Another $17 Trillion Surprise Found in Obamacare

From dailycaller.com - Senate Republican staffers continue to look though the 2010 health care reform law to see what’s in it, and their latest discovery is a massive $17 trillion funding gap.  “The more we learn about the bill, the more we learn it is even more unaffordable than was suspected,” said Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Republicans’ budget chief in the Senate. “The bill has to be removed from the books because we don’t have the money,” he said.  More News New Mexico

Another $17 Trillion Surprise Found in Obamacare

Scientific Ghost Town to be Built in Hobbs or Las Cruces

From therepublic.com -The group behind plans to build a $1 billion scientific ghost town in New Mexico has narrowed its list of potential sites from 16 to two.  The Center for Innovation, Technology and Testing, or CITE, will be built near Hobbs, on the New Mexico-Texas, border, or near Las Cruces in southern New Mexico, said Bob Brumley, senior managing director of Pegasus Holdings and its New Mexico subsidiary, CITE Development.  "They are two really good sites," he said. "Now we just have to go through ... and find the one that best suits this business." Two sites were chosen instead of one, he said, because the company is intent on meeting its June deadline for breaking ground on the project and details have yet to be finalized for securing the land. Plans call for development of what is being billed as a first-of-its kind smart city, or ghost town of sorts, on about 15 square miles where researchers can test everything from renewable energy innovations to intelligent traffic systems, next-generation wireless networks and smart-grid cyber security systems.  More News New Mexico

Scientific Ghost Town to be Built in Hobbs or Las Cruces

Molina Healthcare Appoints Former N.M. Governor Garrey Carruthers to Board of Directors

 Garrey Carruthers

From marketwatch.com -Molina Healthcare, Inc. today announced that Garrey E. Carruthers, a former Governor of New Mexico, has been elected to serve as a director by the Company's Board of Directors. Dr. Carruthers will fill an existing vacancy in Class I of the Board. "Governor Carruthers' extensive experience in health care, in government, and in business gives him a unique perspective and insight into our company," said J. Mario Molina, M.D., president and chief executive officer of Molina Healthcare, Inc. "During this exciting time of growth and change in our industry, he will be a true asset for the Company and a great addition to our Board."   More News New Mexico

Molina Healthcare Appoints Former N.M. Governor Garrey Carruthers to Board of Directors

Former N.M. Hospital Exec. Sued Over Missing $3M

From canadianbusiness.com - former executive at a Santa Fe hospital has been accused of bilking the care center out of more than $3 million by funneling the money through corporations that he owned in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas that were controlled by a woman with whom he had a personal relationship, according to a recently filed lawsuit.  The Albuquerque Journal reports Great American Insurance Co. filed the lawsuit Friday against Richard Crabtree. It accuses him and other defendants of engaging in a "pervasive scheme" to misappropriate money from Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center by billing and collecting at least $3.2 million for claimed services that either weren't provided or were grossly inflated. More News New Mexico

Former N.M. Hospital Exec. Sued Over Missing $3M

Government Drives Up Health Care Cost

From the Albuquerque Journal Online.com - by J. Deane Waldman - In the Journal of Nov. 28, economist Robert Samuelson claims that health care costs are “out of control.” Quite the opposite: They are totally in control – by the government. That is a problem. Health care refers to goods and services delivered by hospitals and providers to be consumed by patients. Costs to providers and institutions are driven more by government regulation and bureaucracy than by labor costs or MRI machines. Meanwhile, payments to providers and institutions – what Samuelson calls “costs” – are controlled by government. Note that when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) cut “Medicare costs” by 21 percent, they cut Medicare payments to providers. Therefore, they cut services to patients. As Robert Moffit of the Heritage Foundation testified before Congress, “you cannot get more of something by paying less for it.” Meanwhile, the spending on – the costs of – the federal health care bureaucracy went up by six whole new agencies, hundreds (thousands?) of bureaucrats added to the payrolls, and multithousands of new rules and regulations. So the government controls and increases spending to/on itself, while it controls and decreases spending on patients. Want proof? Of all the money spent on “health care,” 40 percent – that is over $1 trillion in 2010 – disappears. It goes to health care but provides no care. Read - requires subscription

