Susan Jaffe

US federal health agencies questioned over Ebola response

Volume 384, Issue 9953, 25 October 2014

WORLD REPORT A congressional inquiry into the handling of Ebola in the USA has sparked new guidance to protect health-care workers. Susan Jaﬀe, The Lancet’s Washington correspondent, reports.

As US President Barack Obama ramped up the country’s response to the Ebola crisis domestically and abroad (panel), his top health officials attempted, during a tense congressional hearing last week, to address potential solutions to the epidemic ravaging west Africa, which has now reached the USA, confronting emergency medical providers at a well regarded hospital in Dallas, Texas.

But the Republican-controlled House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce, which undertook the inquiry, did not seem particularly interested in discussing additional long-term investments in medical research—there is currently no cure for the disease—or the need to shore up, if not create, health-care infrastructure in the west African countries where more than 4500 people have died of the disease.

“To protect the USA, we have to stop it at the source”, said Tom Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at the hearing. “There is a lot of fear of Ebola, and…one of the things I fear about Ebola is that it could spread more widely in Africa. If this were to happen, it could become a threat to our health system and the health care we give for a long time to come.” [MORE full text or PDF ]

Long term care, Observation care

Hospitals Required To Tell Patients Of Observation Care Status

By Susan Jaffe | September 30, 2014
Connecticut Health Investigative Team and The Hartford Courant

Starting Wednesday, a new state law requires Connecticut hospitals to tell all patients when they are being kept in the hospital for observation instead of being admitted and to warn them about the financial consequences.

Anyone who goes to the hospital can be placed on observation status, so that doctors can determine what’s wrong, and decide whether the patient is sick enough to be admitted or well enough to go home. Observation patients may receive diagnostic tests, medications, some treatment, and other outpatient services. Depending on their insurance, they can be charged a share of the cost. In addition to hospital bills, Medicare observation patients whose doctors order follow-up nursing home care will have to pay the nursing home themselves. Medicare covers nursing homes only after seniors are admitted to the hospital and stay through three consecutive midnights. A month in a Connecticut nursing home can cost as much as $15,000.

Medicare does not require hospitals to tell patients when they are getting observation care and what it means. And the number of Medicare observation patients is growing rapidly — 88 percent in the past six years, to 1.8 million nationally in 2012, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, an independent government agency.

…Meanwhile, more states are trying to address the situation. Connecticut becomes at least the third state in the nation, after New York and Maryland to require notification for observation status. Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are considering similar laws. CONTINUED in Connecticut Health Investigative Team CONTINUED in The Courant

FDA, The Lancet

US President’s science panel advises on antibiotic resistance

Volume 384, Issue 9948, 20 September 2014

WORLD REPORT The US President’s science council will soon publish its long-awaited report on antibiotic resistance. But will it affect the debate? Washington Correspondent Susan Jaﬀe reports.

Since its reformation 5 years ago, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) has grappled with some of the most difficult scientific controversies, including climate change and cybersecurity. In the next few weeks, the council will issue recommendations for controlling antibiotic resistance. “Antibiotic-resistant infections are associated with an additional 23 000 deaths in the USA each year”, Eric Lander, the report’s cochair, told The Lancet. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that the economic effect of antibiotic-resistant infections is at least US$50 billion annually in direct health-care costs and lost productivity. [MORE] [PDF]

Long term care, Observation care

You’re Being Observed In The Hospital? Patients With Private Insurance Better Off Than Seniors

By Susan Jaffe KAISER HEALTH NEWS | September 11, 2014 | This KHN story also ran in

An increasing number of seniors who spend time in the hospital are surprised to learn that they were not “admitted” patients — even though they may have stayed overnight in a hospital bed and received treatment, diagnostic tests and drugs.

Because they were not considered sick enough to require admission but also were not healthy enough to go home, they were kept for observation care, a type of outpatient service. The distinction between inpatient status and outpatient status matters: Seniors must have three consecutive days as admitted patients to qualify for Medicare coverage for follow-up nursing home care, and no amount of observation time counts for that three-day tally. That leaves some observation patients with a tough choice: Pay the nursing home bill themselves — often tens of thousands of dollars – or go home without the care their doctor prescribed and recover as best they can.

But most observation patients with private health insurance don’t face such tough choices. Private insurance policies generally pay for nursing home coverage whether a patient had been admitted or not. Here’s a primer comparing how Medicare and private insurers handle observation care. [Continued in KHN] [Continued in Washington Post]

NIH, The Lancet

Congress stalls on BRAIN Initiative funding

16 August 2014

WORLD REPORT US Congress is yet to decide next year’s funds for the BRAIN Initiative. Meanwhile, researchers move ahead with initial grants and a scientific plan. Washington correspondent Susan Jaﬀe reports.

