Category: Health-CareOverhaul

MEwens
By Louise Radnofsky
The Obama administration is touting good news for seniors from the health-care overhaul law, pointing to $2.1 billion in discounts on prescription drugs for 3.6 million older consumers in 2011.
Part of the law was intended to fill the gap in prescription-drug coverage, the so-called doughnut hole, when Medicare beneficiaries have to […]

MEwens
McNeil Oversight Changes: Johnson & Johnson is replacing two company group chairmen who had been charged with turning around the McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit after a series of recalls, the WSJ reports. Patrick Mutchler, charged with overseeing McNeil last April, is retiring and will be replaced by Roberto Marques. Meantime, the duties of […]

Laura Landro
Consumer Unit Oversight Changes: Johnson & Johnson is replacing two company group chairmen who had been charged with turning around the company’s consumer health unit after a series of recalls, the WSJ reports. Patrick Mutchler, charged with overseeing McNeil Consumer Healthcare last April, is retiring and will be replaced by Roberto Marques. […]

MEwens
By Louise Radnofsky
Still trying to figure out how health care will play in the Republican primary and the November presidential election? Consider some numbers from the latest opinion poll by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
Some 54% of respondents said they thought the Supreme Court should rule unconstitutional the individual mandate — a requirement […]

WSJ Staff
The latest national health spending figures out Monday show slowed growth in medical expenditures in 2010 — and plenty of debate fodder for both policy wonks and political partisans.
For a start, there’s little consensus among analysts over the causes of the slowdown.
Republicans are seizing on the explanation that it’s the product of […]

MEwens
Even a small gap in Medicaid coverage can have consequences for diabetics, new research suggests.
The study looked at 3,384 diabetes patients who received medical care at 50 clinics in Oregon from 2005-2007. The care was mostly free, but some recommended diagnostic tests and other services — including cholesterol screening, HbA1c testing to determine […]

MEwens
Up to the States: The onus is on the states to make the tough decisions about what treatments must be covered by individual and small-group plans under the health-care overhaul law, the WSJ reports. The Obama administration said states would be able to align coverage standards with those of popular federal- and state-employee […]

MEwens
New Medicare Plan: Republican Rep. Paul Ryan and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden plan to today propose a plan for changing Medicare that would permit private health-insurance plans to compete for enrollees with the traditional Medicare plan, the WSJ reports. The plan, which would take effect in 2022 and wouldn’t apply to current Medicare […]

MEwens
By Louise Radnofsky
Doctors’ feelings about the health-care overhaul law passed last year are about as mixed as their patients’, research released today shows.
Some 44% of doctors said the law was “a good start,” according to a survey carried out by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions consulting group. Another 44% agreed that the […]

MEwens
By Louise Radnofsky
The Obama administration announced plans Friday to wind down a $5 billion fund to pay for health insurance for early retirees, including the institution of a Dec. 31 deadline for employers to tap into the remaining funds.
The fund has been reimbursing companies and local-government pension funds for the cost of benefits […]