Government Drives Up Health Care Cost

Poverty is Way Up In NM

From businessinsider - Despite a year of economic growth following the end the recession in 2009, the number of poor rose in nearly every area of the US in 2010.  Citing new US Census data released Thursday, Reuters reports that New Mexico and Mississippi have more than one in five people living in poverty, the highest in the nation. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Poverty is Way Up In NM

Feds:Medical Pot Smokers Cannot Purchase Guns,Weapons

From newmexicoindependent.com -Though medical marijuana is legal in New Mexico, the drug is still regarded as an illegal scheduled substance by the federal government. Given the federal government sets the rules on who can own guns, medicinal marijuana smokers of this state and 15 others are barred from owning guns. The point was reiterated in a late September letter written by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and sent to federal firearms licensees. Owners of gun stores are instructed to withhold the sale of arms or munitions to anyone suspected of having an interaction or addiction to scheduled drugs, including marijuana. The letter specifies individuals known to have a medicinal marijuana card can be reasonably assumed to be an abuser of a controlled substance and gun shop owners must refuse purchase.  More News New Mexico

Feds:Medical Pot Smokers Cannot Purchase Guns,Weapons

1st Year of Obamacare: Health Insurance up 9%

ABC - Health insurance premiums shot up 9 percent this year, nearly three times the rate of inflation and the most since 2005, a new study shows. This year, the annual premiums paid out for employer-sponsored programs topped $15,000, according to Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust, which conducts an annual health benefits survey. Average health care premiums rose to $10,944 for employers and $4,129 for workers for a total of $15,073. At a time when economic news is gloomy, the rate of payment may seem troublesome. “This year’s 9 percent increase in premiums is especially painful for workers and employers struggling through a weak recovery,” Kaiser President Drew Altman said in a statement. The rate of increase is faster than wage hikes and general inflation, which rose 2.1 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively. The figure has risen a whopping 113 percent in the last 10 years, according to Kaiser. Read full story here: News New Mexico

1st Year of Obamacare: Health Insurance up 9%

Despite praise as success, some say N.M. medical cannabis program needs work

From the Santa Fe New Mexican.com - by Phaedra Haywood - Four years after New Mexico's Medical Cannabis Program was created, nearly 4,000 New Mexico residents have been approved to use the herb as medicine, and 25 nonprofit producers have been licensed to sell it to them. New Mexico's system for regulating those producers is being adopted by other states as a model for allowing medicinal use of marijuana without seeing pot dispensaries pop up on every street corner, as they have in California and Colorado. The program has produced some spinoff businesses and is generating hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of tax revenue from the sale of medical marijuana. And this year, for the first time, the state coffers will see an influx of cash from fees paid by producers. But program participants and patient advocates say the system still needs tweaking and fear it could be canceled if Gov. Susana Martinez follows through on statements she made during her campaign that she would like to see the medical marijuana law repealed. Read more

Despite praise as success, some say N.M. medical cannabis program needs work

Obesity Doesn’t Always Mean Shorter Life

From KOAT-TV.com - ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- New research suggests that being obese doesn’t necessarily mean that a person will have a shorter life than a thin person. A study from York University in Toronto claims that obese people live as long as slim people. Researchers monitored 6,000 obese Americans for 16 years and compared their risk of dying from any cause or from heart disease against the risk of 23,000 slim people. They found that people both groups had similar death risk. However, obesity significantly increased death risk when it was combined with other problems such as high-blood pressure or diabetes. Those participants were more than two times as likely to die from cardiovascular disease. Read more

Obesity Doesn’t Always Mean Shorter Life

St. Vincent Med. Center Workers Prepare to Go on Strike

Newsnm note - Are going on strike AND receiving health care rights? KOB - TV - Workers at Christus Saint Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe have given a 10-day notice about a possible strike. The local hospital and health care employees union voted in favor of the move Monday night. Nurses and technical workers want to negotiate staffing and working conditions. A 10-day notice is needed so the hospital can figure out how to cover for striking workers. If a strike happens, it will begin July 1. Read full story here: News New Mexico

