Continued Glitches with Healthcare.gov

Be patient. That seems to be the preverbal advice coming from the Whitehouse as techies are still working on the glitches that are plaguing the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

So what is the latest in these round of fixes? Apparently new complications are replacing the old ones, and there doesn’t seem to be an answer so far to the complex Healthcare.gov website to date.

"Essentially what is happening is people are going through the entire process," Medicare spokeswoman Julie Bataille, who runs the daily call, told reporters. "As we have fixed certain pieces of functionality, like the account creation process, we're seeing volume go further down the application. We're identifying new issues that we need to be in a position to troubleshoot."

Bataille also told reporters that she’s hoping to have the website operating functionally by the end of the month, giving American a grand total of two full months without an efficient website for the anticipated insurance exchanges. Indeed the question will ever remain, why couldn’t the go-live for Healthcare.gov been postposed till it operated more smoothly?

In addition to this bad news, the Healthcare.gov Chief Information Officer has also recently announced that he will be resigning his post and joining the private sector.

“Tony Trenkle, chief information officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), sent an e-mail to co-workers on Tuesday that said he will be leaving on November 15 "to take a position in the private sector." 

Apparently, Trenkle's resignation isn't directly a result of the bungled website, but rather a management restructuring within the department, according to information sent to CNET by CMS.”

At this point most people would agree, could anyone blame him for running?

Share your thoughts:

How do you think Affordable Care Act has been handled? Do you think the government has done a good job at managing healthcare in america? Have the problems plaguing ACA affected you personally? What are some ways you would improve healthcare management?

Sources:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/11/07/uh-oh-techies-are-finding-new-problems-with-healthcare-gov/

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57611187-93/healthcare.gov-chief-resigns-amid-web-site-glitches/

http://b-i.forbesimg.com/theapothecary/files/2013/10/healthcare.gov-crash-1.png

Continued Changes to Affordable Care Act

As Americans anxiously await the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, or as it is widely known today as Obamacare, President Obama has made the decision to make sure that Congress and their staffs will continue to keep their healthcare subsidies.

Senator Chuck Grassly, a Republican from Iowa threw those subsidies in question by proposing an amendment to the healthcare law by requiring the political staff to enter into the healthcare exchange of purchase “insurance” by law.

However, after meeting with Democrats, President Obama has personally assured his fellow colleagues that they would not be losing their subsidies after all.  This exemption for staff will allow members to retain their “executive subsidies” under the Affordable Care Act. What’s more interesting is how Obamacare continues to be tailor-made in order to meet the needs of those who support the law.

“These proposed regulations implement the administrative aspects of switching Members of Congress and Congressional staff to their new insurance plans — the same plans available to millions of Americans through the new Exchanges,” said Jon Foley, OPM Director of Planning and Policy, in a statement.

The political healthcare management is showing Americans that our version of Obamacare is not good enough for the politicians who wrote the Affordable Care Act. A double standard that Americans are understandable upset about. 

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS:

How do you feel about the difference between politicians’ healthcare insurance and the people’s healthcare insurance? Do you think that Healthcare Management at the political level is helping you personally? Do you think that Healthcare Management will have your best interest in mind? What do you think of Political Healthcare Management controlling our healthcare choices?

Sources:
http://dailycaller.com/2013/08/07/members-staff-will-keep-healthcare-subsidies-under-obamacare/#ixzz2bPfvaPDi

Physicians and Pill Payouts

Physicians and Pill Payouts

Transparency in healthcare management may become clearer due to some stipulations in the Affordable Healthcare Act (AHA) regarding physicians and pharmaceutical companies.

According to the AHA drug companies and makers of medical devices will be forced to publicly divulge any money paid to doctors under new US regulations. The purpose of the regulation is to make patients aware of conflicts of interest that could affect their healthcare. There is also another stipulation within the AHA mandated through the centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services; companies will have to publish any payments made to doctors for research and/or consulting services.

The purpose of more discloser to narrow conflicts of interest between doctors recommending certain products based on their personal payoffs has been met with some slight concerns. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the foremost lobbying group for drugmakers supports most of the new disclosure regulations it feels the public should take ‘the importance of context in the publication of physician payment information’ into account when reviewing publications. PhRMA’s also stated ‘Ethical interactions between biopharmaceutical companies and health-care professionals are essential to maintaining patient trust.’ However for the most part PhRMA feels the provisions are ‘complementary to this belief and it has great potential for helping patients understand the ways in which collaboration (between companies and physicians) benefit their health and medical innovation.’

So it seems that this portion of the Affordable Healthcare Act has been met with the least amount of drama from all camps involved. It is not very often that lobbyist, healthcare management, physicians and healthcare companies agree with minimal conflict. Hopefully this trend will continue as the regulations take effect by the end of September 2013.

Share your Thoughts:

Do you want to know who is paying your healthcare management? Do you think the transparency between healthcare management and medical companies will benefit patients? Do you believe the transparency regulations will benefit the healthcare industry or hurt it?

Thank you to Baylor Healthcare MBA for sharing skills that builds a better healthcare management system for the future.

Sources:

http://www.motorola.com/web/Business/Solutions/Asset%20Management%20Solutions%20for%20Healthcare/_Image/Static%20files/Asset_Management_for_Healthcare_LG_US-EN.jpg

http://www.phrma.org/

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-24/drugmakers-prep-for-u-s-rules-on-disclosing-payments.html