Health Care Blog

HHS Awards $3.5 Million to Expand HIV/AIDS Care Capacity for Minorities

Posted by Miguel Gomez on October 1, 2010 at 2:18 PM EDT

Earlier this month, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced two grants totaling more than $3.5 million to reach beyond the Ryan White Program– the federally funded program that provides care and treatment to about half a million Americans living with HIV/AIDS – and provide expanded care and treatment for minority patients that have been impacted by the disease.

The first three-year grant, funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), will provide $2.975 million to HealthHIV, based in Washington, DC, to improve and enhance the organizational capacity of community health centers across the nation to provide culturally competent, compassionate, high-quality, and life sustaining HIV care and treatment to racial and ethnic minorities living with or affected by HIV/AIDS. The grant will support a new AIDS Education and Training Center (AETC) National Center for Expansion of HIV CARE in Minority Communities.

HRSA supports a nationwide network of more than 7,900 health centers. These centers provide quality primary care to almost 19 million medically underserved people – about 40 percent of them have no health insurance. Everyone who enters the door is served; no one is ever turned away. These health centers represent one of the nation's best primary health care delivery models. With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, health centers received a tremendous boost. The Act provides $11 billion over the next five years for the operation, expansion and construction of health centers throughout the nation. This will create the largest expansion of community health centers in the program's history and make it possible to nearly double the number of patients they serve. To find a health center near you, use this locator.

The second grant was awarded to Howard University, a historically Black college located in Washington, DC. The three-year grant of $550,000 establishes the AETC National Multicultural Center. The Center will provide training and technical assistance designed to increase cross-cultural awareness and competency among health care professionals and facilities serving the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS.

“These grants will support the President’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy by expanding capacity at the community level, facilitating linkages to care and increasing the available providers to serve people living with HIV,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

HRSA Administrator Mary Wakefield said, “Expansion of health center services will increase HIV screening and help reach and provide care for the estimated 220,000 people nationwide who are unaware that they’ve been exposed to the virus.”

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Letting in the Sunshine: Insurer Pricing, Denial Rates Now Available on HealthCare.Gov

Posted by Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on October 1, 2010 at 6:00 AM EDT

Ed. Note: Cross-posted from HealthCare.gov

If you’ve ever searched for private health insurance, or even just tried to figure out which health care plan is a good fit, you know how hard it is to make heads or tails of what’s presented to you. There are a lot of terms, like “formulary,” that require visits to a dictionary or the internet. And it’s often difficult to figure out if the decision you’re making will actually give you value for your dollar.

Today, we begin to change that dynamic, and give more control to people instead of insurance companies. As of today, the Insurance Finder on HealthCare.gov includes information from over 4,000 private health plans offered by over 200 insurers, across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

In addition to giving you the base price for these insurance plans, we have new details like the percentage of people who are quoted a rate higher than the basic premium based on the individual’s health status. And you can see what percentage of people were turned down when they tried to buy that plan. This will give you some sense of how different insurance companies change pricing and accept or deny coverage for individuals in less-than-perfect circumstances. Until today, that kind of information had never been available to consumers, and this new transparency is the result of regulations issued under the Affordable Care Act.

The Insurance Finder is designed to make it easy for you to see many of the things you need to know to make a decision about your insurance coverage. It includes helpful features that let you see specifically what benefits are excluded under the plan you’re considering, including benefits like maternity care and prescription drugs. To break through all the “insurance speak,” you can click on terms to see important cautionary notes and definitions. And you can select up to three plans and select “compare these plans” to see all their details at once.

We’ve also added information about Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) so that people eligible for those programs can see information such as cost-sharing for services. And in the future, we’ll continue to update the private insurance options available, as well as include information for small business owners.

In many ways, in addition to giving people more protection from the worst insurance company abuses, the Affordable Care Act is about letting people actually see what is happening in the health insurance market. Until now, too many Americans have lacked reliable information about coverage and faced confusing fine print and hidden limits when trying to sign up for or simply use their health insurance. Today’s unveiling of the updated Insurance Finder will shine some sunlight on the details of how these insurance options actually work. It’s a huge step toward making the health care system more transparent --- and making insurance companies more accountable to you.

