch of 1 million DNA base pairs on chromosome 8.  The cluster contains seven or more risk variants, each of which can raise the risk of prostate cancer by 10 to 30%.  The high risk variants occur more frequently in African-American men than European or Asians.  African-Americans die from prostate cancer at more than twice the rate of Europeans.  Research in mice may explain a link between obesity and prostate cancer (Jan 2018).  The average diagnosis is at age 66.  Worldwide in 2012 there were 1.1 million cases from which 307,000 died.  A common life-saving (Feb 2017) treatment is androgen deprivation therapy, but it has worrying side effects.  Various classically defined types of cancer can occur.  The most common is adenocarcinoma associated with the epithelial gland cells that generate seminal fluid.  Epithelial cell differentiation potency makes these significant cancer agents.  Other very rare types of cancer that can start in the prostate are:
  • Sarcomas
  • Small cell carcinomas
  • Neuroendocrine tumors
  • Transitional cell carcinomas
  drug Xtandi, were paid $1.14 billion on sale rights. 
  
• CFF $3.3 billion on sale of rights on Kalydeco.  
• Perrigo was paid $2.85 billion for rights to Tysabri.   Royalty Pharma eventually purchased Elan.  
• MSKCC $400 million for rights to two cancer is the out-of-control growth of cells, which have stopped obeying their cooperative schematic planning and signalling infrastructure.  It results from compounded: oncogene, tumor suppressor, DNA caretaker; mutations in the DNA.  In 2010 one third of Americans are likely to die of cancer.  Cell division rates did not predict likelihood of cancer.  Viral infections are associated.  Radiation and carcinogen exposure are associated.  Lifestyle impacts the likelihood of cancer occurring: Drinking alcohol to excess, lack of exercise, Obesity, Smoking, More sun than your evolved melanin protection level; all significantly increase the risk of cancer occurring (Jul 2016). 
  therapies. 
  

Apr 2016 NYT Bankruptcy of Ambulance Firm Poses Tough Questions for City

Jun 2016 NYT When you Dial 911 and Wall St. Answers

Nov 2016 NYT Going to the E.R. Without Leaving Home

• Chronic diseases: Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness, limb amputations and kidney failure.  It is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease.  Insulin and glucose levels are regulated by the pancreas, liver, muscle, brain and fat.  Diabetes occurs when the insulin level is insufficient to regulate the glucose in the system.  As we age our muscles become less sensitive to insulin and the pancreas responds by increasing the amount generated.  Increased fat levels in obesity demand more insulin overloading the pancreas.  Persistent high glucose levels are also toxic to the pancreas beta cells.  High glucocorticoid levels have been associated with type 2 diabetes.  There are genetic risk factors since siblings of someone with the disease have three times the baseline risk (about 50% of the risk of getting type 2 diabetes is genetic).  The inheritance is polygenic.  More than 20 genes have been identified as risk factors, but that is too few to account for the 50% weighting so many more will be identified.  Of those identified so far many are associated with the beta cells.  The one with the strongest relative risk is TCF7L2.  The disease can be effectively controlled through a diligent application of treatments and regular checkups.  Doctors are monitored for how under control their patients' diabetes is (Sep 2015).  Treatments include:
  • Metformin - does not change the course of pre-diabetes - if you stop taking it, it is as if it hasn't been taken. 
    
  • Diet
  • Exercise
  , kidney provides multiple vital functions.  It: Produces renin which supports negative feedback, Removes excess organic molecules from the blood, Regulates electrolytes in the blood, Maintains pH homeostasis, Regulates fluid balance, Regulates blood pressure, monitors blood oxygen concentration and signals erythropoiesis with EPO, Reabsorbs water, glucose (SGLT2) and amino acids.  Kidney function is monitored with the GFR.  Kidneys can fail acutely or chronically.  Kidneys are affected by a variety of cancers including: advanced kidney cancer, von Hippel Landau; some of which are induced by PFAS.    Multiple myeloma, type 2 diabetes, TB and drug treatments for MDR TB place a strain on the kidneys and can induce failure.   disease is chronic kidney disease
  
  • Where there is permanent damage to the Kidneys.  Diabetes and high blood pressure are the leading causes of CKD.  This has driven up the percentage of American's suffering from CKD. 
    
