The debate over President Barack Obamas health-care law has taken another twist. Now conservatives and libertarians are defending it, while the administration tries to toss part of the legislation out.

The reason for this role reversal is that the drafters of the law outsmarted themselves and handed their opponents a weapon. Now they would like to pretend the law doesnt say what it does.

Obamas plan makes tax credits available to people who get health insurance from exchanges set up by state governments. If states dont establish those exchanges, the federal government will do so for them. The federal exchanges, however, dont come with tax credits: The law authorizes credits only for people who get insurance from state-established exchanges. And that creates some problems the administration didnt foresee, and now hopes to wish away.

Legislative debate over the law didnt go into great detail about these provisions. We can surmise what happened, though. Supporters of the legislation wanted to encourage states to set up the exchanges. So they offered the states a deal: If they did so, they would get to write their own rules, and their citizens would be able to get the tax credit. The states would also gain extra flexibility on Medicaid spending. The laws supporters also expected the health-care law to become more popular over time.

That hasnt happened. Many states are determined in their opposition, and few of them have set up exchanges. If they dont do so, the tax credits dont go into effect and the federally established exchanges wont work: People wont be able to afford the insurance available on them without the subsidy.

States have another incentive to refrain from setting up exchanges under the health-care law: It protects companies and individuals in the state from tax increases. The law introduces penalties of as much as $3,000 per employee for firms that dont provide insurance -- but only if an employee is getting coverage with the help of a tax credit. No state exchanges means no tax credits and thus no employer penalties. The law also notoriously penalizes many people for not buying insurance. In some cases, being eligible for a tax credit and still not buying insurance subjects you to the penalty. So, again, no state exchange means no tax credit and thus fewer people hit by the penalty.

The administrations response to the impending failure of its signature legislation -- a failure resulting entirely from its flawed design -- has been to ignore the inconvenient portion of the law. In May, the Internal Revenue Service decided it would issue tax credits to people who get insurance from exchanges established by the federal government. It has thus exposed firms and individuals to taxes and penalties without any legal authorization. Obviously, that situation sets the stage for lawsuits.

The plaintiffs will have a strong case. Jonathan Adler and Michael Cannon -- two libertarians, the first a law professor at Case Western Reserve University and the second a health-care analyst at the Cato Institute -- have done more than anyone to bring attention to this issue. They point out that every health bill advanced by Senate Democrats clearly made tax credits conditional on states establishment of exchanges. They have also uncovered that during the debate over the bill, Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, explicitly said the same thing.

Supporters of the health-care law may be tempted to dismiss the challenge to the IRS. That would be to repeat a mistake. They were contemptuous of the constitutional case against the law, too. Timothy Jost, a Washington and Lee University law professor, even wrote that the attorneys who brought the suits should face professional sanctions for filing frivolous cases. In the end, the Supreme Court sided with the plaintiffs on their constitutional claims, in one case by a 7-2 margin, upholding the law only by removing parts of it.

There will be many more court battles over the health- care law, because it involves so many legally dubious expansions of bureaucratic power. In addition to the IRS move, there are lawsuits against the administrations ruling that almost all employers must provide coverage for contraception and sterilization, a decision that conflicts with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The law also creates a board of experts to control health-care costs, a move that is sure to bring legal action on separation-of- powers grounds.

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The Flaws That Will Bring Down Obama’s Health-Care Plan

Call it coverage without the middle man. Last week, two major companies announced plans to shift their health-care model, giving more control to employees.

Sears and Darden Restaurants Inc. plan to implement a new way of providing benefits to workersgiving them a flat sum of money and allowing them to choose their coverage and insurer from an online marketplace, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal reported Darden claims employees will have the same contribution out-of-pocket that they currently have for the same level of coverage, and those who choose more coverage will have to up their own payments to cover the difference. The same goes for those who choose less coveragetheir out-of-pocket costs will drop. The plans are still considered employer-sponsored, rather than individual coverage.

But would the flat-rate model ever work for small businesses?

This model would be efficient for small employers depending on how they are attempting to compete in the job market, according to Gary Kushner, president of Kushner & Company. Benefits are obviously a competitive advantage, especially at a smaller company. However, he said, under Obamacare there is no penalty for not offering coverage for businesses with fewer than 50 workers.

Offering workers a flat amount to go shop in an online exchange may work best for a company like Sears or Darden, with many part-time workers, because they are not necessarily looking for lifers.

"Lets say I am a McDonald's franchisee. I am going to hire all sorts of people, training takes a short period of time, and I don't need to provide expensive benefits to attract and retain. Having that defined contribution may make financial sense for different employers, where the overall HR strategy is not about pursuing lifetime career employees, he said.