Click on the screenshot of the tutorial below for more info on how the private insurance part of the Insurance Finder works, or head over to it and try it out right now.

Kathleen Sebelius is Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services

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West Wing Week: "One Two Three ... Lancers!"

Posted by Arun Chaudhary on October 1, 2010 at 12:00 AM EDT

Welcome to the West Wing Week, your guide to everything that's happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Walk step by step with the President as he signs the Small Business Jobs Act, speaks to college journalists, holds backyard discussions about the economy with area families across the heartland and much more...

For more information on the events in this edition of West Wing Week, check out the links below:

Monday, September 27th, 2010
- President Obama Signs Small Business Jobs Act - Learn What's In It
Monday, September 27th, 2010
- President Obama to College Journalists: "What I Want to Do is Just to Go Speak to Young People Directly"
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
- The President on Our Veterans & Choosing Priorities in Albuquerque
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
- A Backyard Discussion on the Patient's Bill of Rights.
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
- A Backyard Stroll Through Health Reform in Des Moines
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
- Discussing the Economy at the Southampton Recreation Association in Richmond
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Quintessentially American: Leveling the Playing Field for Best Ideas to Combat Diabetes

Posted by Robynn Sturm on September 30, 2010 at 5:28 PM EDT

Earlier this week, I witnessed a striking role-reversal in the field of biomedical research. The Dean of Harvard Medical School, Jeffrey S. Flier, a prominent diabetes researcher in his own right, listened intently as undergraduate Megan Blewett presented her pioneering proposal to advance Type One Diabetes research in promising new directions.

Blewett, a senior at Harvard, was one of 12 winners of a Challenge sponsored by the Harvard Catalyst for the best and most feasible hypotheses that might drive the development of better tools for the diagnosis, treatment, or cure of Type 1 Diabetes. Funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Research Resources as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and led by Eva Guinan of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Karim Lakhani of Harvard Business school, the initiative leveraged crowdsourcing techniques to solicit out-of-the-box insights—encouraging people with expertise in areas unrelated to diabetes to apply insights from their disciplines to this biomedical challenge. The Challenge was posted to a global, open innovation marketplace and promoted by Harvard University President Drew Faust, who sent a letter to the entire University community at the Challenge’s launch.

The impressive winners selected from more than 190 entries by a multidisciplinary panel included not only an undergraduate, but also an MD/PhD student, an anonymous patient, a cardiologist, a biostatistician, a human resources representative, and a collaborative team from four universities. Harvard Catalyst has already secured a $1 million grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to support research proposals from the academic community to explore some or all of the scientific questions posed by the winners.

Blewett was excited by the prospect of her idea driving scientific inquiry. But most impressive, she said, was seeing how the Challenge could facilitate in the biomedical arena the kind of accelerated innovation she has witnessed in computer science and other disciplines that are less dependent on expensive lab equipment and infrastructure. “The fantastic thing about this challenge is that it lowers the barriers to entry. So all you really need is an idea and Internet access,” she said. “And, I think that’s quintessentially American.”

Specialists, too, praised the Challenge for unbundling ideation from the formal grant application process. Harvard endocrinologist and Challenge winner Jason Gaglia said it was “freeing” to be able to contemplate the most important and feasible question to ask, regardless of whether his lab had the specific expertise or full resources needed to address it.

For Kevin Dolan the Challenge was very personal. As a patient diagnosed with the disease at the age of 16, Dolan perceived the Challenge as an opportunity to communicate to the world’s top researchers the innovations that would have the greatest impact on his day-to-day life. Dolan is not a scientist, but his proposal to develop a non-invasive blood glucose monitor was selected in a blind review by a prestigious panel of judges.

Results like these are the driving force behind the Obama Administration’s commitment to increase the use of prizes and challenges to spur innovation. Hats off to the National Center for Research Resources for leading the way and to all of the inspiring contestants who answered their call!

More information about the 12 winners and their ideas plus video of the September 28th awards ceremony at Harvard Medical School is available online.