  •  CKD is diagnosed via a GFR of less than 60, or another marker such as protein in the urine, for atleast three months. 
    
  • The disease, classed as having five stages, causes no symptoms until the later stages.  The fifth stage of CKD is ESRD.  CKD is associated with: Atherosclerosis, Cardiovascular disease, Iron deficiency anemia from reduced EPO synthesis, Fluid volume overload, Hyperphosphatemia, Hypertension, Metabolic acidosis, Mineral bone disorder, Potassium accumulation, & Urea accumulation. 
    
  , heart arrhythmia is irregular heartbeat, a very common problem where the heart's electrical cells malfunction.  It can be diagnosed and treated by electrophysiology. 
  , Dementia is a classification of memory impairment, constrained feelings and enfeebled or extinct intellect.  The most common form for people under 60 is FTD.  Dementia has multiple causes including: vascular disease (inducing VCI) including strokes, head trauma, syphilis and mercury poisoning for treating syphilis, alcoholism, B12 deficiency (Sep 2016), privation, Androgen deprivation therapy (Oct 2016), stress, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and prion infections such as CJD and kuru.  The condition is typically chronic and treatment long term (Laguna Honda ward) and is predicted by Stanley Prusiner to become a major burden on the health system.  It may be possible to constrain the development some forms of dementia by: physical activity, hypertension management, and ongoing cognitive training.  Dementia appears to develop faster in women than men.  ;
  
• Falls
• Shortness of breath 

• ED is emergency department.  Pain is the main reason (75%) patients go to an E.D.  It has traditionally been part of an acute care hospital but recently is being deployed standalone as a catchment funnel to the owning hospital.  The EMTALA legislation requires E.D. treatment to stabilize every person seeking treatment by most hospitals.  Unreimbursed care is supported from federal government funds.  E. D. profitability has been helped by hospitals contracting with 3rd party companies who are able to improve margins through surprise billing.  The standalone E.D. competes with the positioning and brand power of lower cost urgent care clinics.  Commercial nature of care requires walk-ins to register to gain access to care.  With the focus on treatment of pain, E.D.s are a major distributor of opioids (5% of opioid prescriptions) and a major starting point of addiction in patients but are cutting back (Jun 2016). 
  visits often serve as gateways to longer stays
• Time spent in bed tends to decondition the elderly patients requiring:
• Rehab
• Therapy to regain mobility
• HAI is health care-associated infection.  : C. difficile usually competes with other bacteria in the human gut microbiome.  But antibiotic treatments provide it with an advantage where it becomes the predominant gut bacteria causing diarrhea, abdominal pain, and toxic megacolon.  Repeated treatments select for infections that are progressively more difficult to treat.  C. difficile infections kill more than 25,000 people a year in the US.  Fecal transplants, especially enabled by stool-banking, reintroduce competitive bacteria that limit the success of C. difficile and cure patients with previously recurrent infections.  But the F.D.A. has not approved such transplants as a treatment and the procedure is not covered by insurance. 
  
  ;
  
• Clashing medications
• Delirium, which impacts more than 50% of older hospitalized patients, is common among the cognitively impaired. 
  
• High cost of ED medicine and hospitalization. 
  

• Performed physical exams and ran EKG or ECG is electrocardiogram which generates a record of the heart's activity. 
  s. 
• Treated breathing problems with nebulizers
• Administered diuretics and oxygen for heart failure is congestive heart failure which occurs when the heart is unable to generate enough blood flow to meet the body's demands.  There are two main types: failure due to left ventricular dysfunction and abnormal diastolic function increasing the stiffness of the left ventricle and decreasing its relaxation.  Heart expansion in CHF distorts the mitral valve which exacerbates the problems.  MitraClip surgery trials found effective in correcting the mitral valve damage (Sep 2018).  Treatments include: digoxin; symptoms
• Provided IV fluids for dehydration 
  

• Texas based Medstar usually makes scheduled visits rather than responding to emergency calls.  It teaches patients how to manage their chronic problems. 
  

• Additional training
• A team approach
• Emphasis on preventing unnecessary transportation. 
  

• Foundation grants
• Referral payments
• Hospital financed programs. 
  

