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The expansion of Medicaid is one of key components of the Affordable Care Act. It’s a critical tool for the Indian Health System because it opens up a revenue channel for clinics and hospitals to bill Medicaid, a third-party insurance, for services. That boosts budgets at the local level, in a political climate where Congress is unlikely to spend more money on Indian health. ... Medicaid is an odd program for Indian country. Most of us understand the IHS to be the government’s fulfillment of its treaty obligations. However the agency has never been fully funded. Medicaid, however, is an unlimited check. If a person is eligible, then the money is there. Yet states, not tribes nor the federal government, determine the rules for Medicaid. (Mark Trahant, 7/20)

Every day, American scientists explore the root causes of the most devastating, debilitating and costly diseases. Their search is what leads to the development of new cures and therapies for cancer, heart disease and other life-threatening illnesses. Meanwhile, in Washington, Congress is debating legislation intended to address abusive practices by patent trolls, the financial predators that exploit loopholes in patent law to fatten their wallets at the expense of great American science. These two events are on a collision course. To protect the integrity of the critically important patent system and the innovation that flourishes within it, Congress must get this legislation right. (Jim Greenwood and John Castellani, 7/20)

Last month, the CMS announced that the 17 physician practices participating in its Independence at Home Demonstration Project saved Medicare more than $3,000 per beneficiary in its first performance year. The agency saved $25 million. The program targeted seniors with at least two chronic conditions or disabilities who had at least one hospital admission in the past year. The physician practices created teams that delivered in-home care, starting with monthly visits by a nurse to ensure that minor changes in a person's condition were treated before they led to an event that required hospitalization. It sounds expensive. But the demonstration is proving that coordinated in-home care delivery can be cheaper in the long run. (Merrill Goozner, 7/18)

Washington’s notorious revolving door was in full swing again last week as the health insurance industry snagged another top federal official to help it get what it wants out of lawmakers and regulators. America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s biggest lobbying and PR group, announced Wednesday that its new president, starting next month, will be none other than Marilyn Tavenner, who served as the chief administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services from 2013 until she stepped down in February. Tavenner’s appointment comes just a few months after the industry recruited former Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz, a Pennsylvania Democrat, to head its newest front group, the Better Medicare Alliance. (Wendell Potter, 7/20)