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Health care administrator who favors ‘individualized medicine’ looks for less costly alternatives to Obamacare

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INDIANA--James Hamilton is convinced that health care can be better and less costly, but the Affordable Care Act won't get America to that promising future.

Hamilton, 63, is the executive director of a physician group in northeast Indiana, and he's worked in health-care administration for nearly 30 years. Those bright prospects he sees for the future of health care are centered on "individualized medicine"; its proponents believe it will allow doctors to thwart many diseases by acting on individual genes in patients' bodies.

The ACA, also known as Obamacare, "really was nothing more than insurance reform," said Hamilton, who lives near Leo-Cedarville. He's not looking to today's Republican Party to offer an alternative, either. Republicans "are on the same playing field as the ACA," he said. "Just insurance reform."

To help make his case, Hamilton has a written a book, "A Short Treatise on a Common Sense Framework for Health Care Reform," published late in 2013. It's a thin book, only 48 pages long, but it's enough room for Hamilton to pack in an intelligently sketched outline of an alternative course for health care.

This is the foundation: Make the same kind of commitment to understanding the human genome that we made to landing astronauts on the moon. The human genome was mapped a decade ago, and now is the time to pay for years of additional research so that doctors can routinely block the action of genes and avert or reverse medical problems.

"It presses the edge of my understanding, but some of the work is just phenomenal," Hamilton says of the emerging techniques of genetic intervention in medicine. Experts in the field typically forecast that benefits of gene therapies could be available in 10-20 years, Hamilton said.

Naturally, bringing this vision of radically better medical treatments to pass won't be simple.

The research needed in a crash use-the-genome project would be expensive, expensive enough that Hamilton has not seen an estimate and doesn't offer one himself. But he does note that actually averting the onset of costly diseases could cut costs fundamentally, instead of reconfiguring or capping payments or taxes used to fund the ACA.

And there's another significant hurdle: America has to start peeling costs out of the current health-care system during this decade or two of transition to "individualized medicine" that relies on genetic testing and treatment.

Decades in health-care administration have given Hamilton many ideas on that front, which he includes in his book, such as:

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Health care administrator who favors ‘individualized medicine’ looks for less costly alternatives to Obamacare

MIT Economist Seeks Facts in Health-Care Policy Debate

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Photographer: Kelvin Ma/Bloomberg

MIT Ford Professor of Economics Amy Finkelstein, who studies the economics of health... Read More

MIT Ford Professor of Economics Amy Finkelstein, who studies the economics of health and healthcare, poses for a portrait at MIT in Cambridge. Close

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MIT Ford Professor of Economics Amy Finkelstein, who studies the economics of health and healthcare, poses for a portrait at MIT in Cambridge.

Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Theres no shortage of theories about health-care policy. Amy Finkelstein wants facts.

Her newest research, based on data from Oregon, builds on her agenda: measuring the effects of health programs with scientific rigor. She and colleagues found that Medicaid coverage increased emergency department visits by 40 percent, according to the latest findings in their continuing study, released yesterday in the journal Science.

Weve shown that there are real benefits but also real costs to Medicaid, said the Massachusetts Institute of Technology economics professor. My fervent hope, and I dont think its entirely nave, is that this will lead to a more informed public-policy discussion.

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Finkelsteins pursuit of policy-relevant evidence has placed her at the pinnacle of her field. When the American Economic Association awards committee selected her for its 2012 John Bates Clark Medal, it called her the leading scholar in health economics. Winners of the medal, awarded annually to an economist under the age of 40, include 12 Nobel Prize laureates and two White House chief economists.

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MIT Economist Seeks Facts in Health-Care Policy Debate

Health care act hits South Whidbey fire district volunteers

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While millions of Americans get health coverage under the Affordable Care Act, the 85 volunteer firefighters and emergency medical technicians of South Whidbey Fire/EMS are in limbo.

The legislation commonly known as Obamacare may force volunteer fire districts to pay for health insurance for volunteers, though not until 2015. A clause in the act states that companies with more than 50 workers must buy health insurance or pay a fine of $2,000 per volunteer if coverage is not offered. However, a discrepancy between the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor has put fire districts on hold. The IRS labels volunteer firefighters as employees if theyre on the job more than 30 hours per week, but the Department of Labor considers them volunteers.

Part of our challenge is that we have two federal organizations to satisfy, said South Whidbey Fire/EMS Chief Rusty Palmer.