Aug 2016 NYT With Room Service and More, Hospitals Borrow From Hotels

• Amenities can improve health outcomes by reducing stress is a multi-faceted condition reflecting high cortisol levels.  Dr. Robert Sapolsky's studies of baboons indicate that stress helps build readiness for fight or flight.  As these actions occur the levels of cortisol return to the baseline rate.  A stressor is anything that disrupts the regular homeostatic balance.  The stress response is the array of neural and endocrine changes that occur to respond effectively to the crisis and reestablish homeostasis. 
  
  • The short term response to the stressor
    
  • activates the amygdala which: Stimulates the brain stem resulting in inhibition of the parasympathetic nervous system and activation of the sympathetic nervous system with the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine deployed around the body, Activates the PVN which generates a cascade resulting in glucocorticoid secretion to: get energy to the muscles with increased blood pressure for a powerful response.  The brain's acuity and cognition are stimulated.  The immune system is stimulated with beta-endorphin and repair activities curtail.  In order for the body to destroy bacteria in wounds, pro-inflammatory cytokines increase blood flow to the area.  The induced inflammation signals the brain to activate the insula and through it the ACC.  But when the stressor is
    
  • long term: loneliness, debt; and no action is necessary, or possible, long term damage ensues.  Damage from such stress may only occur in specific situations: Nuclear families coping with parents moving in.  Sustained stress provides an evolved amplifier of a position of dominance and status.  It is a strategy in female aggression used to limit reproductive competition.  Sustained stress:
    
  • Stops the frontal cortex from ensuring we do the harder thing, instead substituting amplification of the individual's propensity for risk-taking and impairing risk assessment! 
    
  • Activates the integration between the thalamus and amygdala. 
    
  • Acts differently on the amygdala in comparison to the frontal cortex and hippocampus: Stress strengthens the integration between the Amygdala and the hippocampus, making the hippocampus fearful. 
    
  • BLA & BNST respond with increased BDNF levels and expanded dendrites persistently increasing anxiety and fear conditioning. 
    
  • Makes it easier to learn a fear association and to consolidate it into long-term memory.  Sustained stress makes it harder to unlearn fear by making the prefrontal cortex inhibit the BLA from learning to break the fear association and weakening the prefrontal cortex's hold over the amygdala.  And glucocorticoids decrease activation of the medial prefrontal cortex during processing of emotional faces.  Accuracy of assessing emotions from faces suffers.  A terrified rat generating lots of glucocorticoids will cause dendrites in the hippocampus to atrophy but when it generates the same amount from excitement of running on a wheel the dendrites expand.  The activation of the amygdala seems to determine how the hippocampus responds. 
    
  • Depletes the nucleus accumbens of dopamine biasing rats toward social subordination and biasing humans toward depression. 
    
  • Disrupts working memory by amplifying norepinephrine signalling in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala to prefrontal cortex signalling until they become destructive.  It also desynchronizes activation in different frontal lobe regions impacting shifting of attention.  
  • Increases the risk of autoimmune disease (Jan 2017) 
  • During depression, stress inhibits dopamine signalling.  
  • Strategies for stress reduction include: Mindfulness. 
    
  and anxiety is manifested in the amygdala mediating inhibition of dopamine rewards.  Anxiety disorders are now seen as a related cluster, including PTSD, panic attacks, and phobias.  Major anxiety, is typically episodic, correlated with increased activity in the amygdala, results in elevated glucocorticoids and reduces hippocampal dendrite & spine density.  Some estrogen receptor variants are associated with anxiety in women.  Women are four times more likely to suffer from anxiety.  Louann Brizendine concludes this helps prepare mothers, so they are ready to protect their children.  Michael Pollan concludes anxiety is fear of the future.  Sufferers of mild autism often develop anxiety disorders.  Treatments for anxiety differ.  50 to 70% of people with generalized anxiety respond to drugs increasing serotonin concentrations, where there is relief from symptoms: worry, guilt; linked to depression, which are treated with SSRIs (Prozac).  Cognitive anxiety (extreme for worries and anxious thoughts) is also helped by yoga.  But many fear-related disorders respond better to psychotherapy: psychoanalysis, and intensive CBT.  Tara Brach notes that genuine freedom from fear is enabled by taking refuge. 
  among patients. 
  
