Weekend Update

Congress remains on the campaign trail until November 12. The FEHBlog has been reading that further major ACA and related  regulations such as the omnibus HITECH Act rule will not be issued until sometime after the November 6 election which is not that far away.

The FEHBlog in an effort to illustrate that he has a life outside the law waxed rhapsodic about the National's win on Thursday. The FEHBlog was in the ball park on Friday but that Nationals loss is best described as the ecstasy and the agony. Suffice it to say that the FEHBlog has faith in the National's management and the team and there will be another season. (Also with respect to the Redskins which are still playing, RG3 is the real deal).

The FEHBlog ran across a useful website -- statereforum.org --  in the course of reading an AMA News article kvetching that most of the 24 states (including DC) have selected an essential health benefits benchmark using a popular, cost effective small employer plan. The article notes that "various medical organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, have voiced concerns that too many of the private benchmark plan options available to states would fall short on needed children’s benefits." The article concludes that if the state benchmark does not include all of the statutorily required benefit categories including pediatric oral and vision care then federal officials can fill that gap.

The AMA News also reports on the uptick in office visits to primary care physicians in particular crediting the ACA's preventive care mandate in part. The article illustrates the continuing importance of the fee for service payment model to doctors.  The FEHBlog has been reading about the problems created by that model for at least 20 years, but it continues to hang on. Two experts opine in the Wall Street Journal this morning that "The ultimate success of these Medicare innovations [mandated by the ACA to move away from the fee for service system] is unlikely unless the care-delivery system is controlled by salaried, primary-care physicians groups held accountable for staying within a budget," similar to Kaiser Permanente.