WGA InsureBlog

The election of Scott Brown to the US Senate will have a profound impact on the White House strategy to move health care reform through Congress. But while many in the press and infact the halls of Congress are declaring Health Care Reform DOA, insiders are providing glimpses of how President Obama plans to move forward given the new landscape. The White House and leadership have determined that passing nothing would be a worse political outcome than using a series of complex maneuvers to pass something. Here are the possible options. Read more…

As discussions with my clients shift from “if” to “when” will health reform pass, CFOs and HR managers are expectedly anxious and concerned about protocols and penalties associated with the new rules under Obamacare. For Massachusetts companies, many of the plan design and credible plan requirements were resolved way back in 1996 under small group reform or recently under the 2007 Mass Health reform law. In fact, much of what we are seeing in both the House and Senate versions of reform mirror the Mass reform program in many respects. There is however a potential catch-22 involved with the cost of having a compliant plan; that issue is the Senate pay-for “Cadillac” tax. Read more…

The recent merger of the iconic Physicians’ Desk Reference (PDR®) found in every physician’s office, clinic and hospital, with the Health Care Notification Network (HCNN), the only network that delivers FDA-required drug Alerts to physicians and other prescribers online, has created a new combined service that provides FDA-required Alerts, monthly specialty-specific clinical updates and a copy of the 64th edition of the PDR with regular insert updates to all to medical providers. This effort to minimize “information errors” is a crucial step for prescribers of medicines across the healthcare spectrum. Read more…