• Private rooms can cut down on the transfer of disease. 
  

• Attracting patients with private insurance who have a choice in where they receive care.  This includes competing for international patients against hospitals in Singapore, Bangkok etc. 
  
• Encouraging word-of-mouth recommendations. 
  

• Curved hallway walls
• Sound proofing
• More friendly gathering spaces
• Cupboards to keep instruments out of sight. 
  

Dec 2018 NYT Why New York Lags So Far Behind on Natural Childbirth

• Mount Sinai West, 
• New York Presbyterian's Allen Hospital & Lower Manhattan Hospital, 
• Bellevue; have reduced natural birthing services & associated infrastructure
  

• Reducing available facilities &
  
• Encouraging hospitals to seek profitable FFS is fee-for-service payment.  For health care providers the high profits were made in hospitalizations, imaging and surgery.  Due to its inducing excessive treatment activity it may be replaced by FFV bundled payment.   interventions:
  
• C-section (is reimbursed for $10,000 more than a vaginal birth), 
• Episiotomies is an incision made in the perineum and posterior vaginal wall to assist with childbirth. 
  & 
• sleep facilitates salient memory formation and removal of non-salient memories.  The five different stages of the nightly sleep cycles support different aspects of memory formation.  The sleep stages follow Pre-sleep and include: Stage one characterized by light sleep and lasting 10 minutes, Stage two where theta waves and sleep spindles occur, Stage three and Stage four together represent deep slow-wave sleep (SWS) with delta waves, Stage five is REM sleep; sleep cycles last between 90-110 minutes each and as the night progresses SWS times reduce and REM times increase.   Sleep includes the operation of synapse synthesis and maintenance through DNA based activity including membrane trafficking, synaptic vesicle recycling, myelin structural protein formation and cholesterol and protein synthesis.  Sleep also controls inflammation (Jan 2019)  Sleep deprivation undermines the thalamus & nucleus accumbens management of pain. 
  injections. 
  

• African Americans die in childbirth 12 times more often than whites,
  
• Home births are viewed as risky, is an assessment of the likelihood of an independent problem occurring.  It can be assigned an accurate probability since it is independent of other variables in the system.  As such it is different from uncertainty. 
  , and insurance is out of network for midwifes who do home birthing. 
  

Mar 2014 NYT Repurposing Closed Hospitals as For-Profit Medical Malls

• Urgent care centers is an efficient and less costly 'alternative' to the ER.  There is no accepted standard.  Urgent care clinics also compete with Primary care based on extended hours and accessible locations including Medical Malls.  Most have a physician on staff and treat ailments like feavers, sprains and sinus and urinary tract infection, but they also can perform X-rays, stitch up cuts and set broken bones.  Unlike an ER they can not admit patients to a hospital.  Some also offer services like pre-employment drug screening and summer camp physicals. 
  - leveraging the ED is emergency department.  Pain is the main reason (75%) patients go to an E.D.  It has traditionally been part of an acute care hospital but recently is being deployed standalone as a catchment funnel to the owning hospital.  The EMTALA legislation requires E.D. treatment to stabilize every person seeking treatment by most hospitals.  Unreimbursed care is supported from federal government funds.  E. D. profitability has been helped by hospitals contracting with 3rd party companies who are able to improve margins through surprise billing.  The standalone E.D. competes with the positioning and brand power of lower cost urgent care clinics.  Commercial nature of care requires walk-ins to register to gain access to care.  With the focus on treatment of pain, E.D.s are a major distributor of opioids (5% of opioid prescriptions) and a major starting point of addiction in patients but are cutting back (Jun 2016). 
  buildings,
  
• subacute care based on the inpatient floor,
  
• Doctors' offices,
  
• Dialysis centers,
  
• Outpatient surgical centers leveraging the operating theaters. 
  

Jul 2014 NYT E.R., Not a Hospital, Is Set to Open at St. Vincent's Site

Apr 2018 NYT An E.R. That Treats You Like a V.I.P.

