Mid-week update

Medscape Today is reporting that the American Medical Association and 109 other medical societies are urging Congress to use the peace dividend to fund a credible replacement for the sustainable rate of growth formula.  That formula is intended to set adjustments to Medicare Part B reimbursements to doctors but Congress has prevented the use of the formula for several years because it would slash those reimbursements.

Employee Benefit News reports that an Emory University researcher told the National Academy of Health Underwriters that  “The key,” [to saving costs on]  those whose lifestyle may lead to chronic diseases, such as being overweight, “is not to charge them more but engage them and keep them healthier, keep them out of the clinic, keep them from being readmitted to the hospital.” Hey, it's a lawyers job to belabor the obvious.

Meanwhile the AMA News complains that patients are confused when the preventive visit is "free" in accordance with the Affordable Care Act but the treatment of problems identified during the visit isn't. The solution apparently is to make everything free to the patient. This, of course, is the basic problem -- health insurance isn't insurance -- it's a price support for the medical industry.

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