TRIP

Washington Watch: SGR Action Starts Up Again

MedPageToday, 2012

Wednesday morning -- will actually have the will to completely scrap the Medicare payment formula is another issue.
Although every member seemed to agree that a long-term fix needed to happen, it's unclear if this committee will approve anything beyond a shorter-term extension so doctors won't face the 27% reduction in Medicare payments set to kick in at the end of this month.
Federal healthcare spending will more than double over the next decade, according to a released Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
The cost of federal healthcare programs is expected to increase by 8% each year from 2012 to 2022 to reach $1.8 trillion by 2022, which would be about 7.3% of the gross domestic product in that year, CBO found.
Spending on Medicare, Medicaid, and other healthcare programs cost about $856 billion in 2011, and is projected to cost slightly less -- $847 billion -- in 2012, reflecting a decline in Medicaid spending.
Six former FDA scientists are , saying it unlawfully monitored personal email accounts from their work computers after the scientists complained to Congress about allegedly unsafe medical devices that had been approved or were close to approval.
The scientists worked for the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) and first made internal complaints in 2007.
After the FDA learned of the letters the group was writing, it started to secretly monitor their computers, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S.
District Court for the District of Columbia last week, charging the agency with violating their First, Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights.
Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote to the FDA earlier this week asking about the case and requesting a response by Feb.
Enrollment in has risen by 10% in the past year and premiums have dropped by 7%, despite billions of dollars in reimbursement cuts to the program, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials announced Wednesday.