• Mount Sinai Hospital - Exclusive Services Department
• Hospital for Special Surgery - Ambassador Services
  
• Weill Cornell Medicine - International Patient Services
  

Jun 2017 NYT The Doctor Is In,  Co-Pay? $40,000. 

Jul 2014 NYT The Long Wait to See a Doctor

• Increase PCP is a Primary Care Physician.  PCPs are viewed by legislators and regulators as central to the effective management of care.  When coordinated care had worked the PCP is a key participant.  In most successful cases they are central.  In certain Medicare ACO models (Pioneer) PCPs are committed to achieve meaningful use requirements.  Working against this is the: replacement of diagnostic skills by technological solutions, low FFS leverage of the PCP compared to specialists, demotivation of battling prior authorization for expensive treatments. 
  s,
• Allow nurses and physician's assistants to provide more care
• Open more primary care clinics. 
  
• Add political pressure to reduce wait times - as happened in Britain. 
  

Sep 2017 NYT For Many Medical Students, the Caribbean Was Warm and Welcoming.  Until Now. 

• Arguing they provide inferior education
• Limiting access to clinical rotations the Caribbean trained students need to graduate. 
  

Jan 2019 SJMN How Much Is That Aspirin At The Hospital?

• UCSF Medical Center:
• 325 Mg Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is a pain, fever and inflammation medicine.  It is a platelet aggregation inhibitor.  While its NNT is 2000 for cardiovascular disease prophylaxis, it is so cheap that this strategy is still important.  It has been found beneficial in limiting esophageal cancer. 
  $0.00
• ED is emergency department.  Pain is the main reason (75%) patients go to an E.D.  It has traditionally been part of an acute care hospital but recently is being deployed standalone as a catchment funnel to the owning hospital.  The EMTALA legislation requires E.D. treatment to stabilize every person seeking treatment by most hospitals.  Unreimbursed care is supported from federal government funds.  E. D. profitability has been helped by hospitals contracting with 3rd party companies who are able to improve margins through surprise billing.  The standalone E.D. competes with the positioning and brand power of lower cost urgent care clinics.  Commercial nature of care requires walk-ins to register to gain access to care.  With the focus on treatment of pain, E.D.s are a major distributor of opioids (5% of opioid prescriptions) and a major starting point of addiction in patients but are cutting back (Jun 2016). 
  (level 2) $922.00
• Vaginal delivery $5,497.00
  
• Chest X-ray $2,618.00
• Penicillin V $10.00
  
• Santa Clara Valley Medical Center: 
• 325 Mg Aspirin $1.02
• ED (level 2) $662.00
• Vaginal delivery $10,970.00
• Chest X-ray $358.00
• Penicillin V $15.19
  
• Stanford University Hospital: 
• 325 Mg Aspirin N/A
• ED (level 2) $1,477.00
• Vaginal delivery $4,962.00
• Chest X-ray $771.00
• Penicillin V N/A
  
• John Muir Medical Center - Walnut Creek:
• 325 Mg Aspirin $0.30
• ED (level 2) $1,489.50
• Vaginal delivery $4,607.75
  
• Chest X-ray $242.75.00
• Penicillin V $9.30
  
• San Mateo Medical Center: 
• 325 Mg Aspirin $4.08
• ED (level 2) $235.00
• Vaginal delivery $2,757.00
• Chest X-ray $278.00
• Penicillin V $2.90
  
• Seton Medical Center: 
• 325 Mg Aspirin N/A
• ED (level 2) $1,430.00
• Vaginal delivery N/A
• Chest X-ray $698.00
• Penicillin V $2.00
  
• Good Samaritan Hospital, San Jose: 
• 325 Mg Aspirin $4.00
• ED (level 2) $2,176.00
• Vaginal delivery $9,638.00
• Chest X-ray $1,129.00
• Penicillin V $52.50
  
• Highland Hospital: 
• 325 Mg Aspirin $7.00
• ED (level 2) $1,029.00
• Vaginal delivery $3,994.00
• Chest X-ray $131.00
• Penicillin V N/A
  
• Alta Bates Summit Medical Center - Alta Bates Campus: 
• 325 Mg Aspirin N/A
• ED (level 2) $1,013.00
• Vaginal delivery $5,126.00
• Chest X-ray $565.00
• Penicillin V $15.00
  