Robynn Sturm is Advisor for Open Innovation to the Deputy Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

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Politics or Patients?

Posted by Stephanie Cutter on September 30, 2010 at 12:30 PM EDT

Today, the Wall Street Journal editorial page takes a look at the Republican plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act and put the insurance industry back in control of the health care system and calls the plan a “good campaign platform.”

But for millions of Americans, the Affordable Care Act isn’t about politics or campaign platforms – it’s about getting the health care they need and being protected from the worst insurance company abuses.

It’s about people like Gail O’Brien from Keene, New Hampshire who was diagnosed with high grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma earlier this year. At the time, she had no health insurance. Thankfully, the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan was established by the Affordable Care Act. As a result, Gail now has insurance that will pay for her treatments and is responding very well.

It’s about families like the Restemayer’s in Bismarck, North Dakota. Jennifer Restemayer’s daughter Alison has a rare genetic disorder and was close to hitting the lifetime limit on health care in her father’s policy. The Affordable Care Act will remove the lifetime limit so Alison can continue to get the care she needs.

It’s about Dawn Josephson in Jacksonville, Florida whose family finally has comprehensive coverage because insurance companies can no longer discriminate against children with pre-existing conditions.

And it’s about people like Josh Lapps of Nazareth, Pennsylvania and Gail Weschler of St. Louis, Missouri. Under the new law, Josh and Gail’s son will be able to remain on their parent’s health insurance policy until they turn 26.

Read more about all of their stories by clicking here.

Defenders of the insurance industry want to focus on politics, pledges and campaigns. We’re focused on families like the O’Brien’s, the Josephson’s and the Weschler’s and delivering the benefits of the Affordable Care Act to the American people.

Stephanie Cutter is Assistant to the President for Special Projects

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A Backyard Stroll Through Health Reform in Des Moines

Posted by Jesse Lee on September 29, 2010 at 4:15 PM EDT

This morning the President benefited from another family's hospitality, this time the Clubb family in Des Moines, Iowa, who hosted him and about 70 of their neighbors for an open conversation. The topics ranged from the economy and prospects for those coming out of college to tax breaks for small business. But one of the most interesting exchanges, and one which showed the value of these kinds of discussions, was on the reforms in the Affordable Care Act. As you can see below, the President ended up taking quite a few questions actually -- if you have your own you can also try HealthCare.gov.

President Barack Obama shakes hands with neighborhood families following a discussion on the economy in the backyard of Jeff and Sandy Clubb's home in Des Moines, Iowa September 29, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

The full exchange:

Q    I have great concerns over your health bill. One of the ladies in admissions over there whom I was talking with the other week, started -- she’s from England, and her family is still in England.

THE PRESIDENT: Right.

Q    And she was explaining to us how -- telling us what we had to look forward to here. Her sister worked as a nurse in the same hospital for 20 years. She was 55. She was told she needed open-heart surgery. She was put on a 10-year waiting list. Three years later, she had a major heart attack and they were forced to give her that surgery that she needed.

I realize you’re saying the 26-year-olds will have health insurance -- they don’t have to worry about that. My mother always told me the older you get, the faster time goes. And when she said that to me years back, I thought she was crazy.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I’ve noticed this, too. (Laughter.)

Q    Yes. And these 26-year-olds in a heartbeat are going to be 50, 55. When you’re young, you’re supposed to be able to work hard for what you want. You build up your income. You further yourself so you can retire and have peace of mind. It’s hard to -- I can’t fathom now how can you be excited in your youth when you have to save, save, save just to protect yourself health insurance-wise when you reach our age.

THE PRESIDENT: Let me ask you a question, though. I mean, because you said you’re worried about my health reform bill, and the nurse said, here’s what you have to look forward to. Is your mom on Medicare?

Q    Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: So there’s nothing in our health reform bill that is going to impact whether your mom can get heart surgery if she needed it. We didn’t change the core Medicare program. So unless there’s something specific that you’re worried about --

Q    Medicare doesn’t start until you’re 65.

THE PRESIDENT: No, no, I understand.