The US National Institutes of Health is expected to announce next month the recipients of the first US$40 million in research grants to be awarded under President Barack Obama’s ambitious brain research project he says will give scientists the tools to discover “how we think and how we learn and how we remember.”

Despite uncertain future funding, Obama’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative is moving ahead. At the White House a year ago, the president compared it to the Apollo space mission that landed a man on the moon, GPS technology, and even the creation of the internet. “All these things grew out of government investments in basic research”, he said. [MORE]

Medicare Advantage, Medicare costs, Observation care

Medicare Testing Payment Options That Could End Observation Care Penalties

By Susan Jaffe KAISER HEALTH NEWS | July 22, 2014 | This KHN story also ran in

Medicare officials have allowed patients at dozens of hospitals participating in pilot projects across the country to be exempted from the controversial requirement that limits nursing home coverage to seniors admitted to a hospital for at least three days.

The idea behind these experiments is to find out whether new payment arrangements with the hospitals and other health care providers that drop the three-day rule can reduce costs or keep them the same while improving the quality of care. They are conducted under a provision of the Affordable Care Act that created the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovations to develop ways of improving Medicare.

If the experiment saves Medicare money and improves care, “we should be able to make an argument to Medicare that there is a way to do it for all our patients,” said Dr. Eric Weil, clinical affairs associate chief for the general internal medicine division at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The hospital is one of five in the Partners Health System that began offering the waiver in April, after testing a limited version.

“It gets patients to the care they need much quicker and prevents them from clinically declining at home,” said Weil. If patients can spend less time in the hospital, he said that frees up valuable resources for sicker patients. And it saves money for Medicare because nursing home care or home health care is cheaper than a hospital stay. [Continued in KHN] [Continued in Washington Post]

Drugs, Long term care

Medicare Modifies Controversial Hospice Drug Rule

By Susan Jaffe | July 18th, 2014 | KAISER HEALTH NEWS

In response to strong criticism, Medicare officials are modifying rules intended to prevent the agency from paying twice for the same prescriptions for seniors receiving hospice care.

Under the rules that took effect in May, hospice patients or their families could not fill prescriptions through their Part D drug plans until first confirming that the prescriptions were not covered by hospice providers. Drugs related to palliative and comfort care are supposed to be covered under the fixed rate payments to the hospice.

Medicare announced Friday that the rules would be revised so that the additional authorization would be required for only four types of medications: pain relievers, anti-nauseants, laxatives, and anti-anxiety drugs that are “nearly always” considered hospice-related.

“Medicare really tried to address our concerns quickly and effectively,” said Terry Berthelot, a senior attorney at the Center for Medicare Advocacy. [MORE]

Observation care

FAQ: Hospital Observation Care Can Be Costly For Medicare Patients

By Susan Jaffe | UPDATED June 18, 2014 | KAISER HEALTH NEWS

Some seniors think Medicare made a mistake. Others are just stunned when they find out that being in a hospital for days doesn’t always mean they were actually admitted.

Instead, they received observation care, considered by Medicare to be an outpatient service. Yet, a recent government investigation found that observation patients often have the same health problems as those who are admitted. But the observation designation means they can have higher out-of-pocket expenses and fewer Medicare benefits. Here are some common questions and answers about observation care and the coverage gap that can result. [MORE]

Affordable Care Act, The Lancet

Diabetes, obesity, and the Affordable Care Act

Diabetes & Endocrinology, 9 June 2014

Under the new health law, Americans with chronic disorders cannot be denied health insurance. Susan Jaﬀe reports from Washington, DC.

Before President Barack Obama’s landmark health law took effect, obtaining affordable health insurance could be difficult for Americans with diabetes or obesity, if not impossible. Insurers that didn’t turn diabetic patients away could charge higher rates because these individuals had a pre-existing health problem, or they could exclude coverage for certain treatments for diabetes or other chronic disorders. Now such practices are prohibited under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)…but some insurers’ “bad habits” still linger. [MORE]

Long term care, NIH, Physical therapy

PCORI, NIH Announce Plans For $30 Million Study On Falls

By Susan Jaffe June 5,2014 KAISER HEALTH NEWS in collaboration with

The nation’s largest and most intensive study of how to best prevent seniors’ injuries from falling will begin next year under a $30 million grant announced Wednesday by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and the National Institutes of Health. A diverse group of 6,000 adults over age 75 or their caregivers will be recruited around the country to participate in the study.

More than 18,000 seniors died as the result of falls in 2010, and thousands more are injured every year, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“A serious fall that leads to a bone fracture or hospitalization has been demonstrated to be one of the most devastating events in the life of an older person, comparable to a serious stroke,” said Dr. Thomas Gill, a geriatrician and professor at Yale School of Medicine and one of the study’s three principal investigators. [More from KHN] [More from Washington Post]

Appeals, Observation care

Medicare May Be Overpaying Hospitals For Patients Who Don’t Stay Long

By Susan Jaffe | Kaiser Health News in collaboration with National Public Radio | May 21, 2014, 9:35 a.m.