• Lucile Packard Children's Hospital: 
• 325 Mg Aspirin $1.40
• ED (level 2) N/A
• Vaginal delivery $6,248.00
• Chest X-ray $1,162.00
• Penicillin V $23.91
  
• Washington Hospital - Freemont: 
• 325 Mg Aspirin $0.00
• ED (level 2) $632.68
• Vaginal delivery $2,500
• Chest X-ray $490.58.00
• Penicillin V $20.31
  
• Kaiser Permanente Hospital - Santa Clara: 
• 325 Mg Aspirin $2.08
• ED (level 2) $1,148.00
• Vaginal delivery $12,566
• Chest X-ray $600.00
• Penicillin V $2.89
  
• Marin General Hospital: 
• 325 Mg Aspirin $1.99
• ED (level 2) $1,127.86
• Vaginal delivery $6,659.10
• Chest X-ray $575.00
• Penicillin V $7.00
  
• Dominican Hospital:
  
• Children's Hospital & Research Center, Oakland:
  
• 325 Mg Aspirin $5.18
• ED (level 2) $1,152.00
• Vaginal delivery N/A
• Chest X-ray $683.00
• Penicillin V $7.19
  

May 2019 NYT Many Hospitals Charge Double or Even Triple What Medicare Would Pay

• Alta Vista Regional Hospital, found the most expensive 6.5*
• College Station Medical Center, 6*
• Midwestern Regional Medical Center, 5.9*
• Colorado Plains Medical Center, 5.8*
• Franciscan Health Crawfordsville, 5.3*
• University of Kentucky Hospital, 5.3*
• Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center, 5.1*
• Evanston Regional Hospital, 5.1*
• Memorial Medical Center, 5*
  
• Parkview Health, 5*
• -------------------
• Eastern Niagra Hospital, 1*
  
• Harris Health System, 1*
  
• Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital, 1*
  
• UPMC Hamot, 1*
  
• Eaton Rapids Medical Center, 1*
  
• UHealth Tower, 1*
  
• Medical Center Hospital, 1*
  
• Woman's Hospital of Texas, 1*
  
• Jackson Park Hospital; the least expensive .95*
  

Nov 2016 NYT First Came the Emergency.  Then Came the Surprise. 

• Out-of-network bills cost on average $900 ranging up to $19,000. 
• Wide variation across the country.  McAllen Texas surprise billing rate was 89% while Boulder, Colorado was near 0%. 
  
• When people attend an ED they have little choice about who attends them. 
  

• Only affect a fraction of insurance customers. 
  
• Employer insured patients are covered by federal law. 
• They work by setting up dispute resolution procedures, requiring patients to know they can go to state authorities to fight a big bill.  

• Patients were much less likely to face unexpected bills than the study suggested. 
  
• They have funded their own analysis in Florida which studied balanced billing is when an out-of-network provider bills the patient for the balance of the bill not covered by the insurer.  These charges are not capped by the ACA's out-of-pocket maximum.   and found the charges to the patient were a couple of hundred dollars on average.  Dr. Rebecca Parker said "Our balance bills are less than a couple of hundred dollars, on average."  She asserted "This is insurance company bad behavior."  ACEP consider Insurers are not paying the physicians enough, so doctors refuse to be part of their networks. 
  

Jul 2017 NYT The Company Behind Many Surprise Emergency Room Bills

• Hospitals will benefit from the increased billing charges. 
• EmCare is now one of the nation's largest ED is emergency department.  Pain is the main reason (75%) patients go to an E.D.  It has traditionally been part of an acute care hospital but recently is being deployed standalone as a catchment funnel to the owning hospital.  The EMTALA legislation requires E.D. treatment to stabilize every person seeking treatment by most hospitals.  Unreimbursed care is supported from federal government funds.  E. D. profitability has been helped by hospitals contracting with 3rd party companies who are able to improve margins through surprise billing.  The standalone E.D. competes with the positioning and brand power of lower cost urgent care clinics.  Commercial nature of care requires walk-ins to register to gain access to care.  With the focus on treatment of pain, E.D.s are a major distributor of opioids (5% of opioid prescriptions) and a major starting point of addiction in patients but are cutting back (Jun 2016). 
  physician-staffing companies. 

