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Health Works Collective > Business > Increasing Medicare Eligibility Age and the Law of Unintended Consequences
BusinessPolicy & Law

Increasing Medicare Eligibility Age and the Law of Unintended Consequences

David Harlow
Last updated: November 8, 2011 2:36 am
David Harlow
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On my way to the annual two-day blowout health law seminar put on by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) on Monday — I was second in the lineup, speaking about post-acute care and some of the innovations in that arena for dual eligibles, among other things — I heard a fascinating piece on NPR on one of the ideas floating around the supercommittee charged with cutting $1.2 trillion from the federal budget.

On my way to the annual two-day blowout health law seminar put on by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) on Monday — I was second in the lineup, speaking about post-acute care and some of the innovations in that arena for dual eligibles, among other things — I heard a fascinating piece on NPR on one of the ideas floating around the supercommittee charged with cutting $1.2 trillion from the federal budget.  The idea: increase the minimum age for Medicare eligibility from 65 to 67, and save a bundle for Medicare in the process.

The problem with this deceptively simple idea (Social Security eligibility is migrating from 65 to 67, too, so it seems to be a sensible idea on its face), is that while it would save the federales about $6 billion, net, in 2014, it would cost purchasers of non-Medicare coverage (employers and individuals) about $8 billion, net.  Why?  The 65 and 66 year olds are the spring chickens of Medicare — they actually bring Medicare average costs down, because they’re healthier than the Medicare population as a whole. However, when compared to the working population, they are the older, sicker cohort, so they would drive costs up if insured in the commercial market.

Monday’s post in this space was on the 2012 MPFS (Medicare Physician Fee Schedule) and the continuing Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) debacle, and it prompted an email from a reader pointing to a predictable but ultimately unsympathetic plea to please not cut THAT program, because it’s Important.

They’re ALL important, folks.  

The cold, hard truth is that we need to figure out how to do more with less — in every program, for every worthy cause.  We need to learn how to work collaboratively, tear down the silos, and activate every other cliche in the book.  Collaborative thinking, inspired by changes in the economic drivers — i.e., reimbursement models — that have led to more siloed thinking in the past, is hard to do, but actors in the health care economy need to get better at it – and fast.

The Bundled Payment Initiative, ACOs and sons of ACOs, the Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office, and more innovations coming out of CMS, driven by the ACA, are all encouraging developments, pushing providers in the direction of collaboration, and while we may have to deal with some unintended consequences a long the way, these are some important experiments that must be conducted.  And the people are with Washington on this one: An RWJF/Harvard School of Public Health survey released this week found that most folks want the federales to grow their role in the health care system.  Not what we might have expected, but an encouraging sign that folks understand that the problem before us is a big one, requiring significant resources in working towards solutions.

David Harlow 
The Harlow Group LLC
Health Care Law and Consulting
 

 

     

TAGGED:Medicare
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By David Harlow
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DAVID HARLOW is Principal of The Harlow Group LLC, a health care law and consulting firm based in the Hub of the Universe, Boston, MA. His thirty years’ experience in the public and private sectors affords him a unique perspective on legal, policy and business issues facing the health care community. David is adept at assisting clients in developing new paradigms for their business organizations, relationships and processes so as to maximize the realization of organizational goals in a highly regulated environment, in realms ranging from health data privacy and security to digital health strategy to physician-hospital relationships to the avoidance of fraud and abuse. He's been called "an expert on HIPAA and other health-related law issues [who] knows more than virtually anyone on those topics.” (Forbes.com.) His award-winning blog, HealthBlawg, is highly regarded in both the legal and health policy blogging worlds. David is a charter member of the external Advisory Board of the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network and has served as the Public Policy Chair of the Society for Participatory Medicine, on the Health Law Section Council of the Massachusetts Bar Association and on the Advisory Board of FierceHealthIT. He speaks regularly before health care and legal industry groups on business, policy and legal matters. You should follow him on Twitter.

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