St. Vincent Med. Center Workers Prepare to Go on Strike

Barone: Reward Pals, Punish Foes

Kathleen Sebelius

Washington Examiner - by Michael Barone - Question: What do the following have in common? Eckert Cold Storage Co., Kerly Homes of Yuma, Classic Party Rentals, West Coast Turf Inc., Ellenbecker Investment Group Inc., Only in San Francisco, Hotel Nikko, International Pacific Halibut Commission, City of Puyallup, Local 485 Health and Welfare Fund, Chicago Plastering Institute Health & Welfare Fund, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, Teamsters Local 522 Fund Welfare Fund Roofers Division, StayWell Saipan Basic Plan, CIGNA, Caribbean Workers' Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Health and Welfare Plan. Answer: They are all among the 1,372 businesses, state and local governments, labor unions and insurers, covering 3,095,593 individuals or families, that have been granted a waiver from Obamacare by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. All of which raises another question: If Obamacare is so great, why do so many people want to get out from under it? More specifically, why are more than half of those 3,095,593 in plans run by labor unions, which were among Obamacare's biggest political supporters? Union members are only 12 percent of all employees but have gotten 50.3 percent of Obamacare waivers. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Barone: Reward Pals, Punish Foes

Offering Pre-Natal Care Is Risky

South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Fifteen obstetrics-gynecology practices out of 105 polled by the Sun Sentinel said they have set weight limits for new patients. Some of the doctors said the main reason was their exam tables or other equipment can't handle people over a certain weight, but at least six said heavy women run a higher risk of complications. "People don't realize the risk we're taking by taking care of these patients," the newspaper quoted Dr. Albert Triana of South Miami as saying. "There's more risk of something going wrong and more risk of getting sued. Everything is more complicated with an obese Read full story here: News New Mexico

Offering Pre-Natal Care Is Risky

Pelosi Galore: 38 Obamacare Waivers Granted by White House in Her District.....in April

Nancy Pelosi

Daily Caller - Of the 204 new Obamacare waivers President Barack Obama’s administration approved in April, 38 are for fancy eateries, hip nightclubs and decadent hotels in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Northern California district. That’s in addition to the 27 new waivers for health care or drug companies and the 31 new union waivers Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services approved. Pelosi’s district secured almost 20 percent of the latest issuance of waivers nationwide, and the companies that won them didn’t have much in common with companies throughout the rest of the country that have received Obamacare waivers. Other common waiver recipients were labor union chapters, large corporations, financial firms and local governments. But Pelosi’s district’s waivers are the first major examples of luxurious, gourmet restaurants and hotels getting a year-long pass from Obamacare. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Pelosi Galore: 38 Obamacare Waivers Granted by White House in Her District.....in April

Entire State of Nevada Receives an Obamacare Waiver

Reid After Accessing Senator's Healthcare

Las Vegas Sun - The Health and Human Services Department announced late Friday that Nevada had secured a statewide waiver from certain implementation requirements of the Obama administration’s health care law, because forcing them through, the department found, “may lead to the destabilization of the individual market.” The announcement makes Nevada one of only three states to have compliance requirements under the health care bill waived. Nevada’s Insurance Division had appealed to the feds to reduce the federal requirement that health plans serving people who buy insurance on their own must spend at least 80 percent of the money they collect on medical expenses. Under the national rule, companies that don’t spend that percentage of revenue on medical costs have to cut policyholders rebate checks starting this year. Nevada asked that requirement be reduced to 72 percent for one year, arguing that top insurance providers would be so strapped to make the payments that they’d exit the state market. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Entire State of Nevada Receives an Obamacare Waiver

Obamacare Waiver Count Rises to 1,372

The Hill - The Obama administration approved 204 new waivers to Democrats' healthcare reform law over the past month, bringing the total to 1,372. The waivers are temporary and only apply to one provision of the law, which requires health plans to offer at least $750,000 worth of annual medical benefits before leaving patients to fend for themselves. Still, Republicans have assailed the waivers as a sign of both favoritism and of major problems with the law. "The fact that over 1,000 waivers have been granted is a tacit admission that the healthcare law is fundamentally flawed," Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said in March. Upton is one of three House committee chairmen who has used new oversight powers to investigate the annual limit waivers. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Obamacare Waiver Count Rises to 1,372