• The rate of out-of-network doctor's billing
• Rates of tests ordered
• Rates of patients admitted from the E.R. to the hospital
• The use of the highest billing codes

Sep 2018 NYT Blame Emergency Rooms for the Out-of-Control Cost of Health Care

• State regulations grant hospitals a monopoly is a power relation within:
  
  • A state in which a group has enough power to enforce its will on other citizens.  If this is a central authority with a cohesive military, it can overpower other warlords and stabilize the society. 
    
  • An economy in which one business has enough share in a market segment to control margins to its advantage.  An economic monopoly can be broadly beneficial: AT&T monopoly, US patent monopoly rights;
    
  control of ED patients, allowing them to charge what ever they like.  Insurance is required to cover the visit, even if it is out of network.  
• The regulations are structured to ensure timely access to needed care. 
  
• Even so some patients wait hours.  Some are impacted by additional charges. 
  
• He concedes the regulations achieve their goal. 
  

• The rules give hospitals significant pricing power in their negotiations with insurers. 
  
• Hospitals have learned that for ED patients they can set high prices, and if the insurers refuse to pay, by cancelling the contract the patient becomes out of network and the insurer will have to pay the billed charge is a hospital's undiscounted chargemaster bill for a procedure.  In the ED it will include a high facility fee, and each seperate procedure, which may be due to strategic billing, can be upcoded (1 - 5) depending on its complexity.  It is found that hospitals are increasingly upcoding to level 4 or 5 (serious auto accident) for provision of basic care.  While in-network insurance constrains the actual charges a hospital can make, the use of ED contract staff, not bound by the patients insurance contract with the hospital, can result in surprise billing. 
  .  
• Half of all hospital admissions are through the ED. 
  
• California data for 2002 to 2016 indicates billed charges rose by $263 billion to $386 billion for the same volume of patients.  This provided the hospitals negotiating power to push up in network charges, resulting in a 200% increase in payments for all care to $7,200 per day or risk paying $19,500 per day for non-contract ED admissions. 
  
• As hospitals acquire medical groups and other outpatient service centers they are using ED pricing ultimatums to push up contracted prices for these additional areas. 
  
• These high insurance payments are reflected back to subscribers as higher premiums. 
  

Jul 2014 NYT Race Is On to Profit From Rise of Urgent Care

• Wall St. financial backing (General Atlantic, Sequoia, PineBridge, Pulse). 
• A cultural is how we do and think about things, transmitted by non-genetic means as defined by Frans de Waal.  CAS theory views cultures as operating via memetic schemata evolved by memetic operators to support a cultural superorganism.  Evolutionary psychology asserts that human culture reflects adaptations generated while hunting and gathering.  Dehaene views culture as essentially human, shaped by exaptations and reading, transmitted with support of the neuronal workspace and stabilized by neuronal recycling.  Damasio notes prokaryotes and social insects have developed cultural social behaviors.  Sapolsky argues that parents must show children how to transform their genetically derived capabilities into a culturally effective toolset.  He is interested in the broad differences across cultures of: Life expectancy, GDP, Death in childbirth, Violence, Chronic bullying, Gender equality, Happiness, Response to cheating, Individualist or collectivist, Enforcing honor, Approach to hierarchy; illustrating how different a person's life will be depending on the culture where they are raised.  Culture:
  • Is deployed during pregnancy & childhood, with parental mediation.  Nutrients, immune messages and hormones all affect the prenatal brain.  Hormones: Testosterone with anti-Mullerian hormone masculinizes the brain by entering target cells and after conversion to estrogen binding to intracellular estrogen receptors; have organizational effects producing lifelong changes.  Parenting style typically produces adults who adopt the same approach.  And mothering style can alter gene regulation in the fetus in ways that transfer epigenetically to future generations!  PMS symptoms vary by culture. 
    
  • Is also significantly transmitted to children by their peers during play.  So parents try to control their children's peer group.  
  • Is transmitted to children by their neighborhoods, tribes, nations etc. 
    
  • Influences the parenting style that is considered appropriate. 
    
  • Can transform dominance into honor.  There are ecological correlates of adopting honor cultures.  Parents in honor cultures are typically authoritarian. 
    
