First Edition: April 16, 2012

Today's headlines include reports about what the future might look like when Medicare doctors' pay will be tied to quality and cost of care, as well as how consumer advocates are anxious about a key aspect of the health law.   

Kaiser Health News: Medicare To Tie Doctors' Pay To Quality, Cost Of Care
Kaiser Health News staff writer Jordan Rau, working in collaboration with The Washington Post, reports: "Twenty thousand physicians in four Midwest states received a glimpse into their financial future last month. Landing in their e-mail inboxes were links to reports from Medicare showing the amount their patients cost on average as well as the quality of the care they provided. The reports also showed how Medicare spending on each doctor's patients compared to their local peers in Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska" (Rau, 4/15).

Kaiser Health News: Critics Say Proposed Rule Would Make Millions Ineligible For Health Insurance Subsidies
Kaiser Health News staff writer Julie Appleby, working in collaboration with The Washington Post, reports: "Consumer advocates, physician groups and several Democratic lawmakers are fighting a quiet battle over a key benefit in the health-care law: tax credits to help millions of people purchase insurance. At issue is a section of the law that outlines when low- and moderate-income employees can opt out of their employer's coverage and instead get federal subsidies to buy insurance through new state-based marketplaces, called exchanges" (Appleby, 4/15).

Kaiser Health News: Report: Mass. Health Law No 'Budget Buster'
WBUR's Martha Bebinger, working in partnership with Kaiser Health News and NPR, reports: "Outside Massachusetts, talk show hosts and politicians frequently blast the state's health coverage law as a 'budget buster.' … That's just one of the myths the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation (MTF) hopes to debunk with a report out Friday. The facts will help. Michael Widmer, president of the MTF, says the state has spent just $91 million more a year since 2006 to cover the uninsured, than it was spending before the law passed. The sum amounts to 1.4 percent of the state budget" (Bebinger, 4/13).

Kaiser Health News: Capsules: Nursing Aides Receive New Worker Protections
Now on Kaiser Health News' blog, Jessica Marcy reports: "Think dangerous jobs, and a police officer entering a dark hallway or a firefighter running into a burning building might come to mind. But even more risky? Nursing aides, who have an occupation with the nation's second highest rate of work-related injuries or illness" (Marcy, 4/13). Check out what else is on the blog.

Kaiser Health News also tracked weekend health policy news coverage, including reports about the politics surrounding the current budget dispute on Capitol Hill (4/15), presidential candidates' competing views on priorities (4/15), and how contraception, Medicare and Medicaid are playing on the campaign trail (4/14).

The New York Times: GOP Lawmakers And Romney Face A Delicate Tango
With Representative Paul D. Ryan's budget plan, Republicans have already set the agenda on the key issue that divides the two parties in an age of austerity: how to manage the federal budget and its related entitlement programs. Mr. Romney has eagerly embraced it, campaigning with Mr. Ryan by his side and calling him "bold and brilliant." But a disagreement between the parties over spending levels has paved a path for the sort of clash that led to the near shutdown of the government last year, and it could leave Mr. Romney in the position of having to choose between a loud public battle and a budget compromise with Democrats in the closing weeks of the fall campaign (Weisman and Steinhauer, 4/15).

Los Angeles Times: Healthcare Pricing Still A Struggle For Consumers
Californians are still struggling to get straight answers about the cost of common medical procedures despite state efforts aimed at lifting the veil on medical pricing (Terhune, 4/15).

The Wall Street Journal: Treating Wounds – The Holistic Way
Commonly known as bedsores, pressure ulcers can happen to vulnerable and ill patients over an extended hospital stay. Wounds can also start as a complication of diabetes, an ulcer from a problem leg vein or an infection at the site of a surgical incision. But they can last for months or years, and may never fully heal. And often, they are poorly understood and insufficiently treated, studies show (Landro, 4/16).

Los Angeles Times: California State Mental Hospitals Plagued By Peril
In 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state, alleging that it was violating patients' rights by heavily drugging and improperly restraining them and failing to provide appropriate treatment. The state settled, agreeing to an extensive court-supervised improvement plan at four hospitals with more than 4,000 patients. But a Times investigation found that the plan has failed to achieve the Justice Department's main objective: to raise the level of care so patients could control their violent tendencies and would not be institutionalized any longer than necessary (Romney and Hoeffel, 4/15).

The Associated Press/Washington Post: Big Gaps Found In Nursing Homes' Plan To Protect Frail Residents In Event Of Natural Disasters
Tornado, hurricane or flood, nursing homes are woefully unprepared to protect frail residents in a natural disaster, government investigators say. Emergency plans required by the government often lack specific steps such as coordinating with local authorities, notifying relatives or even pinning name tags and medication lists to residents in an evacuation, according to the findings (4/16).