With states and small businesses struggling to define the financial path to implementation of the provisions of healthcare reform, we believe it is unfair to single out states and big businesses by allowing them "waivers." These waivers have long been political carrots for public assistance programs such as Medicaid and Food Stamps. States - with hat in hand - head to DC to beg the bureaucrats to allow them to build programs and solutions that will work in their states. More often than not, … [Read more...]
GAO takes a walk on bogus U.S. books
December 29, 2010 by Leave a Comment
The GAO has given up on attempting to make accurate financial projections on the books of the United States of America. This unfortunate fact is thanks in large part to actuarial estimates showing Medicare's projected deficit more than $10 trillion higher than CMS and the Medicare board has previously projected. The Obama administration used the Medicare projection of massive savings from a 30 percent reduction in provider rates. These rate reductions were called "implausible" by CMS"s … [Read more...]
WANTED: BACKBONES FOR BUREAUCRATS
December 19, 2010 by Leave a Comment
By Gregg Phillips Very soon, career bureaucrats will finally have an opportunity to demonstrate the strength of their collective backbones. Decades of hiding behind regulations, rules and fat budgets are crashing down. A half century of expanding social programs - Medicaid, food stamps, social security and more - have finally pushed states to their absolute limits. We employ unprecedented numbers of employees in the public sector. It’s as if government has become a giant jobs … [Read more...]
Analytics in Medicaid
November 20, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Author, Stephen Baker, wrote a blog post recently offering his opinion on where businesses as a whole believe they are on a scale of 1-10. The blog, http://thenumerati.net/index.cfm?postID=658, says that businesses believe they are at about a 5.5. Baker - a true thought leader on the subject of analytics and the author of the best seller The Numerati - suggests that the real number may be closer to 1.1. In addition, Baker says we are only at the Galileo stage! If Baker is correct then … [Read more...]
Dems find careers threatened by Obamacare votes
October 18, 2010 by Leave a Comment
By Michael Barone, October 18, 2010 Seven months ago, Speaker Nancy Pelosi spent a busy week rounding up votes to pass the Senate version of the Democrats' health care legislation. It wasn't easy. She had to get Democrats who had voted no in November to switch to yes in March. And she had to get Democrats who had refused to vote for the bill in November without an anti-abortion amendment to vote for a bill in March that lacked that language. She took the unusual step of scheduling the … [Read more...]
Congress burns through cash
October 12, 2010 by Leave a Comment
By Fox Business News, Oct 12, 2010 This week FOX Business is focusing on ways the government is burning your money-- and boy, are they ever! This congress-- in just the last two years-- has taken spending to a whole new level, make that a whole new stratosphere! And it's got to stop. In each of the last two years spending by this government has totaled around $3.5 trillion each year. So where did that money go? The Wall Street Journal outlined it for us: Medicare saw … [Read more...]
New Governors face fiscal mess
October 12, 2010 by Leave a Comment
More than 30 states will elect Governors next month. These new Gov's (possibly a few re-elects) will face unprecetented fiscal crises due to the drying up of enhanced Medicaid funding from the Feds and record high unemployment ratest that will linger into mid 2011. These newly minted state CEO's will be forced to spend an inordinate amount of time during their respective transitions dealing with the crushing weight of exploding Medicaid/CHIP enrollment and spending. Critical decisions … [Read more...]
State budgets pressuring Medicaid rates
October 11, 2010 by Leave a Comment
It is no secret that state budgets are under pressure. Leaders is Texas have pegged their hole somewhere between $15 and $20 billion. Other states are looking at deficits proportionally larger. With Medicaid commanding larger and larger portions of state's budgets, a substantial portion of any deficit will fall to Medicaid. Rates paid to providers by Medicaid are in jepeordy. Two important differences in coming years as opposed to deficits in the past will be in play. First, Congress … [Read more...]
Food Stamp Nation
October 11, 2010 by Leave a Comment
By Patrick J. Buchanan, October 07, 2010 "The lessons of history show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit." These searing words about Depression-era welfare are from Franklin Roosevelt's 1935 State of the Union Address. FDR feared this self-reliant people might come to depend … [Read more...]
California creates health exchange
October 7, 2010 by Leave a Comment
California's health insurance exchange is likely to be the largest exchange operated by a single state, with as many as 8.3 million residents expected to be eligible for coverage. The exchange - signed into law this week - will provide consumers with a marketplace of insurance plans through a website that will provide standardized, detailed information about the plans and offer a toll-free number to help consumers understand their options. In accordance with federal requirements, … [Read more...]