  • Is strongly adapted across a meta-ethnic frontier according to Turchin.  
  • Across Europe was shaped by the Carolingian empire. 
    
  • Can provide varying levels of support for innovation.  Damasio suggests culture is influenced by feelings: 
    
  • As motives for intellectual creation: prompting detection and diagnosis of homeostatic deficiencies, identifying desirable states worthy of creative effort.
    
  • As monitors of the success and failure of cultural instruments and practices
  • As participants in the negotiation of adjustments required by the cultural process over time 
  • Produces consciousness according to Dennet. 
    
  shift is occurring - expectations are for 24 hour access to services like banking and shopping.  And cost is an issue.  Cost differences are important to insurers and consumers with high deductables. 
  
• ACA is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Obama care).  In part it is designed to make the health care system costs grow slower.  It aims to do this by: increasing competition between insurers and providers, offering free preventative services to limit the development of serious illnesses, constraining patients' use of expensive services, constraining the growth of payments to Medicare providers and piloting new ways for PCPs to manage patient care to keep patients away from costly E.D.s.  It funds these changes with increased taxes on the wealthy.  It follows an architecture developed by Heritage Action's Butler, Moffit, Haislmaier extended by White House OMB health policy advisor Ezekiel Emanuel & architect Jeanne Lambrew.  The Obama administration drafting team included: Bob Kocher; allowing it to integrate ideas from: Dartmouth Institute's Elliot Fischer (ACO).  The ACA did not include a Medicare buy in (May 2016).  The law includes:
  • Alterations, in title I, to how health care is paid for and who is covered.  This has been altered to ensure
    
  • Americans with preexisting conditions get health insurance cover - buttressed by mandating community rating and
    
  • That they are constrained by the individual mandate to have insurance but the requirement was supported by subsidies for the poor (those with incomes between 100 & 400% of the federal poverty line).  
  • Children, allowed to, stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. 
    
  • Medicare solvency improvements. 
    
  • Medicaid expansion, in title II: to poor with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line; an expansion which was subsequently constrained by the Supreme Court's ruling making expansion an optional state government decision. 
    
  • Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enforced by CMS mandated rules finalized in 2011 and effected starting Oct 2012.  
  • Medical home models.  
  • Community transformation grants support the transformation of low income stressed neighborhoods to improve their lifestyles and health. 
    
  • Qualifications for ACOs.  Organizations must:
    
  • Establish a formal legal structure with shared governance which allows the ACO to distribute shared savings payments to participating providers and suppliers. 
    
  • Participate in the MSSP for three or more years. 
    
  • Have a management structure. 
    
  • Have clinical and administrative systems. 
    
  • Include enough PCPs to care for Medicare FFS patient population (> 5000) assigned to the ACO. 
    
  • Be accountable for the quality and cost of care provided to the Medicare FFS patient population. 
    
  • Have defined processes to promote: Evidence-based medicine, Patient-centeredness, Quality reporting, Cost management, Coordination of care; 
  • Demonstrate it meets HHS patient-centeredness criteria including use of patient and caregiver assessments and individualized care plans.  
  • CMMI Medicare payment experimentation.  
  • Requirements that pharmaceutical companies must report payments made to physicians (Sunshine Act). 
    
  • A requirement that chain restaurants must report calorie counts on their menus. 
    
  newly insured Americans are seeking care. 
  
• People are frustrated with the long wait times at ED is emergency department.  Pain is the main reason (75%) patients go to an E.D.  It has traditionally been part of an acute care hospital but recently is being deployed standalone as a catchment funnel to the owning hospital.  The EMTALA legislation requires E.D. treatment to stabilize every person seeking treatment by most hospitals.  Unreimbursed care is supported from federal government funds.  E. D. profitability has been helped by hospitals contracting with 3rd party companies who are able to improve margins through surprise billing.  The standalone E.D. competes with the positioning and brand power of lower cost urgent care clinics.  Commercial nature of care requires walk-ins to register to gain access to care.  With the focus on treatment of pain, E.D.s are a major distributor of opioids (5% of opioid prescriptions) and a major starting point of addiction in patients but are cutting back (Jun 2016). 
  s.  
• People don't accept the limited access times of PCPs.