The health insurance issue is one fire districts across the United States of America and Whidbey Island are facing, or rather, waiting to face. Legislation that would exempt volunteer emergency workers was introduced in Congress on Dec. 10, clarifying that qualified emergency services volunteers are not considered employees under the health care act.

Im confident that will pass, Palmer said. ... if Congress fails to pass an exemption for emergency workers, that will give us a challenge.

Palmer said he did not have an estimate of how much it would cost South Whidbey Fire/EMS to insure its qualified volunteers. Definitions of what constitutes as a working hour need to be ironed out, he said, giving an example of a volunteer who may be on-call for 24 hours and never respond to an emergency. Does that count as work for the purposes of the health care act?

We have some volunteers who take one call a week, so they may be out two hours, Palmer said. Right now, your guess is as good as mine. Were at the whim of the federal government. I can tell you I would not imagine it would be cheap.

The Bronze plan, which covers 60 percent of health care costs, costs about $249 per month before cost assistance. However age, gender, location and other factors vary the cost. If South Whidbey Fire/EMS was penalized for not offering health care to its volunteers, the penalty would total $170,000. The district could buy insurance through the health care exchange for $3,000 per volunteer, if necessary.

North Whidbey Fire and Rescue, which has 70 volunteers, was also concerned about the health care act.

North Whidbey Fire Chief Marv Koorn said the district could stay under the 50 person full-time limit while hoping the emergency volunteer exemption was approved by Congress.

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Health care act hits South Whidbey fire district volunteers

Meditation for New Beginnings – How To Meditate for Beginners – You Have 4 Minutes – BEXLIFE – Video

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Meditation for New Beginnings - How To Meditate for Beginners - You Have 4 Minutes - BEXLIFE - Video

Health care administrator looks at alternatives to Obamacare

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James Hamilton is convinced that health care can be better and less costly, but the Affordable Care Act won't get America to that promising future.

Hamilton, 63, is the executive director of a physician group in northeast Indiana, and he's worked in health-care administration for nearly 30 years. Those bright prospects he sees for the future of health care are centered on individualized medicine; its proponents believe it will allow doctors to thwart many diseases by acting on individual genes in patients' bodies.

The ACA, also known as Obamacare, really was nothing more than insurance reform, said Hamilton, who lives near Leo-Cedarville. He's not looking to today's Republican Party to offer an alternative, either. Republicans are on the same playing field as the ACA, he said. Just insurance reform.

To help make his case, Hamilton has a written a book, A Short Treatise on a Common Sense Framework for Health Care Reform, published late in 2013. It's a thin book, only 48 pages long, but it's enough room for Hamilton to pack in an intelligently sketched outline of an alternative course for health care.

This is the foundation: Make the same kind of commitment to understanding the human genome that we made to landing astronauts on the moon. The human genome was mapped a decade ago, and now is the time to pay for years of additional research so that doctors can routinely block the action of genes and avert or reverse medical problems.

It presses the edge of my understanding, but some of the work is just phenomenal, Hamilton says of the emerging techniques of genetic intervention in medicine. Experts in the field typically forecast that benefits of gene therapies could be available in 10-20 years, Hamilton said.

Naturally, bringing this vision of radically better medical treatments to pass won't be simple.

The research needed in a crash use-the-genome project would be expensive, expensive enough that Hamilton has not seen an estimate and doesn't offer one himself. But he does note that actually averting the onset of costly diseases could cut costs fundamentally, instead of reconfiguring or capping payments or taxes used to fund the ACA.

And there's another significant hurdle: America has to start peeling costs out of the current health-care system during this decade or two of transition to individualized medicine that relies on genetic testing and treatment.

Decades in health-care administration have given Hamilton many ideas on that front, which he includes in his book, such as:

See the rest here:

Health care administrator looks at alternatives to Obamacare

Health Care Changes to Watch for in 2014

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Kelly Kennedy, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - Starting Wednesday, the Affordable Care Act was in full force, as millions of uninsured Americans either now have health coverage or will get it this year.

But experts say that's just one of many changes to watch for in 2014, including how the law will affect elections, what the states will decide about Medicaid expansion, and what insurers will do to react to their quickly changing demographics.

Already, at least 1.1 million people have gained coverage through the federal exchange, HealthCare.gov, and the federal and state exchanges stand to enroll millions more through the cut-off date at the end of March. Beginning Jan. 1, insurers may no longer preclude people from buying insurance because of pre-existing conditions; they may not charge older people much-higher premiums than younger people; they may not charge women more than men; and they must share pricing and benefits information to their consumers in an apples-to-apples way.

