Reform Rodeo

December 1, 2009 by Jordan T. Cohen · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Health Reform, Reform Rodeo

Photo by David Monniaux

1. Kaiser Health News rounds up today’s editorials on health reform.

2. The New York Times reports that the CBO’s latest report finds that the Senate’s health bill will not increase premiums for the majority of Americans.

3. David Leonhardt describes how the Senate’s bill may offer more cost-cutting options than it is typically given credit.

4. John Iglehart offers his perspective on the the process that has allowed the Senate’s health reform bill to proceed to floor debate.

5. The Hastings Center has a thorough piece on the controversy surrounding the U.S. Preventitive Services Task Force’s decision to alter the recommended guidelines for mammography.

6. In case you missed it: Associate Dean Kathleen Boozang in The Health Care Blog regarding the Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy’s latest White Paper: “Conflicts of Interest in Clinical Trial Recruitment & Enrollment: A Call for Increased Oversight.”

7. In case you missed it again: Professor John V. Jacobi in the New Jersey Law Journal on “Genetic Discrimination and the Future of Health Insurance.” (First posted here on HRW).

Tags: CBO, Conflicts of Interest, Conflicts of Interest in Clinical Trial Recruitment & Enrollment: A Call for Increased Oversight, Genetic Discrimination, Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, GINA, Health Care Reform, Health Reform, Mammography Guidelines, Proposed Legislation

Recent Posts

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Data Breaches: A Growing and Alarming Trend and a Potential Safe Harbor

Reorganization of UMDNJ to be Implemented this Year

Navigating the New Field of International Health Law, Featuring Gian Luca Burci, Legal Counsel for WHO

Research, the Avian Flu and Bioterrorism

Bill Requiring Licensure of One-Room Ambulatory Surgery Centers In New Jersey Dies in Gov. Christie’s Pocket

Online Graduate Certificate Programs

Professor Frank Pasquale featured in The Record on ‘A Constitutional Right to Health Care’

New Evidence on Smoking Marijuana and Lung Function; Update on New Jersey’s Nascent Medical Marijuana Program

The Good News is that Health Care Spending is Down

Medicare Payment, a System in Need of Fixing

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Defining Essential Health Benefits

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Places Cited

Posts from Health Reform Watch have been cited by media sources throughout the country, including The New York Times, Washington Post, L.A. Times, Kaiser Health News, The Health Care Blog, NPR's Planet Money Blog, Duke Univ. Med. Center News, American Health Line Alerts, BusinessWeek.com, Concurring Opinions, Balkinization, The New England Journal of Medicine, Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism, Las Vegas Sun, Maggie Mahar, Ezra Klein, Tom Geoghegan, and the official homepage of the Office of the Democratic Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer.
Recent Comments
Audio Presentations

