Tuesday Tidbits

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D Calif) and his Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak (D Mich) have written to 52 health insurance companies requesting, according to an AP report, the production of documents relating to

compensation paid to any company executive earning more than
$500,000 in any year from 2003 to 2008, and premiums paid by policy holders, claims payments, sales expenses, administrative expenses and profits, broken down by categories such as employer-provided coverage; individual coverage, Medicare and Medicaid.

The documents are due in mid-September. The AP report notes that "Nick Choate, a spokesman for Stupak, said * * * letters were not sent to other industry groups, some of which have been airing television advertising in support of Obama's call for legislation."

Modern Healthcare reports that the Obama administration is triangulating the public plan option in view of concerns raised by their health care reform allies.

“All I can tell you is that Sunday must have been a very slow news day because
here’s the bottom line: Absolutely nothing has changed,” Sebelius told attendees
of a Medicare fraud and abuse conference in Washington. “We continue to support
a public option.” * * * But Sebelius said that the administration is open to other
proposals. “If people have other ideas about how to accomplish these goals,
we'll look at those too,” she said. “But the public option is a very good way to
do this."

The Politico reports that "President Barack Obama plans an all-out push for health care reform legislation after Labor Day — but he is likely to find Congress and the media distracted by a series of thorny national security problems, including Guantanamo and Iran, which are set to come roaring back onto the national agenda."

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced yesterday that CMS "[d]emonstrations * * * continue to provide strong evidence that offering financial incentives for improving or delivering high quality care increases quality and can reduce the growth in Medicare expenditures." “'We continue to be encouraged by the progress of our ongoing programs that test value based-purchasing across a variety of health care services,' said Charlene Frizzera, Acting Administrator of CMS; 'Building on those efforts, we are pleased to announce the start of our Nursing Home Value-Based Purchasing Demonstration and two gainsharing demonstrations.'”

The Federal Trade Commission has released its 88 page long rulemaking governing the security of personal health records offered by non-HIPAA regulated entities such as Microsoft Healthvault and Google Health. Health Data Management reports that "Despite efforts of the FTC and the Department of Health and Human Services to harmonize separate rules governing notification of breaches, the FTC rule takes confusion to a new level and will require considerable study." The HHS rule governing HIPAA governed entities should be issued tomorrow.

Business Insurance reports that "The percentage of involuntarily terminated employees opting for COBRA continuing health insurance coverage has doubled since a federal subsidy program began, according to a [Hewitt Analysis] analysis [of 200 large employers] released Tuesday.