Beyond the law's new requirements, analysts and industry officials say they anticipate a series of related changes to affect health care in 2014, including:

Private exchanges. Insurers will bring more private exchanges to the workplace, and people will begin to understand they have to control their own health costs instead of relying on benefit-heavy insurance plans to do that for them, said Alan Cohen, chief strategy officer for Liazon, a company that provides private exchanges.

"I think we're going to see dramatic, dramatic increases in people who use private exchanges," Cohen said. "There was a big increase this year, but it will pale in comparison to next year." Employer mandate. Employers will also start making changes to prepare for the requirement that companies with more than 50 employees provide health insurance for their employees, said Hector De La Torre, executive director of the Transamerica Center for Health Studies. That requirement was supposed to start Jan. 1 but was delayed a year by the Obama administration.

"Employers are really going to be on the clock for 2015 for their mandate kicking in," De La Torre said. "That will be interesting throughout the year as regulations come into play."

More employers and insurers will also start offering wellness discounts, which are meant to encourage employees to take better care of themselves in order to get lower premiums, he said.

Pricing transparency. Regardless of the political storms surrounding the law, the health industry is proceeding with the assumption it is here for good, said Ceci Connolly, managing director of PWC's Health Research Institute.

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Health Care Changes to Watch for in 2014

Justice blocks birth control mandate in health care law

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Washington The Supreme Court has thrown a hitch into President Barack Obamas new health care law by blocking a requirement that some religion-affiliated organizations provide health insurance that includes birth control.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor late Tuesday night decided to block implementation of the contraceptive coverage requirement, only hours before the laws insurance coverage went into effect on New Years Day.

Her decision, which came after federal court filings by Catholic-affiliated groups from around the nation in hopes of delaying the requirements, throws a part of the presidents signature law into temporary disarray.

At least one federal appeals court agreed with Sotomayor, issuing its own stay against part of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

The White House on Wednesday issued a statement saying that the administration is confident that its rules strike the balance of providing women with free contraceptive coverage while preventing non-profit religious organizations with religious objections to contraceptive coverage from having to contract, arrange, pay, or refer for such coverage.

Sotomayor acted on a request from an organization of Catholic nuns in Denver, the Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged. Its request for an emergency stay had been denied earlier in the day by a federal appeals court.

The government is temporarily enjoined from enforcing against applicants the contraceptive coverage requirements imposed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Sotomayor said in the order.

Sotomayor, who was in New York Tuesday night to lead the final 60-second countdown and push the ceremonial button to signal the descent of the Times Square New Years Eve ball, gave government officials until 10 a.m. EST Friday to respond to her order.

A decision on whether to make the temporary injunction permanent or dissolve it likely wont be made before then.

The government has lots of ways to deliver contraceptives to people, said Mark Rienzi, a lawyer for the nuns. It doesnt need to force nuns to participate.

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Justice blocks birth control mandate in health care law

Neighborhood Health Care patients scramble to find new services

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CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) -

Financial problems have forced a chain of clinics to close their doors for good. Neighborhood Health Care patients will now have to scramble to find health care somewhere else.

There's a letter to patients taped inside the door at the Neighborhood Health Center in Norwood, explaining that they'll have to find their health care services elsewhere.

The letter is the only notice many patients received.

Lorren Ratley of Anderson Township learned of the closure only days ago. She's been coming to Neighborhood Health care for years with her family.

"My husband and the kids - because he doesn't make anything. So because premiums for his coverage at work are expensive, he was coming here and paying, you know. It's not free," explains Ratley.

Gary Phillips says he's had a hard tome getting information about the closure.

"I've tried eight or twelve times and let it ring 30 to 40 times," says Phillips. "No one has picked up the phone."

Plans to merge the Neighborhood Health Care with the Kentucky-based HealthPoint drew strong opposition from the Cincinnati Health Department and other health car providers.

"All of these providers raised questions about HealthPoint's ability to provide services," explains Rocky Merz of the Cincinnati Health Department. "Do they have the capacity to do what they say they're going to do? Can they operate in an urban environment?"

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Neighborhood Health Care patients scramble to find new services

Dr Russel Blaylock has the Truth about Obamacare – Health Care Reform Facts – Video

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Dr Russel Blaylock has the Truth about Obamacare - Health Care Reform Facts
http://merchantpro.findinfoworld.com/obamacarefacts Retired neurosurgeon, author, lecturer and educator Dr. Russell Blaylock details the truth about Obamacar...

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Dr Russel Blaylock has the Truth about Obamacare - Health Care Reform Facts - Video


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