Holiday Weekend Update

The FEHBlog hopes that everyone has been enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Congress returns to work yesterday after a Thanksgiving break. The Hill has its closer look at the week ahead column. One of the expiration of the Medicare Part B doctor reimbursement fix on December 31 confronts the lame duck Congress. The Hill reports that the latest CBO projection ups the cost of a one year fix from $18.5 billion to $25 billion. This may lead Congress to enact a shorter fix, e.g., to the end of March 2013 which would align with expiration of the continuing resolution funding the federal government.

The Federal Benefits Open Season continues through December 10, 2012. The Washingotn Post's Federal Diary column discussed Open Season last week.

Healthcare.gov now has working websites with fact sheets about the proposed rules on essential benefits  market reforms, and wellness programs issued last week. Modern Healthcare predicts more controversy over the essential benefits rule.

The FEHBlog is on record opposing federal laws dictating technology standards and rules in healthcare.  Another example of adverse consequence is found in the Kaiser Health News report about a study finding that offering patients online access to doctors -- a requirement of a 2009 federal law -- has increased the number of office visits. If this weren't a law, it would be easy to tweak the policy.

Another headscratcher is the AP report that "Mammograms have done surprisingly little to catch deadly breast cancers before they spread, a big U.S. study finds. At the same time, more than a million women have been treated for cancers that never would have threatened their lives, researchers estimate." The article notes that "Men have heard a similar message about PSA tests to screen for slow-growing prostate cancer, but it's relatively new to the debate over breast cancer screening." Medicine remains as much as art as a science. Here's a link to the NCI's fact sheet on mammography which recognizes a risk of overdiagnosis but on balance recommends a screening mammogram every other year for women over 40 years old.