Health Exchanges: OK Gov. Refuses Grant Money

NewAmerican - Back in February, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, a Republican, announced that the Sooner State would be accepting a $54.6 million grant from the federal government to help create a health insurance exchange for Oklahomans that's required by the new healthcare law dubbed ObamaCare. But last Thursday, Fallin reversed her position, saying the state would not accept the federal grant. Fallin, a former Congresswoman, voted against ObamaCare in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was elected Governor of Oklahoma last November, and though she has continued to express her opposition to ObamaCare, she has also said that the federal legislation is now the "law of the land," that it requires states to set up healthcare exchanges by the end of 2013, and that Oklahoma faces a budget shortfall this year. In her mind, it made sense to accept the federal grant to develop the exchange’s infrastructure. (The grant was requested by former Governor Brad Henry, a Democrat.)

This, to prevent the FedGov from foisting its own plan on Oklahoma, in the absence of a state plan. Legislation to create a governing board for the state plan — HB 2130 — was drawn up in the Oklahoma House of Representatives by Speaker Kris Steele (R-Shawnee) and passed by a razor-thin margin. Then resistance came. A funny thing happened to the bill on the way to the Oklahoma State Senate. Its leadership, led by President Pro Tempore Brian Bingman (R-Sapulpa), feared that accepting the big bucks from Washington would wed the state to ObamaCare. Not only that, but Governor Fallin decided that, instead of accepting the $54.6 million federal grant, it would be better to reject it. Activist Charlie Meadows, of Guthrie, Oklahoma, credits the conservative grassroots, having been educated on the issue at hand and speaking against it, with exerting much-needed, bottom-up pressure against taking the money. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Health Exchanges: OK Gov. Refuses Grant Money

CMS Investigates Irregularities in Obtaining Federal Matching Funds for NM Hospitals

From beckershospitalreview.com -A draft audit issued by CMS has identified irregularities in how local New Mexico governments and eight hospitals in the state generated money used to obtain federal matching funds as part of CMS' Sole Community Provider fund program during 2009, according to a Sante Fe New Mexican report. CMS has determined that $21.7 in payments by local governments did not comply with its rules for the Sole Community Provider fund program. Through this program, federal government matches 3-to-1 the money local governments provide for indigent health care in their communities, according to the report. Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe is one of the hospitals being investigated. In 2009, Sante Fe County provided $9.5 million for indigent care, drawing approximately $27 million in federal matching funds  More News New Mexico

CMS Investigates Irregularities in Obtaining Federal Matching Funds for NM Hospitals

Does America Need Health Courts?

NY Daily News - Studies show that in the regular court system, at least one fourth of doctors are liable when they are truly blameless and are held blameless when they deserve blame. The current system does not even aspire to upholding reasonable standards of care. Instead it is an ad hoc process in which one jury may find a defendant liable, where another jury, considering the same facts, may not. That has bred a toxic culture. Doctors will do almost anything to avoid being dragged through the courts.

No wonder more than half of all states have caps on malpractice liability yet still have rampant defensive medicine. Nor is the current system effective for injured patients - it takes an average of five years for a case to be resolved, almost 60% of an award goes to lawyers and administrative costs and in those one-fourth of the cases in which doctors who made mistakes escape blame, the victims get nothing. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Does America Need Health Courts?

More State Regulation of Healthcare on Way

Dede Feldman

Capitol Report New Mexico - New Mexico Democrats have been grumbling about Gov. Susana Martinez vetoing a number bills they sponsored in the last legislative session (click here to read some caustic comments from one state rep) but on Thursday (April 7th), they were elated to see Gov. Martinez sign a bill that strengthens regulations on rate increases that health insurance companies charge. “I’m delighted,” Sen. Dede Feldman (D-Albuquerque) said after Gov. Martinez signed Senate Bill 208/499 which requires rate hike requests be based on actuarial evidence, that supporting documents be made public on the Internet and that Public Regulation Commission (PRC) members have the authority to remand a rate hike back to the state’s Insurance Superintendent. “Consumers need to know if insurance rates are fair and reasonable.” Feldman and other liberals were worried the conservative Governor would veto the measure but Martinez said in a statement that it’s essential that “the rate review process is as thorough and transparent as possible, especially during these difficult times when many families are cutting costs to make ends meet.” Read full story here: News New Mexico

More State Regulation of Healthcare on Way