Diane Pfadenhauer, president of EPA Advisors, said that while it is unclear how employers will handle the changes that will occur under Obamacare, one thing is sure-- they will do whatever is cheapest. If that means offering plans via Web exchanges until the state-sponsored exchanges kick in for small companies in 2014, its a potential solution.

"Employers are more inclined, as the cost of health care goes up every year, to pass that cost along to their employees," Pfadenhauer said.

However, large companies like Sears have more buying power when approaching insurance companies. They will be receiving better rates than smaller companies without a doubt, she said.

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Would Sears’ Health-Care Approach Work for Your Business?

PHOENIX (CBS5) -

Some serious concerns have surfaced recently about the healthcare of Arizona's inmates.

Monday the company that the Arizona Department of Corrections contracted to care for inmates issued a statement about the claims.

Allegations surfaced nearly two weeks ago when the Arizona Department of Corrections said some of the inmates are not getting their medication, are being exposed to hepatitis C and said one even committed suicide. According to the DOC, it all happened under the watch of Wexford Health Sources.

Wexford Health Sources was contracted by the DOC in July to care for the inmates.

"I understand they are in there because they did something to get in there, but that's no reason to decline them healthcare," said Freddie Bowman.

Bowman said her son has been in the Florence Prison since 2005 and has had a recent incident where he did not get the treatment he needed.

"He had little white blisters from the strep throat all in there and he couldn't eat," she said.

Bowman said it was days before her son got care and by then the doctor "diagnosed him with having a high fever and very sick," she said.

Another family member of an inmate, Ana Hebner, had a similar story.

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Inmate family speaks about health care problems

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Oct. 2, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cerner (CERN) will host more than 10,000 people in Kansas City for the 27th annual Cerner Health Conference (CHC). Clients, partners and associates representing 21 different countries, will gather to learn about key issues affecting health care, collaborate with peers and gain hands-on experience with innovative health care solutions and services. The conference begins on Oct. 6 and runs through Oct. 10.

The 2012 theme, Because it's personal, speaks to all of the experiences we have in health care - as providers, parents, spouses, suppliers, researchers and individuals. Cerner, our clients and our partners want to make the system better, safer and more efficient for our families, our community and ourselves.

Cerner clients will lead the majority of the more than 240 diverse education sessions, providing more than 750 available continuing education credits. CHC 2012 will also offer seven in-depth sessions highlighting some of the health care industry's most debated issues, such as population health, quality outcomes and health care reform.

CHC 2012 General Session Speakers

Stay Connected at CHC 2012

About Cerner

Cerner is contributing to the systemic change of health and care delivery. For more than 30 years Cerner has been executing its vision to make health care safer and more efficient. We started with the foundation of digitizing paper processes and now offer the most comprehensive array of information software, professional services, medical device integration, remote hosting and employer health and wellness services. Cerner systems are used by everyone from individual consumers, to single-doctor practices, hospitals, employers and entire countries. Taking what we've learned over more than three decades, Cerner is building on the knowledge that is in the system to support evidence-based clinical decisions, prevent medical errors and empower patients in their care.

Cerner(R) solutions are licensed by approximately 9,300 facilities around the world, including more than 2,650 hospitals; 3,750 physician practices covering more than 40,000 physicians; 500 ambulatory facilities, such as laboratories, ambulatory centers, cardiac facilities, radiology clinics and surgery centers; 800 home health facilities; 40 employer sites and 1,600 retail pharmacies.

Certain trademarks, service marks and logos (collectively, the "Marks") set forth herein are owned by Cerner Corporation and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and certain other countries throughout the world. All other non-Cerner Marks are the property of their respective owners. Nasdaq: CERN. For more information about Cerner, please visit http://www.cerner.com, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

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Thousands Will Learn, Experience Why Health Care is Personal at the 2012 Cerner Health Conference

By Shannon Pettypiece - 2012-10-02T12:19:32Z

Health-care costs are keeping patients away from the doctor with about 1 in 3 Americans saying they put off a medical treatment or regular checkup because of the expense.

Medical costs were the most important factor in making a health-care decision for 27 percent of people, outweighing advice from their physician, according to a survey of 800 people by New York-based Hill & Knowlton Strategies. The results were released today at the Bloomberg Healthcare Innovations Conference in New York.

The price of insurance premiums have risen 97 percent since 2002 with families now contributing about $4,300 a year to employee-sponsored health plans, according to a report last month by the Commonwealth Fund. Still, most Americans said they arent willing to cut back on choice to save money and dont want companies to scale back innovation to keep costs down.