Click on the blue links to play, click again to pause:
Hatch-Waxman "Pay for Delay Audio: Panelists included Michael Kades, Attorney Advisor, Federal Trade Commission; Charles A. Gallia, Counsel, Gibbons P.C.; Anastasia Winslow, Assistant General Counsel, Bristol-Myers Squibb; and David Opderbeck, Associate Professor of Law and Director, Gibbons Institute of Law, Science & Technology.
Hunt Lecture: From the original post: During his week-long visit to Seton Hall Law School, Paul Hunt, Professor of Law, University of Essex School of Law, provided several lectures to students and faculty ...Read More
Maizel Lecture: From the original post: A noted expert in the restructuring of health care business debts, both in and out of court, Sam Maizel treated Seton Hall to a one hour crash course on the fiscal crisis ...Read More
PPACA Discussion: From the original post: On Friday, April 9th, Seton Hall was treated to an expert round table discussion on the new health reform measures. Visiting professor Tim Greaney ...Read More
Kaiser
The Commonwealth Fund
- Employers and the Exchanges Under the Small Business Health Options Program: Examining the Potential and the Pitfalls
  A set of Commonwealth Fund–supported Health Affairs articles examines the potential of the Affordable Care Act's Small Business Health Care Options Program to provide affordable options for small employers who now face high premiums and administrative costs when they insure their employees.
- Making the SHOP Exchanges Work
  Many small employers—which make up the vast majority of American businesses—struggle to afford and manage health insurance for their employees. Timothy Jost discusses how the SHOP exchanges will make it easier for small employers to offer affordable plans.
- New Study: Small Businesses Could Buy Health Insurance for Nearly 10 Million Workers Through the Affordable Care Act's Small Business Health Insurance Exchanges
- Health Insurance Exchanges of Past and Present Offer Examples of Features That Could Attract Small-Business Customers
  This Commonwealth Fund–supported article in Health Affairs recommends ways the exchanges can reach out to small-business owners to meet their needs.
- How Small Business Health Exchanges Can Offer Value to Their Future Customers—And Why They Must
  In this Commonwealth Fund–supported article, Jon Kingsdale argues that the reason many small firms do not currently offer health insurance to employees is not lack of availability—as there is a thriving commercial market for small-group coverage—but because of cost.
RWJF Health Reform News
- Small Business
  Only a few employers will take advantage of rules allowing some small businesses to avoid pending health reform measures, rendering the rules relatively obsolete and minimizing their impact on health insurance costs, according to new analysis and simulations conducted by health policy researchers.
- ObamaCare's Medicaid Mandate
  Can a technically voluntary program also be coercive? Note: Viewing this article may require a subscription.
- Birth-Control Compromise to Be Announced by White House
  The White House plans to announce a compromise designed to allay the concerns of religious organizations on a Health and Human Services rule that would require religious employers to cover birth control, a senior administration official confirmed to POLITICO.
- Thousands Join First Lady for 'Let's Move' Outing
  Wild arm swings, sharp robotic turns, pulsing fist pumps.
- Bill Would Require Standards on Arsenic, Lead in Fruit Juice
  The next time your kid reaches for more apple juice, think twice.
ACA Litigation Blog
NY Times Health Policy
- Obama Offers ‘Accommodation’ on Birth Control Rule
  The decision to soften a requirement that religious-affiliated organizations pay for insurance plans offering free birth control was meant to appease Catholics on the left — not bishops.
- Supply of Methotrexate, a Cancer Drug, May Run Out Soon
  Hundreds or even thousands of lives are at risk after a major manufacturer suspended production of methotrexate, a treatment for childhood leukemia.
- National Briefing | Environment: E.P.A. Is Sued Over Delays in Soot Standards
  Eleven states sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday over its delays in tightening air quality standards involving soot.
- Bishops Planned Battle on Birth Control Coverage Rule
  Roman Catholic bishops began mobilizing months ago for a major campaign against a requirement that religious-affiliated institutions cover birth control in their insurance plans.
- Boehner Vows to Fight Contraception Rule
  Congressional Republicans stepped into the battle over an Obama administration rule requiring health insurance plans at Catholic universities and charities to offer free birth control.
WaPo Health
- Redskin London Fletcher’s fitness regimen
  Let’s say your job is to take off at a sprint, get moving about 20 mph and slam yourself full speed into a brick wall — 60 times in a single afternoon. We’d give you a helmet and lots of padding to protect yourself. Because of the toll this would take on your body, we’d make you do it only once a week. And we’d reward you handsomely. Read full art […]
- Keep your New Year’s fitness resolution without hitting the gym
  This is it. This is the year you finally get in shape, shed those pounds or meet that fitness pledge you made at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31. But do you have to build the new you in a hot, stuffy gym, cheek by jiggly jowl with a dozen other sweaty resolutionaries awaiting their turn on the elliptical machine? Read full article >>
- My workplace fitness resolution
  I’m not saying my co-workers are fat. In fact, a fair number of them are toothpick skinny — including, unfairly, the guy who brings in his latest cupcake creation every other day. Many of them are also super-active, always running, biking and yoga-ing in their free time. Read full article >>
- Guys: Stretch now or pay later
  Listen up, ladies, because it’s confession time, and as you may know, this is not my gender’s forte. So let’s get this over with: Although we are bigger, stronger and faster than you are, we must acknowledge that when it comes to flexibility, most of us are pretty much outclassed. We aren’t built like you, and we don’ t bend like you do. Read full […]
- Ways to get kids to eat quinoa
  When people ask me to list my favorite healthy foods, quinoa always tops the list. And not just because the National Restaurant Association named it the hottest trend in side dishes in 2010. My boys think I like quinoa because when it was first discovered it was named “the mother grain.” Yes, I am proud to be a mother myself, but check out all the real […]
Fierce Healthcare
- Eisai loses panel vote on new Dacogen use
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  Investigators have turned in intriguing animal data suggesting that an orphan drug used to treat lymphoma may be effective in countering Alzheimer's disease. And with the news grabbing headlines around the world, researchers say they need to race to a more conclusive understanding of how the drug works in humans as physicians field demands for the treat […]
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- FDA maps out long-awaited rules for the biosimilars business
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- One father's heartbreak inspired a $250M quest for a cure
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- Takeda opens new drug development center in China
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- Cytomedix snaps up stem cell biotech Aldagen for a bargain price
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  Since its launch back in 2009, Boston-based Acetylon Pharmaceuticals has fueled its work on a next-gen HDAC inhibitor with $40 million drawn from wealthy individual backers as well as the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation. But with its lead program in a classic Phase Ia dose-escalation safety study, Celgene has stepped in with a $15 million strategic investme […]
Boston Globe Health Blog
- MIT professor wins prestigious chemistry prize
  By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff Robert Langer, a biomedical engineer at MIT best known for his contributions in the fields of tissue engineering and drug delivery, has been named the winner of the 2012 Priestley Medal, a prestigious prize...
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  In an editorial today, the Times says support for the national mandate could follow the recent trend in Mass. and grow
- Brigham and Women's performs face transplant on woman mauled by chimp
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LA Times Health Blog
Health Affairs Blog
- New Transparency Rules For Health Plans: A Huge Win For Consumers
  Editor’s note: See another Health Affairs post on this topic by Tim Jost. How do you shop for health insurance today? For many of us, our employer makes the decision for us. And if there is a choice of health plans, the employer also provides helpful summaries of the benefits, premium differences, and cost-sharing so [...]
- Implementing Health Reform: The Summary Of Benefits And Coverage
  Editor’s note: Another Health Affairs Blog post, by Mila Kofman and Sabrina Corlette, also discusses the February 9 final rule implementing Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirements that health plans provide consumers with short, easy to understand summaries of benefits and coverage. Tim Jost’s post below discusses this new rule; additionally, it ha […]
- Small Business Health Insurance Exchanges: Potential And Pitfalls
  The Affordable Care Act’s state health insurance exchanges for small businesses present a host of opportunities for states now creating them, but they also present design and regulatory challenges that could make or break the success of the program, according to a cluster of articles in the February issue of Health Affairs, released yesterday. The [...]
- New Health Affairs: Some Physicians Not Always Honest With Patients
  Despite wide institutional acceptance of a medical professionalism charter that endorses openness and honesty in physicians’ interactions with patients, not all doctors comply, according to a survey whose results are published in the February 2012 issue of Health Affairs, released today. Although about two-thirds of doctors responding to the survey did agr […]
- The ACA Supreme Court Litigation: The States’ Medicaid And Minimum Coverage Briefs
  Briefs continue to be filed at a furious pace in the Affordable Care Act Supreme Court litigation. On January 6, the federal government led off with its brief challenging the decision of the Eleventh Circuit federal court of appeals that the ACA’s minimum coverage requirement (individual mandate) is unconstitutional. The states and the National Federat […]

