Paul Levy, who used to battle the Mass. General/Brigham and Women's conglomeration when he was in charge at Beth Israel, continues the fight and writes that a posting for a vice president's job shows the behemoth shows little signs of slowing down what he says are its efforts to keep running the health-care show around here.
Only now Connecticut wants a slice of that because their site works while ours mostly doesn't.
The Globe reports on angry legislators confronting the governor's new point person on the failed new Health Connector site, who admitted she had no clue when it will be fixed.
Today is the deadline to buy insurance for Jan. 1 through the Mass. Health Connector, set up to sell insurance after Romneycare went into effect and now allegedly set up to sell insurance under Obamacare. DB Reiff is chronicling her efforts to buy insurance. At 9:32, she tweeted:
Now person tells me that system is down for maintenance and to call later today - after 2 1/2 hrs trying.
People already on subsidized Commonwealth Care plans recently had their deadlines for signing up with new Obamacareized plans extended from this week to the end of March because of problems with the sign-up system.
New York Times: Supreme Court Allows Health Care Law Largely to Stand.
Joe Gravellese: "Congratulations to Mitt Romney, whose signature policy achievement as governor scored a great victory today."
Prairie Rose Clayton: "Hey, hey, now, let's not forget he opened the liquor stores on Sundays."
The Supreme Judicial Court today overturned a law that prohibits certain legal immigrants from obtaining subsidized insurance from the state's Commonwealth Care program.
The court said saving money was the main rationale behind a law passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. Patrick limiting the number of immigrants who could sign up for Commonwealth Care - and saving money is not a good enough reason under the state constitution for "invidious discrimination against aliens."
WBUR reports on a group called MAIM that wanted to eliminate the requirement than individuals buy health insurance if they don't have employers who provide it.
Yeah, how dare Deval Patrick not excoriate Blue Cross Blue Shield for the $28 million it's paid out to its last two departing CEOs.
Blue Mass. Group posts some details of the plan to create new "accountable care organizations" of hospitals and doctors that would manage the overall care of groups of patients, in theory bringing down health-care prices - just like HMOs were supposed to do by managing the overall care of groups of patients.
WBUR reports and analyzes the implications to businesses and individual consumers.
No word yet on the new name; if they can't figure out which comes first, they could compromise and call it Brandeis Health Care.
Joanne Chang-Myers tweets:
Heath ins prems went up 32% for Flour w this renewal. Weighing alternatives-offering 2K deductible plan feels incred unfair to staff.
Via Adam Castiglioni.
The Globe reports.
Given the political risks of raising the penalties in a recession, Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, can't figure out if this is something just happening at the margins - health insurance being a benefit employers use to lure and keep workers - or something far more significant that could affect the national health-insurance system, which is based on ours.
Go back and go through an administrative appeals process - with the state insurance division, which just rejected the rate hikes - the judge told the insurers, WBUR reports.
Paul Levy, CEO at Beth Israel Deaconess (and, yes, a Charlie Baker backer), explains why Deval Patrick's attempt to regulate health-insurance premiums will fail because it ignores the monopolistic overhead charged by archrival Partners HealthCare - a factor Coakley noted in a report released just two weeks ago.
A report last week indicated the number of non-emergency visits to Massachusetts emergency rooms hasn't really dropped since the state began requiring everybody to have health insurance.
Anya Rader Wallack, whose Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation helped fund the report explains some of the reasons why - most notably, people seeking medical care after their normal practitioners have gone home for the day:
... suggests that one way to significantly reduce ED visits in Massachusetts for non-emergency conditions is simply by offering care during evening and early morning hours as well as on weekends, or by managing more primary care needs over the phone (something for which physicians seldom receive reimbursement). ...
Insure the people who actually apply for health insurance. Mike Mennonno provides the latest chapter in his saga to get coverage through MassHealth:
... It's a hassle. But the worst that can happen is I will be uninsured and assessed a penalty at tax time. The penalty in 2007 was a measly $219/year, which, frankly, is worth paying to avoid dealing with the clowns at MassHealth in Revere (I can only imagine the drab cubicles, stained carpets, antiquated computers, and the sad, angry race of cube-dwellers paying for their sins in this bureaucratic hell). In 2008 the penalties have increased as well. For me, it would come out to $420.
Still a bargain, in a way, when you think about it.
ChezNiki describes what it's like to actually be covered by one of the plans set up for people who don't have work-provided health insurance:
Mike Mennonno on the news that the state now thinks a lot of people who already have health insurance will have to buy even more under the state's new health-coverage law: Mass. "Universal Health Coverage" is the new Big Dig.
Which probably represents the first time ever that Mennonno and the Margolis Boys agree on something.
Looks like you might get to vote this fall on whether to add health care as a right guaranteed by the state constitution.
UPDATE: No, you won't.
Sushiesque posts photos of protesters outside today's legislative Constitutional Convention.
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