Q    I’m talking about 50, 55 years old.

THE PRESIDENT: All right, so if you’re not on Medicare --

Q    Yes, right.

THE PRESIDENT: And do you have health insurance?

Q    Yes. Right now, yes.

THE PRESIDENT: So there’s nothing in the bill that says you have to change the health insurance that you’ve got right now. I just want to identify what your worry is, because I want to say you shouldn’t be worried about it. But what is it that you think might happen to your health insurance as a consequence of health care reform?

Q    Okay, what I’m concerned about is say if my -- just say if my husband got laid off. Say we had no health care.

THE PRESIDENT: You had no health insurance, okay? Now, right now before reform, if you had no health insurance, you’d just be out of luck, okay?

Q    And then we’d get the government-run health insurance, right? Is that what you’re saying?

THE PRESIDENT: No, here’s the way it would work. So let me just kind of map it out for you. If you are already getting health insurance on your job, then that doesn’t change. Health insurance reform was passed six months ago. I don’t know if anybody here has gotten a letter from their employer saying you now have to go into government-run health care because we can’t provide you health insurance anymore. I mean, that hasn’t happened, right?

So you’re keeping the health insurance that you had through your job. And the majority of people still get health insurance through your job.

The only changes we’ve made on people’s health insurance who already have it was to make it a little more secure by saying there are certain things insurance companies can’t do -- a patient’s bill of rights, basically.

So insurance companies can no longer drop your coverage when you get sick, which was happening. Sometimes there were some insurance companies who were going through your policy when you got sick to see if you had filled out the form wrong, you hadn’t listed some infection that they might call a preexisting condition, et cetera -- a bunch of fine print that led to people not having health insurance. So that was one thing that we said.

We said also you can keep kids on your health insurance till they’re 26; that children with preexisting conditions had to be covered under health insurance.

So there were a handful of things that we said insurance companies have to do, just as good business practices to protect consumers. But otherwise you can stay on your employer’s health care. So that’s if you have health insurance.

The other thing that we did was we said if you’re a lot of people who don’t have health insurance, it’s because they work for small businesses, who have trouble affording health insurance, because they’re not part of a big pool -- they’re not like a big company that has thousands of employees and they can negotiate because the insurance companies really want their business -- so what we said was let’s provide tax breaks to small businesses so they can -- they’re more likely to buy health insurance for their employees. And right now about 4 million businesses across the country are now getting a tax break, a tax credit, if they provide health insurance for their employees, that can save them tens of thousands of dollars. So that’s the second thing.

And the third thing we said was, okay, if you don’t have health insurance -- let’s just say your job doesn’t offer you health insurance, or you lose your job -- then what we’re going to set up is what’s called an exchange, which is basically a big pool -- you become part of this big group of people, just like as if you were working for a big company or a big university like Drake. You become part of this pool, and you’ll be able to buy your own insurance through this pool, but the rates will be lower and you’ll get a better deal because you’ve got the bargaining power of these thousands or millions of people who you’re buying it with. You’ll still have a choice of plans. You’ll have a choice of BlueCross or you’ll have a choice of this plan or that plan, but you’ll be buying it through a pool. And if you can’t afford it, then we’ll provide you some subsidies to see if we can help you buy it, so make it affordable.

So that’s essentially what health reform is about. Now, what that means is, is that you’re not going to be forced to buy a “government-run” health care plan. The only thing that we have said is, is that if you can afford to get health care and you’re not getting health care, well, that’s a problem because that means when you get sick and you have to go the emergency room, everybody else here has to pay for it. And that’s not fair.

So we’ve said if you can afford to get health care, we’re going to make sure that you can afford it, but you’ve got to have some basic coverage so that we’re not subsidizing -- everybody else isn’t paying an extra thousand dollars on their premiums to cover you.

President Barack Obama holds a discussion on the economy with neighborhood families in the backyard of Jeff and Sandy Clubb's home in Des Moines, Iowa September 29, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

President Barack Obama holds a discussion on the economy with neighborhood families in the backyard of Jeff and Sandy Clubb's home in Des Moines, Iowa September 29, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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