Center News, Programs & Papers

Livestream Podcast, Seton Hall Law Review ACO Symposium

Symposium: Implementing the Affordable Care Act: What Role for Accountable Care Organizations?

Distinguished Guest Practitioner Mark Swearingen Lectures on Trends in Healthcare Law Enforcement

Online Graduate Certificate Program in Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Law to Begin in May 2011

New Jersey’s Commissioner of Health and Senior Services Discusses Medical Marijuana and Two Other Regulatory “Case Studies” at Seton Hall Law

The Limits of Disclosure as a Response to Finanacial Conflicts of Interest in Clinical Research

Fourth Annual Student Health Law Conference To Be Held at Seton Hall Law on October 22nd

Seton Hall University School of Law Launches European Healthcare Compliance Certification Programme in Paris

Seton Hall Law Announces Frank Pasquale as the Schering-Plough Professor in Health Care Regulation and Enforcement

Former UN Special Rapporteur Paul Hunt on International Law & Health as a Human Right & the Human Rights Responsibilities of Pharmaceutical Companies

Recording of Sam Maizel’s Discussion of Distressed Hospitals

Recording of Professors Tim Greaney, John Jacobi, Frank Pasquale, and Sidney Watson Discussing Health Reform

Seton Hall Announces Summer Study Abroad International Health Law Program

Online Graduate Certificate Program in Health & Hospital Law to Launch in April 2010

Seton Hall Law School’s Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy Issues White Paper Calling for Major Reforms in the Financing and Oversight of Clinical Research

Risks to Directors and Trustees of Health Care & Life Sciences Companies: Corporate Compliance in a Distressed Economy

Third Annual Student Health Law Conference, Friday, October 16th at Seton Hall Law

Position Paper In Support of the “New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act”

Seton Hall Law School’s Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy Releases White Paper Recommending Reform of Drug and Device Promotion

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