Surprise! End-of-life advisory incentives return through regulation

Berwick and Sebelius sneak end-of-life counseling incentives in through regulation
You don't remember voting for, or against, Dr. Donald Berwick or Kathleen Sebelius? That's because they were appointed and confirmed hastily or not confirmed at all. And now they're able to accomplish through regulatory fiat what they couldn't get through Congress, even with a playing field tilted steeply in their favor. Section 1233 of HR 3200 was one of the most Controversial features of ObamaCare. Though it was passed by the House, it was dropped from the final bill after critics from the ...

Obamacare Scare * Open Thread
We hope you had a warm, loving Christmas Eve and Day … Don’t miss Larry Johnson on the radio tonight … Oh no! The “end of life” issue is being regenerated by Obama et al. … and my views on how the elderly’s medical needs should be treated, even if they’re old as the hills (or what I’ve learned from my mother, my father and my aunts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oh. My. God. Obama and his henchwoma...

Medicare Regulation Revives End-of-Life Planning As Part of Obamacare
Monday, December 27, 2010 By Staff, Associated Press Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, rests her arm on an autographed copy of the Democrats’ Health Care bill after it passed the House on Sunday, March 21, 2010. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Washington (AP) - A new health Regulation issued this month offers Medicare recipients voluntary end-of-life planning, which Democrats dropped -- under pressure -- from their Health Care overhaul last year. The provision allows Medicare to pay for voluntary...

White House Tries To Quiet Revived Talk Of Death Panels
The Hill: The Obama Administration is trying to quiet talk about so-called “Death Panels” after The New York Times reported Sunday that a new Medicare Regulation includes incentives for end-of-life-care planning. The Medicare policy will pay doctors for holding end-of-life-care discussions with patients, according to the Times. A similar provision was dropped from the new Healthcare Reform law after Republicans accused the administration of withholding care from the sick, elderly and disab...

Does Obamacare Need a New Name?
(Wa-Po) — Puh-pack-uh? Is that some kind of llama? In fact, it’s the ungainly acronym of the new health-care law - the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act . Many people who support the law, or are neutral toward it, call it “puh-pack-uh” or “pee-pack-uh.” Others call it the Affordable Care Act or plain old health-care reform . But those less-than-inspiring monikers aren’t much help to Democrats trying to convince the public that “Obama...

President Gets Around Annoying Voters, Instills Death Panels By Regulation
Some of you may have missed this story since it was published on the day after Christmas (and a Sunday at that), but Obama's Death Panels are back, this time via the president's fiat regulatory powers. Since it was easy to have missed, I've decided to post the story today (Monday) so that more people might see it now that Christmas and the weekend both are over. You might recall the end of life care policies that were once in ObamaCare. You might also remember the political firestorm these death...

President Gets Around Annoying Voters, Instills Death Panels By Regulation
Some of you may have missed this story since it was published on the day after Christmas (and a Sunday at that), but Obama’s Death Panels are back, this time via the president’s fiat regulatory powers. Since it was easy to have missed, I’ve decided to post the story today (Monday) so that more people might see it now that Christmas and the weekend both are over. You might recall the end of life care policies that were once in ObamaCare. You might also remember the political fi...

Sarah Palin Was Right. . .
 . . . . about ObamaCare’s “Death Panels”?!?!? From the Administration’s paper of record: When a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning touched off a political storm over “death panels,” Democrats dropped it from Legislation to overhaul the Health Care system. But the Obama Administration will achieve the same goal by Regulation, starting Jan. 1. Under the new policy, outlined in a Medicare regulation, the government will pay doctors who advise patien

Medicare will cover advance care planningGood for Democrats and for Republicans, too
Under the rule, doctors can provide information to patients on how to prepare an “advance directive,” stating how aggressively they wish to be treated if they are so sick that they cannot make Health Care decisions for themselves. While the new law does not mention advance care planning, the Obama Administration has been able to achieve its policy goal through the Regulation-writing process, a strategy that could become more prevalent in the next two years as the president deals wit...

This Week's Health Industry News
With the Congress in adjournment and many business people taking off the time between holidays, we do not expect any substantive health industry news this week. But we could be surprised. Take, for instance, the news reported Sunday by our colleague Robert Pear in Washington. The Obama Administration, through an administrative rule, is resurrecting the notion of end-of-life planning services for older Americans — the same sort of planning that was falsely characterized as “Death Panels”

This Is A Class War. Guess Which Side Obama's On?
From Time for Change at Democratic Underground, part of a very long piece about the division among Democrats. I thought this nailed it: Yes, the administration and Congress have accomplished a lot -- but where are the programs and Legislation that will help the people who are drowning out here? This is the difference. The priorities are not the same, and the upcoming attack on Social Security and the Austerity proposals to come will prove it: Obama’s supporters note that many of us donR...

Obama pushed to deliver on climate
Jan. 2 isn’t just your ordinary Sunday. It’s the day the Obama Administration will officially start regulating greenhouse Gas Emissions, and critics have issued dire predictions of economic destruction. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 With all the fiery Rhetoric about how damaging the Regulations could be, the White House is under pressure to fulfill its pledge to tackle Climate Change while avoiding the appearance that it’s hindering job growth. GOP lawm...

