Posts by Gail Wilensky, Ph.D.
Administration Meets Challenge to Risk-Adjustment Payments, Counter to Critics’ Assumptions
An announcement issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in July that the agency had stopped, or at least put on hold, collections and payments under the risk-adjustment program established by the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—along with the announcement that payments to navigators would be substantially reduced—led to a chorus of comments…
Read MoreUS Faces a Challenging Road to Recovery After COVID 19
There is little question as to why President Biden is so focused on the COVID-19 crisis, especially the vaccine rollout, in addition to the economy. Had it not been for the pandemic, the subsequent shutdown of an economy that had the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years (3.5% in February 2020) and the economic consequenses…
Read More2020 Revealed How Poorly the US Was Prepared for COVID-19 and Future Pandemics
It was not obvious when 2020 began what a grim year it would turn out to be. The first reported US case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was on January 19, 2020, in a man who had returned from Wuhan, China, 4 days earlier. The next day, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…
Read MorePolicy Lessons from Our Covid Experience
Perspective As of August 24, 2020, nearly 5.7 million cases of Covid-19 had been reported in the United States, with more than 176,000 deaths. Although there is debate about the accuracy of these specific numbers — many people with mild symptoms are never tested for Covid, for example, and especially early in the epidemic, the…
Read MoreThe Importance of Reestablishing a Pandemic Preparedness Office at the White House
As the country tries to make sense of all that has happened during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) pandemic, one idea that should cause little controversy is the importance of health to the security of the US, to its economy, and to the well-being of its citizenry. Given health’s fundamental importance to national security, a…
Read MoreTime to Consider a New Look at Physician Owned Hospitals to Increase Competition in Health Care
In most sectors of the economy, competition is regarded as the way to improve quality and efficiency, lower costs, and increase innovations. Whether competition effectively achieves these improvements in health care, particularly with respect to hospital services, which remains the largest sector of spending for health care, is open to debate. Alsodebated, at least among…
Read MoreWhat Every American Should Know about Our Health Care System
Most Americans know that the United States spends a lot on health care. But in all likelihood, they do not know how much we spend and how that amount compares to other countries around the world. So, here are a few facts that might be helpful in that regard… First, what we spend. The latest estimate…
Read MoreIs Slower Health Care Spending a Part of Our Future?
The growing challenge of Medicare
The Congressional Budget Office projects Medicare spending will grow at an average annual rate of 9 percent over the next 10 years, reaching $766 billion by 2015. The Bush administration released an estimate that total spending for Medicare Part D (the new prescription drug benefit) over the period 2006 to 2015 will be about $720…
Read MoreMedicare bill sets precedent for future funding
Almost all seniors are better off under the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, signed into law by President Bush on December 8, 2003. Given the closeness of the vote—220 to 215 in the House of Representatives and 54 to 44 in the Senate—and the nearness to the next election, it is…
Read More