Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Tuesday Tidbits

Joe Davidson of the Washington Post reports that two judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit have ruled that the FEHB Program must cover the same sex spouses of their court employees. These orders were issued in the context of the court's Employment Dispute Resolution Procedure. There is a federal court case pending in Massachusetts raising this issue in a setting that would create a precedent. I expect that Congress will act on the pending legislation to extend FEHB Program coverage to same sex domestic partners (H.R. 2517, S. 1102) before then.

Modern Healthcare reports that Sen. Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D Pa) and four colleagues have introduced a bill to extend the Recovery Act's COBRA / Temporary Continuation of Coverage subsidy from nine to fifteen months and to increase the subsidy from 65% to 75% of the premium.

The Associated Press is reporting about questions over the fairness of the 40% excise tax that the Senate leadership bill would impose on health plans whose premiums exceed a certain premium threshold as previously discussed in the FEHBlog. "Quite a conundrum" as Newman would say on Seinfeld.

U.S. Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orzag announced on his blog that "This [past] weekend, the Senate completed the OMB team when it confirmed Dan Gordon to lead the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP). Dan brings more than two decades of professional contracting experience to OMB, having most recently served as Acting General Counsel at GAO." This position is relevant to the FEHB Program because all FEHB plans are established by federal procurement contracts.

Finally, Melinda Beck of the Wall Street Journal reported on 20 health care advances for which to be thankful this week. I consider Ms. Beck to be the anti-Chicken Little.

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