What the public needs and what it ultimately values - and will pay for -- are not always the same thing, said Susan Thiele, U.S. health-care practice director at Hill & Knowlton. In this environment, its critical to understand shifting public opinion so that new advances are developed and positioned in a way thats meaningful to consumers.

In the survey, 45 percent of people said they worried a lot about paying medical bills in the event of a catastrophic illness or accident, and 36 percent said they are very concerned with paying for health-insurance coverage. When asked what the biggest problem facing health care in the U.S. was, 53 percent said cost.

Most respondents werent concerned about having access to the latest and most cutting-edge treatments. Instead, they said they would rather see companies come up with innovative ways to lower costs rather than finding new medicines or cures.

Of those surveyed, 85 percent had public or private health insurance and 11 percent were temporarily unemployed.

To contact the reporter on this story: Shannon Pettypiece in New York at spettypiece@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net

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Health-Care Costs Keep 1 in 3 Americans From the Doctor

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

More than 70 percent of reported health care breaches totaling 15.6 million health records are due to lost, stolen or improperly disposed devices1, a staggering fact as more medical organizations embrace the efficiencies of mobile computing. Unprotected regulatory data left on servers, notebooks, USB drives, tablets and smart phones can lead to millions in fines and permanently damage a health care providers reputation.

Today Gazzang announced zNcrypt for Health Care, a data encryption and key management solution that secures electronic protected health information (ePHI) and enables hospitals, clinics, insurance providers and other organizations that handle sensitive patient data to maintain HIPAA compliance.

We are pulling in mountains of survey data from patients, doctors and other hospitals, as well as internal data including patient ID numbers and in some cases DICOM files, all used to enhance patient care, said Michael Hess, senior technologist, University of Michigan. While only some of this data falls under HIPAA regulations, weve taken security a step further, making it a best practice to encrypt all our data at rest. Gazzang zNcrypt makes this easy, delivering an amazing amount of flexibility and performance right out of the box.

Gazzang zNcrypt for Health Care protects ePHI by transparently encrypting and securing data written to disk. Because the data is encrypted at the file system level, organizations do not have to modify their databases or applications and data performance and availability are maintained.The solution includes robust key management and process-based access controls that store the keys separate from the encrypted data and prevent unauthorized access. Gazzang zNcrypt can be deployed either in the cloud or on-premises.

Stories about hacking collectives and social engineering command most of the headlines, but when it comes to data breaches in the health care industry, the majority of cases involving data loss and non-compliance are due to lost or stolen of hardware, said David Tishgart, director of product marketing at Gazzang. Data encryption and advanced key management render a compromised disk useless to a data thief, because the information is indecipherable. Encryption also provides health care organizations with 'safe harbor,' protecting them from the expensive and often embarrassing disclosure required under the HITECH Act.

Gazzang is hosting a webinar with the University of Michigan on Oct. 11, from 12:00-1:00 p.m. ET. Click Securing Sensitive Patient Data to register.

Additional Resources Achieving HIPAA Compliance HIPAA-HITECH Compliance Guide Hartford HealthCare case study

About Gazzang

Gazzang provides data security solutions and operational diagnostics that help enterprises protect sensitive information and maintain performance in cloud environments. The company has over 200 customers across multiple industries including SaaS providers, financial services, technology, health care and public sector organizations. Gazzang is backed by Austin Ventures and Silver Creek Ventures. For more information, visit http://www.gazzang.com.

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Gazzang Launches zNcrypt for Health Care™, Providing Endpoint Security for Vulnerable Patient Data

By Brian Chappatta - 2012-10-02T04:01:00Z

Municipal bonds sold by hospitals and health-care providers are rallying the most since 2009, defying a potential $11 billion drop in Medicare funding from federal budget cuts that loom in three months.

Health-care bonds have gained 9.5 percent this year and hospital debt 9.1 percent, making them the best-performing revenue securities, Standard & Poors indexes show. The segments are beating the broader $3.7 trillion muni market by the most in three years.

The rally is poised to continue as Federal Reserve efforts to hold down interest rates spur investors to add relatively risky, higher-yielding assets. Hospital and health-care debt has an average S&P rating of A-, seventh-highest. At the same time, some bondholders are betting President Barack Obamas health- care law will limit hospitals unpaid bills.

Health care still tends to have more yield than its similarly rated counterparts, said Paul Brennan, a senior portfolio manager in Chicago at Nuveen Asset Management, which oversees about $90 billion in munis. Investors may continue to look to lower-rated bonds for yield, which is what the Fed is trying to get the market to do.

Health-related bonds have benefited from the biggest rally in four years in high-yield munis. The difference in interest rates between securities with a BBB grade, two steps above junk, and AAA securities narrowed to 1.1 percentage points in August, the smallest since 2008, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Investors are adding the debt to boost returns with muni yields rates near the lowest in a generation.

