Collaborative Family Healthcare Association

Healthcare's New Face

What You Need to Know about the Government's New Health Insurance Website

Consumers shopping for health insurance coverage get a boost today with the launch of a new federal website, www.healthcare.gov.

The health law that Congress passed in March called for the creation of the site, which advocates say will make it easier to shop for a plan. Consumers will be able to see all options available where they live, compare costs and determine if they qualify for a government program.

Federal health officials say the website will work as a bridge to help consumers until 2014 when much of the new law takes effect, including provisions that bar insurers from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions and establishing new health insurance exchanges, the marketplaces that make it easier for consumers and small business to buy insurance.

Medical Home

Medical Home Demos Report Some Positive Outcomes - With Caveats

AMED News

Moving to a patient-centered medical home model of care can present significant challenges for physician practices, but given the necessary resources and guidance, some early adopters have found that the move can be worth the effort. That's according to a new report commissioned by the American Academy of Family Physicians and its for-profit subsidiary, TransforMED.

Most of the medical practices that participated in the organizations' two-year national demonstration project from June 2006 to May 2008 achieved positive results in quality of care, chronic disease care and prevention outcomes, stated the report published in a special supplement to the May/June 2010 Annals of Family Medicine.

Integration and Current Healthcare Trends

How Healthcare Reform Could End the Stepchild Status of Primary and Behavioral Healthcare: A Talk with AAFP Board Chair Dr. Ted Epperly

BHC

Ted Epperly, M.D., FAAFP, a family physician in Boise, Idaho, who follows a patient-centered medical home model of care that incorporates behavioral health, is board chair of the American Academy of Family Physicians. In recent months, he has spoken with President Obama on several occasions about his concern related to the shortage in primary care and the incentives (or lack of incentives) our country offers medical students to consider primary care. He says that primary care and behavioral healthcare providers have been considered 'stepchildren' in the past, but that he’s confident healthcare reform efforts in Congress could provide some remedy.

Dr. Epperly wrote in an AAFP statement earlier this year, “If America is to right the ship of health care and turn it toward a system of higher quality, improved efficiency, better outcomes, less cost, and decreased geographic and ethnic disparity, it must increase the number of primary care physicians. We cannot meet that goal without dramatically changing the policies that affect our medical education system, graduate medical education and the incentives that draw students to careers in primary care. This decline has nothing to do with the value of primary care and everything to do with a system that claims to support primary care but fails to actually act on its pronouncements.”

Dr. Epperly speaks with BHC today about these important issues facing primary care and behavioral healthcare providers.

Continuing to Try

GOP and Democrats Agree Health Overhaul Not Dead

WSJ

WASHINGTON — Democrats and Republicans agreed on Sunday that President Barack Obama’s health overhaul wasn’t dead. They disagreed over whether that was a good thing.

Democrats portrayed the health-care effort as a valiant crusade that had suffered a setback but could return to life. “We’re still inside the five-yard line,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We’re one vote away in the House of Representatives from making health-care reform a reality.”

He added, “The president is ready, willing and able to sit down and listen to Republican ideas for how we improve the health-care bill.”

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio) made the overhaul sound more like a corpse that refused to die.

“We’ve seen all week Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi, Majority Leader [Harry] Reid continuing to scheme and plot, trying to find some way to get their big-government takeover of health care enacted,” Boehner said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I do think they are having problems, but I think Republicans are going to continue to be vigilant.”

Republicans insisted they want change — “No one in Washington thinks our health-care system is perfect, and certainly not Republicans,” Boehner said — while Democrats said parts of the legislation would have to be changed.

Integration and Collaboration

Secretary Sebelius Comments on Mental Health and the Importance of Integration and Collaboration

Thank you, Steve, for that introduction. Steve and I go way back. We served together on a Clinton Administration commission on improving quality in our health care system. And one of the best parts of that experience was getting to meet Steve and learn about the great work he’s doing here at Sheppard Pratt. Steve has a passion for trying to do health care better. And that’s reflected in Sheppard Pratt, which has become a model for how to provide effective mental health services, not just in this area, but in the entire country.

I also have to mention Steve’s greatest accomplishment in my opinion, which was raising an incredible son named Josh, who’s now our Principal Deputy Commissioner at the Food and Drug Association. So I have to thank Steve for that.

