Mary
12-19-2008, 09:38 AM
Economic Stimulus Package Likely To Cost As Much As $850B, Include Funds For Medicaid, Health Care IT
19 Dec 2008
Aides to President-elect Barack Obama have told lawmakers that a two-year economic stimulus package they plan to consider in January 2009 could cost as much as $850 billion, rather than the $600 billion currently under consideration, congressional officials said on Wednesday, the AP/Contra Costa Times reports (AP/Contra Costa Times, 12/17).
According to the Los Angeles Times, the economic stimulus package "could shape the course of Obama's presidency" and "help lift the economy out of recession, giving him the space to enact his ambitious energy, education and health care plans" (Nicholas, Los Angeles Times, 12/17). Lawmakers and lobbyists have said that the package "would let states and localities, rather than the federal government, decide how to spend the bulk of the money" to avoid the "more time-consuming practice of loading the measure with thousands of ... earmarks," Bloomberg/Detroit Free Press reports (Woellert/Greiling Keane, Bloomberg/Detroit Free Press, 12/18).
Under the package, states likely would receive as much as $100 billion in additional federal Medicaid funds.
Obama also has indicated that the package would include funds for health care information technology efforts, such as the expansion and implementation of electronic health records, in an effort to decrease costs and reduce medical errors. Expansion of EHRs "has seemed the low-hanging fruit of health reform, largely because everyone agrees going digital will improve care," the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the Journal, physicians "have been reluctant to invest $40,000 to $60,000 on an electronic record system that may not be interoperable with other systems, especially when much of the savings goes to insurers and other payers" (Weisman/Fuhrmans, Wall Street Journal, 12/18).
More on
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/133671.php
19 Dec 2008
Aides to President-elect Barack Obama have told lawmakers that a two-year economic stimulus package they plan to consider in January 2009 could cost as much as $850 billion, rather than the $600 billion currently under consideration, congressional officials said on Wednesday, the AP/Contra Costa Times reports (AP/Contra Costa Times, 12/17).
According to the Los Angeles Times, the economic stimulus package "could shape the course of Obama's presidency" and "help lift the economy out of recession, giving him the space to enact his ambitious energy, education and health care plans" (Nicholas, Los Angeles Times, 12/17). Lawmakers and lobbyists have said that the package "would let states and localities, rather than the federal government, decide how to spend the bulk of the money" to avoid the "more time-consuming practice of loading the measure with thousands of ... earmarks," Bloomberg/Detroit Free Press reports (Woellert/Greiling Keane, Bloomberg/Detroit Free Press, 12/18).
Under the package, states likely would receive as much as $100 billion in additional federal Medicaid funds.
Obama also has indicated that the package would include funds for health care information technology efforts, such as the expansion and implementation of electronic health records, in an effort to decrease costs and reduce medical errors. Expansion of EHRs "has seemed the low-hanging fruit of health reform, largely because everyone agrees going digital will improve care," the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the Journal, physicians "have been reluctant to invest $40,000 to $60,000 on an electronic record system that may not be interoperable with other systems, especially when much of the savings goes to insurers and other payers" (Weisman/Fuhrmans, Wall Street Journal, 12/18).
More on
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/133671.php