Category: On Call
The Congressional Budget Office says that healthcare reform and other proposals in the White House's 2014 budget proposal will lower the national debt and cut about $1.1 trillion in deficit spending over the next 10 years.
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — President Barack Obama's proposed changes to Medicare and other program could help significantly reduce spending, lower the national debt and cut deficit spending over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office's calculations.
If enacted, President Obama's policies would cut about $1.1 trillion in deficit spending between 2014 and 2023, compared with the CBO's baseline for those years, the office reported last week. Deficits would initially grow between 2013 and 2015 but decrease by increasing amounts thereafter, the CBO said.
The New York Times lists the 10 most expensive hospitals in the United States, based on CMS data
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Bayonne Medical Center in Bayonne, N.J., billed Medicare an average of 4 times higher than the national average for the 100 most common procedures, according to the New York Times.
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — The Congressional Budget Office is looking to pour cold water on Republican attempts to repeal the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act in advance of today's vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In a letter to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), CBO director Doug Elmendorf warned the former vice presidential hopeful that repealing the landmark healthcare law would result in "a net increase in budget deficits of $109 billion over the 2013-2022 period."
Republican leaders decline to nominate members for the Medicare advisory board designed to hold down healthcare costs as part of Obamacare.
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Legislative leaders from the House and Senate last week looked to put the kaibosh on 1 of the things they dislike most about Obamacare: The Medicare advisory board that's supposed to help keep healthcare costs down.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate's minority leader, told President Barack Obama May 9 that they'll refuse to nominate any candidates for the Independent Payment Advisory Board. Boehner also said the House will vote this week (again, for the 37th time) on repealing Obamacare entirely, The Hill reports.
The Army is testing a new mobile health initiative that leverages the power of big data to identify soldiers at risk for musculoskeletal injury.
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — The U.S. military piloted a new program to help prevent injuries in the field, modifying a technology developed by Move2Perform to calculate injury risk among athletes.
The program placed soldiers into a single day of physical training to generate data on potential injury risk that may identify which soldiers are most at risk for musculoskeletal injuries. The tests combine stores of data and can be conducted in non-clinical settings by non-medical personnel.
A pair of U.S. veterans filed a lawsuit against a VA medical center over a data breach that may have exposed more than 7,000 patient records.
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — A duo of U.S. veterans filed a lawsuit against the Veterans Administration this month after a South Carolina medical center reported a missing laptop with records on more than 7,000 patients.
Earlier this year the William Jennings Bryan Dorn VA Medical Center in Colombia reported a laptop missing from a testing lap in the center's respiratory therapy department, warning that the theft may have exposed patients' names, birth dates, and the last 4 digits of their social security numbers, among other information.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) revealed this week that he secretly had gastric banding surgery for weight loss.
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) underwent secret Lap-Band surgery to help him lose weight, he revealed to the New York Post this week.
Some analysts suggested that the move signals that Christie is looking at a run for the White House, but the Christie, how has come under fire for his physique on more than 1 occasion, insisted that the surgery was prompted by concern for his health and the urging of his family.
