Monday Musings

• OPM issued swine flu guidance to federal agency heads today.

• The House and Senate leadership is moving forward with including the fast track budget reconciliation option for health care reform option in the budget resolution. The Hill newspaper discusses this development : "Although talk of bipartisanship has not disappeared, one thing is certain: The Democrats are moving aggressively ahead, even if they have to go it alone." A Hill newspaper article from last Friday reports on Senate Finance Committee chairman's approach to the public plan option:

  “The public option’s on the table,” Baucus said during remarks at the National
  Press Club. “Now, the public option might be to the side a little bit … but it’s
  still on the table,” he said.“We’re trying to get momentum going. We’ll get to
  the public option a little later,” Baucus said. “We don’t have to decide it yet.
  I say all that because it’s a hot button. ...“Let’s not forget: There’s an awful
  lot more here than the public option,” Baucus said, indicating that Democratic
  and Republican senators remain engaged in productive discussions on health
  reform.

  The Kaiser Foundation Capitol Hill Watch report indicates that at this briefing Sen. Baucus further explained that he does not wish to disrupt current employer sponsored coverage.

• The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions will be holding a hearing tomorrow about "Learning from the States: Individual State Experiences with Health Care Reform Coverage Initiatives in the Context of National Reform." The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Utah officials will be talking up their state's market based reforms.

• The New York Times reports today on the budding civil war between specialist physicians and general practioners over possible Obama administration changes to Medicare reimbursement designed to increase the number of GPs at the expense of specialists.

• Towers Perrin, the consulting firm, has released a report on value based insurance design, one of OPM's call letter initatives.