Posted on 03/06/2014 5:32:04 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
"....As more people enter the A.C.A.s new insurance exchanges, they will get to choose between a bronze plan with a narrow network and lower premiums and a platinum plan with a broader network and higher premiums. Inevitably,some insurance plans will offer narrow networks with poor-quality providers.
However,there are four ways that we could reassure Americans that they are getting high-quality care despite choosing a narrow network.
First,the exchanges should require that networks meet a minimum level of adequacymeaning there are sufficient numbers of each type of practitioner in every geographic area. The National Committee for Quality Assurance, a nonprofit group, has already created network adequacy standards that could be applied.
Second,we need more transparency. Insurance companies should have to publish the measures they use to select their high performing or efficient networks. This will discourage them from looking at price alone. And consumers should be able to easily find which doctors and hospitals are included in a network. The size of a plans network should be as transparent as its premium.
Third,we need more reliable ways of measuring the quality of networks and the doctors and hospitals within them. The N.C.Q.A. or Consumer Reports could develop a grading system, from A to F. When comparing different plans, no one should have to rely on U.S. News and World Reports flawed rankings or hearsay from acquaintances.
Finally, insurance companieswhich desperately want to avoid repeating the managed-care backlashshould incorporate a safety valve for patients like the mother with colon cancer in Colorado. They should allow any enrollee who develops a serious condition like cancer to obtain a second opinion at a recognized center of excellence.....companies could negotiate good prices with these centers in exchange for a large volume of referrals. Patients want to know, and ought to be assured, that they are getting the best treatment possible.....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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".....[Ezekiel J.] Emanuel is the son of Benjamin M. Emanuel and Marsha (Smulevitz) Emanuel, and is a divorced father of three daughters. His two younger brothers are Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and Hollywood-based talent agent Ari Emanuel. He has an adopted sister, Shoshana Emanuel. His fathers brother, Emanuel, was killed in the 1936 Arab Riots in the British Mandate of Palestine, after which the family changed its name from Auerbach to Emanuel in his honor, Source
I wonder what kind of a choice HE makes?? I’ll bet he’s got a Cadillac plan; if this is such a wonderful piece of legislation why does Obama keep arbitrarily delaying part after part of it until after the election??
choice was promised...keeping my doctor was promised.
whether or not it is ‘overrated’ is a ploy to hide the regime’s lies.....
The title says it all. Progressives always think choice is overrated.
IN other words:
1. We need more and more data; which we are going to use to micro-manage every aspect of healthcare.
2. We need to be able to dictate to the current and aspiring physicians what field of study or specialization they are going to go into.
3. We need a means of getting around our own rules so as to avoid any more ‘unfortunate’ public relations disasters.
4. Soon we will have the power to tell all of you to ‘shut up and eat your peas’ and to tell you that your time here on earth is at an end.
Let's add several more layers to the buearacracy, that'll fix it for sure.
This is just another great example that Liberalism/ Progressivism is a mental disease.
I like how he says “we” need more transparency, but hen goes on to describe how insurance companies need to be forced to provide more information.
They promise quality by dictating standards for the product, a true “central planning” way of thinking.
What you get with this is, if the product providers are capable of producing those standards, something that is a cap on what will be provided. No one will offer better or more or more flexible offerings, because there is no competitive advantage to doing so.
Proving once again that Democrats are only pro-choice about who you sleep with and whether or not you have an abortion.
Of course!! He’s on the FEHBP!!
Someone should slap a straight jacket on him and carry him away kicking and screaming.
I have two words for you, Zeke. Ira Magaziner.
eff off Ezekiel you murdering twisted lunatic
This guy must be a descendant of harsh commissars.
Unless they’re choosing to kill babies.
Prosperity is overrated.
with one exception
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