The Federal Coordinating Council was ended by the Affordable Care Act

NOTICE: The Federal Coordinating Council was ended by the Affordable Care Act.

Continue to read but the council was terminated by the ACA. 

The 15 member Council, named today in accordance with a Congressionally-mandate timeline, will assist the agencies of the Federal government, including HHS and the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense, as well as others, to coordinate comparative effectiveness and related health services research. The Recovery Act authorized $300 million for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, $400 million for the National Institutes of Health, and $400 million for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to support comparative effectiveness research.

Continue to read but the council was terminated by the ACA. 

The Council will not recommend clinical guidelines for payment, coverage or treatment. The Council will consider the needs of populations served by federal programs and opportunities to build and expand on current investments and priorities. It will also provide input on priorities for the $400 million fund in the Recovery Act that the Secretary will allocate to advance this type of research. Council members represent a diverse set of individuals and agencies; most of its members are clinicians. Representatives on the Council will address the impact on subpopulations.

NOTICE: The Federal Coordinating Council was ended by the Affordable Care Act.


Source: hhs.gov/recovery/programs/os/cerbios.html

$716 Billion Cut to Medicare meant to reduce Profits

As the Medicare political battle continues it's Seniors and People with Disabilities who are the pawns. Paul Ryan maintained that the changes [by ObamaCare] will force one of every six hospitals and nursing homes to go out of business and end Medicare Advantage — an option that allows the elderly to buy coverage from private insurers — for 4 million seniors.

The biggest and most contentious Medicare cuts total $415 billion. They come in the form of smaller annual increases in federal payments to hospitals, skilled nursing services and others providing goods and services to Medicare’s 50 million beneficiaries.

It's meant to keep private insurance from making excessive profits from Federal monies. Experts are divided on what difference the cuts will make, in part because they will only slowly be phased in over the next decade. It’s also just hard to know when the government is paying providers too much, said Joe Antos, a health-care economist at the American Enterprise Institute. “If we’re paying somebody too much, they don’t tell us,” Antos said. “I know, shocking.”

We need a system to determine the average cost of a particular procedure.  Today we have no idea.  Here in Tampa, FL, if you ask the local hospitals the price for an appendicitis each hospital gives you a different price range.  None are willing to disclose their fees.  This has to end!

Source:
canadafreepress.com
hhs.gov/recovery/programs/os/cerbios.html
go.bloomberg.com/p

Mitt says, "No Change to Medicare." Not True

A recent poll conducted by Kaiser Family Foundation and The Washington Post as the GOP

prepares for its national convention, finds that the Affordable Care Act is not the top health care priority among Republicans.

When it comes to Medicare it finds that among Republicans a majority (55%) prefer the idea of keeping Medicare as it is rather than changing to a system in which seniors are guaranteed a fixed amount of money that could be used to purchase coverage "either from traditional Medicare or from a list of private plans." Both Romney and Ryan have proposed converting Medicare into a premium support program, with the House Republican budget plan spearheaded by Ryan calling for such a change to begin in 2023.

Romney has not spelled out full details of his Medicare plan. But if it is based upon Ryan's, the budget office says it would rein in Medicare spending more forcefully than Obama has.*

So if using Ryann's plan, will wheelchair scooters still be paid by Medicare? 

Mauricio 
Source:
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: August 2012
*http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/16