The federal government may be paying hospitals $5 billion too much as a result of an 18-month moratorium on enforcement of Medicare rules that tell hospitals when patients should be admitted, an independent Medicare auditing company told a congressional panel yesterday. The controversial rules were intended to reduce the increasing number of seniors hospitalized for observation but not admitted. If they have not been admitted to the hospital for at least three consecutive days, they are not eligible for follow-up nursing home coverage and may have higher out-of-pocket expenses while in the hospital. Medicare pays hospitals more for admitted patients than observation patients. MORE from NPR and Kaiser Health News

Affordable Care Act, The Lancet

Challenges loom for US health law as new insurance begins

Volume 383, Issue 9928, 3 May 2014

WORLD REPORT Millions of Americans met the mid-April extended deadline to enrol in coverage under the Affordable Care Act; now the real test of the law begins. Susan Jaﬀe reports from Washington, DC.

Just a few days after April’s extended enrolment deadline, President Barack Obama announced that some 8 million Americans had signed up for health insurance under his health-care law, exceeding the predictions dampened by a rocky rollout 6 months ago that prompted jokes on late-night talk shows, fuelled the opposition, and ultimately led to the resignation of his Health and Human Services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, the nation’s top health official.

“The repeal debate is and should be over”, Obama proclaimed, referring to the 54 times Republicans in the US House of Representatives have voted to repeal or modify the law. “The Affordable Care Act [ACA] is working.”

But even the programme’s supporters say the next few months will be crucial to its success. [MORE] [PDF]

Long term care, Medicare costs

Medicare Seeks To Stop Overpayments For Hospice Patients’ Drugs

By Susan Jaffe May 1,2014 KAISER HEALTH NEWS in collaboration with

New Medicare guidance taking effect today aims to stop the federal government from paying millions of dollars to hospice organizations and drug insurance plans for the same prescriptions for seniors. But the changes may make it more difficult for dying patients to get some medications, senior advocates and hospice providers say.

The new measures direct insurers not to pay for any prescriptions for hospice patients until they receive confirmation that the drugs are not covered instead by the hospice provider. Requiring additional authorization for these prescriptions will “prevent duplicate payments for drugs covered under the hospice benefit,” Medicare officials told hospice providers and insurers in a conference call three weeks ago. [More from KHN] [More from Washington Post]

Medicare Advantage

Feds Issue Rules To Protect Seniors Enrolled In Medicare Advantage Plans

By Susan Jaffe | April 8, 2014, 5:46 pm
Connecticut Health Investigative Team and The Hartford Courant

UnitedHealthcare’s decision last fall to drop thousands of doctors from its Medicare Advantage plans in Connecticut and across the country has spurred Medicare officials to improve protections for seniors who lose their doctors.The new measures were announced late Monday along with a slight increase in next year’s payment rates to Medicare Advantage insurers who provide policies as an alternative to the traditional government-run Medicare program.

Nearly 16 million older Americans have enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, including more than 147,000 in Connecticut, which requires members to get treatment only from a network of health care providers. They cannot change plans during the year if their doctor leaves their network….

“I doubt that CMS would have given this as much attention without patients, providers and advocates demonstrating how deep and broad the effect was and how much pain and anguish it caused,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal. CONTINUED in Connecticut Health Investigative Team CONTINUED in The Courant

Long term care, Medicare costs, Physical therapy

A Quiet ‘Sea Change’ in Medicare

By Susan Jaffe | March 25, 2014, 5:00 am

Ever since Cindy Hasz opened her geriatric care management business in San Diego 13 years ago, she has been fighting a losing battle for clients unable to get Medicare coverage for physical therapy because they “plateaued” and were not were not getting better.

“It has been standard operating procedure that patients will be discontinued from therapy services because they are not improving,” she said.

Glenda Jimmo at home in Lincoln, Vt., in 2012. (Paul O. Boisvert for The New York Times)

No more. In January, Medicare officials updated the agency’s policy manual — the rule book for everything Medicare does — to erase any notion that improvement is necessary to receive coverage for skilled care. That means Medicare now will pay for physical therapy, nursing care and other services for beneficiaries with chronic diseases like multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease in order to maintain their condition and prevent deterioration.

Articles most frequently emailed by NYTimes.com readers March 25, 2014 (click to enlarge)

But don’t look for an announcement about the changes in the mail, or even a prominent notice on the Medicare website. Medicare officials were required to inform health care providers, bill processors, auditors, Medicare Advantage plans, the 800-MEDICARE information line and appeals judges — but not beneficiaries. MORE

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