The U.S. central bank said last month that it would hold its target interest rate near zero through mid-2015 as it attempts to stimulate the economy.

The Fed is a formidable opponent and its rippling through everything, said Patrick Morrissey, who helps oversee about $2.2 billion in fixed income at Great Lakes Advisors in Chicago. Were forced into what could be perceived as riskier sectors.

Even with this years gains, health and hospital yields are higher than any other type of revenue debt, except bonds sold by local agencies for corporate borrowers or industrial projects.

The 2.95 percent interest rate on 10-year health-care bonds rated AA compares with 2.22 percent on similarly rated general- obligations, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

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Health-Care Gain Defies $11 Billion Medicare Threat: Muni Credit

MELVILLE, N.Y., Oct. 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Henry Schein, Inc. (HSIC), the world's largest provider of health care products and services to office-based dental, medical and animal health practitioners, is honoring National Breast Cancer Awareness Month by raising awareness of the importance of early detection through the Company's seventh annual 'Think Pink, Practice Pink' program, in partnership with the American Cancer Society (the "Society").

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121002/NY84567)

Through the 'Think Pink, Practice Pink' program, Henry Schein offers a wide selection of "pink products" ranging from health care consumables and practice supplies to apparel and gift items to its Dental, Dental Laboratory, Medical, and Special Markets customers. Through the end of December, a portion of the sales of these special products will be donated to the Society through the Henry Schein Cares Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization that supports and promotes dental, medical, and animal health by helping to increase access to care globally. Over the past seven years, Henry Schein's 'Think Pink, Practice Pink' program has raised more than $500,000 for cancer care.

"Our 'Think Pink, Practice Pink' program exemplifies Henry Schein's unique model of social responsibility, through which we create opportunities for our Team Schein Members, supplier partners, and customers to participate in a shared effort to 'help health happen,'" said Stanley M. Bergman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Henry Schein, Inc. "Working together, we can exponentially enhance the impact that any one of us could have alone."

Henry Schein provides free health and disease screenings for Team Schein Members throughout the year, including mammograms, as part of Henry Schein's wellness and prevention program. Every year, there have been a number of Team Schein Members who have had diseases or conditions discovered as a result of these screenings.

"Early detection followed by prompt treatment saves lives. It is that simple," said Mr. Bergman. "We are proud to partner with the American Cancer Society to raise awareness and support individuals undergoing treatment, and proud to provide health screenings to our own team, underscoring our deep belief in the importance of wellness and prevention, a fundamental pillar of Henry Schein Cares, our global corporate social responsibility program."

Through 'Think Pink, Practice Pink,' Henry Schein helps the Society raise awareness of breast cancer and other cancers, and supports care provided through Hope Lodge. Hope Lodge is a network of free temporary housing services throughout the country where cancer patients and their loved ones are given a comfortable and supportive place to stay during their treatment and are provided with information to help them make decisions about disease treatment. The Henry Schein Cares Foundation dedicated the Henry Schein Cares Welcome Center at the American Cancer Society Hope Lodge Jerome L. Greene Family Center in New York City in 2010.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, during which the Society and many national public service organizations, professional associations, and government agencies spread the message that early detection of breast cancer followed by prompt treatment saves lives. As part of the 'Think Pink, Practice Pink' program, Team Schein Members will celebrate National Breast Cancer Awareness Month with a number of activities at Henry Schein's world headquarters in Melville, N.Y. Team Schein Members will wear pink on October 11, and be provided with essential information about breast cancer detection. Team Schein Members also contribute their own funds on October 11, to be donated to the Society.

About Henry Schein, Inc.Henry Schein, Inc. (HSIC) is the world's largest provider of health care products and services to office-based dental, medical and animal health practitioners. The Company also serves dental laboratories, government and institutional health care clinics, and other alternate care sites. A FORTUNE 500 Company and a member of the NASDAQ 100 Index, Henry Schein employs more than 15,000 Team Schein Members and serves approximately 775,000 customers.

The Company offers a comprehensive selection of products and services, including value-added solutions for operating efficient practices and delivering high-quality care. Henry Schein operates through a centralized and automated distribution network, with a selection of more than 90,000 national and Henry Schein private-brand products in stock, as well as more than 100,000 additional products available as special-order items. The Company also offers its customers exclusive, innovative technology solutions, including practice management software and e-commerce solutions, as well as a broad range of financial services.

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Henry Schein Raises Awareness Of The Importance Of Early Detection Of Breast Cancer And Supports The American Cancer ...