Inside The GOP's Plan To Stifle Obama's Executive Branch Power
In the nearly two months since the November midterms, the conventional wisdom has centered on the idea that President Obama's agenda will be largely protected from an influx of Republicans by the Senate's arcane rules and his own Veto pen. With 47 members in the 112th Congress, the GOP will lack a majority, let alone a Supermajority, to pass the Legislation they'd need to pass to undo Obama's accomplishments and blunt his progress -- as if he'd sign those bills anyway. But Republicans are all ...

Nat'l Debt, Gov't Spending Top Priority for 2011
President Barack Obama is reportedly so pleased with his White House Cabinet, that he's not planning any big changes there. "I think we've had a very capable and good cabinet that has helped move the president's agenda forward," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday. "I think there's obviously a lot that has to be done at Treasury to implement Financial Reform, at HHS to implement Health Care reform. And I think we have a very talented team," he add...

Year in Review: The Lawless Obama Administration
Over the weekend, actually on Christmas, the NYTimes published an article about the President's plans to go ahead with end-of-life advisory incentives even after Congress removed it from ObamaCare after massive public outcry. Ed says "better get used to this process" since it's how the President is going to get around the GOP House for the next two years. In fact, the end run around Congress has been a regular feature of the Obama Presidency and it's been getting more frequent over time. He wan...

GOP takeover of House to shift immigration debate
(12-27) 04:00 PST Washington - -- The end of the year means a turnover of House control from Democrats to Republicans and, with it, Congress' approach to Immigration. In a matter of weeks, Congress will go from trying to help young, Illegal Immigrants become legal citizens to debating whether Children born to parents who are in the country illegally should continue to enjoy automatic U.S. Citizenship. Such a hardened approach - and the Rhetoric certain to accompany it - should resonate with t...

Fiat
When a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning touched off a political storm over “Death Panels,” Democrats dropped it from Legislation to overhaul the Health Care system. But the Obama Administration will achieve the same goal by Regulation, starting Jan. 1. Under the new policy, outlined in a Medicare Regulation, the government will pay doctors who advise patients on options for End-Of-Life Care, which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment....

Medicare Will Pay for End-of-Life Talks
New Medicare guidelines allow doctors to get reimbursed for holding voluntary end-of-life consultations with patients during annual medical checkups. The inclusion of more extensive end-of-life consultations in early drafts of the Democrats' health-care Legislation last year sparked Controversy—former vice-presidential Candidate Sarah Palin characterized them as "Death Panels—and the Democrats withdrew them. The draft legislative language on what is known as advance-care planning wou...

Here We Go, All Over Again
Several Democratic members of Congress, led by Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, had urged the administration to cover end-of-life planning as a service offered under the Medicare wellness benefit. A national organization of hospice care providers made the same recommendation. Mr. Blumenauer, the author of the original end-of-life proposal, praised the rule as “a step in the right direction.” “It will give people more ...

Use It or Lose It
Soon the three-fifths Democratic majorities will be gone and Nancy Pelosi will surrender her gavel. The triumvirate of Obama, Pelosi, and Reid will be compelled to share power with newly elected Republicans. Before we bid Pelosi's vanquished minions a fond farewell, however, let us pause to reflect on their handiwork even if we can't admire it. Theirs is a legacy of bigger government and deeper Debt, an inexorable march toward a Health Care system and an economy that more closely resembles the...

Snap! The Hill Says Obama And The Democrats Job Creation Policies Rock!
Vicki Needham is working hard to provide cover for the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats, who just got whacked during the 2010 mid-term Job Creation is happening at a faster rate than during previous Recessions, more good news for the White House and congressional Democrats who have spent the past two years defending their policies as The Economy has slowly recovered. A Joint Economic Committee state-by-state analysis released Wednesday finds that jobs are returning faster compare...

The Sunbird
Doctors will soon be able to receive Medicare payments for end-of-life planning. The new rule says Medicare will cover “voluntary advance care planning,” to discuss end-of-life treatment, as part of the annual visit. Under the rule, doctors can provide information to patients on how to prepare an “advance directive,” stating how aggressively they wish to be treated if they are so sick that they cannot make Health Care decisions for themselves. This is of course completel...

All Our Palms Are Blinking Red
All Our Palms Are Blinking RedSunday, December 26th, 2010 …and LastDay is coming for us, here in the City of Domes. Soon we will participate in Carousel, and reach Sanctuary. If you try to run, the Sandmen will come for you and then you will not find Sanctuary. The fact that such a Controversial change was kept quiet for so long, and that the Obama Administration took steps to keep it quiet, is most troublesome of all. What are we talking about? The End-Of-Life counseling that was part o...

Medicare regulation revives end-of-life planning
WASHINGTON—A new health Regulation issued this month offers Medicare recipients voluntary end-of-life planning, which Democrats dropped from the monumental Health Care overhaul last year. The provision allows Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling to help beneficiaries deal with the complex and painful decisions families face when a loved one is approaching death. But the practice was heavily criticized by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and some other Republicans who have likened the co...

Obama death panels, advance health care directives and end of life planning
 The so-called "Obama Death Panels" are back in the news. Under new health regulations recently issued by the Obama Administration, Medicare recipients will be offered voluntary end-of-life planning, and an opportunity to issue advance Health Care directives. Democrats, lacking the courage of their convictions, dropped plans for similar measures from last year's Health Care reform Legislation. Uniformed and deliberately misleading criticism by Republicans, such as former half-term Alaska Go...