I also want to add my own praise for Secretary Colmers. I’m not going to try to top what Steve just said. But I can say that this fall, I’ve gotten to work closely with state health secretaries around the country on fighting the H1N1 flu. And I can tell you that Secretary Colmers is doing a great job. A couple months ago, I was up in Maryland at a school-based flu clinic. This was right at the beginning of flu season, and I was very impressed by how quickly they had this clinic set up to get kids vaccinated. So I’m a fan of Secretary Colmers’ work too.

Finally, I want to acknowledge Pam Hyde, our new Administrator for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, who’s here with me today. We stole Pam from New Mexico where she led their human services department. Some of you may know that she has more than 30 years of experience dealing with behavioral health issues in state government, city government, and as the CEO of non-profit behavioral health managed care firm. She was just sworn in last week. I don’t know if she’s had time to unpack yet. But we’ve already had the chance to get together and talk about our plans for the next few months, and I know she’s going to be a great leader for SAMHSA.

One of the things Pam and I have talked about is the huge opportunity we have in the next couple of years to make some big improvements in the lives of Americans with mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders. There are a lot of changes happening right now that could have a big impact on behavioral health: parity, health insurance reform, the growing popularity of integrated care models, an increased focus on prevention, huge gains in our understanding of the science behind mental illness and substance abuse.

Guides to Healthcare

Healthcare Overhaul Proposals

WSJ

Want to know more about what is in the House and Senate Bill? The Wall Street Journal has an easy to use chart to follow along with the national healthcare discussions. CLICK HERE

Healthcare Next Steps

Americans Divided on Healthcare Overhaul

NYT

Americans are feeling more doubtful about an overhaul of the health care system than they were in September, according to a new Gallup poll.

The House narrowly approved health care legislation late Saturday night, but the poll, which was conducted from Thursday through Sunday, asked only about the prospects for a health care overhaul in general.

More than a third (36 percent) of respondents said that new health care legislation would make their own personal situations worse, while 31 percent said it would not make much difference and 26 percent said it would improve their situations.

Respondents were evenly split over whether Congress should approve any health care legislation. Asked whether such legislation would make the nation’s entire system better or worse, 41 percent said better and 40 percent said worse.

Today, 29 percent say they would urge their Congressional representative to vote in favor a new health care bill this year, down from 38 percent in September. While many respondents appeared split along party lines, independents are leaning strongly against a new bill, the poll found.

Primary Care

IBM to Drop Co-Pay for Primary-Care Visits

WSJ - William Bulkeley

In an unusual bid to cut health-care costs, International Business Machines Corp. plans to stop requiring $20 co-payments by employees when they visit primary-care physicians.

The company said it believed the move would save costs by encouraging people to go to primary-care doctors faster, in order to get earlier diagnoses that could save on expensive visits to specialists and emergency rooms.

IBM said that the action applies to the 80% of its workers who are enrolled in plans in which the company self-insures—that is, programs in which it pays the health-care benefits, not insurers. The new policy doesn't cover IBM employees in health-maintenance organizations.

One of the nation's largest employers with 115,000 U.S. workers, IBM spends about $1.3 billion a year on U.S. health care. Its benefit practices are closely watched in the human-resources community, and its actions are sometimes trend-setters.

Randy MacDonald, a senior vice president for human resources, said the change "is designed to encourage people to get fixed early. … We'd rather diagnose a situation and deal with it quickly as opposed to it becoming chronic."

Follow Up

CFHA 2009 San Diego: A Success!

This years conference in San Diego was a tremendous success for CFHA and collaborative care! The presentations this year were outstanding and many new advances in the field were made through the hard work of CFHA members. To continue discussions that began at the conference, visit our blog page HERE. CFHA is also entering into the social media fray - you can follow CFHA on Twitter using the hash tag #CFHA. You can also follow the #CFHA Twitter feed on the CFHA Blog page. New to social media and Twitter? Here is a general overview article on how to use Twitter. Many CFHA members engaged this use of technology during the conference. We also have a video recording of one of the plenary sessions that was broadcast across the Internet. This video was picked up on by many using Twitter and a new audience was exposed to CFHA.

Live from CFHA

Social Media and Collaborative Care

Interested in what's happening at CFHA, but unable to attend? Follow us on Twitter - search for #CFHA and get a real time feed from the conference.