This Week’s Health Industry News
Resource type: News
New York Times | [ View Original Source (opens in new window) ]
By DUFF WILSON
One year ago this week, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. The anniversary will be marked by a series of events from proponents and opponents of the law who are still waging a pitched battle over provisions of the health care legislation.
Administration officials and progressive groups are scheduling more than 100 events across the country this week to sing the praises of the health care law, as Republicans continue to attack its provisions.
Among the prominent Democrats promoting the law this week are Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services; Tom Vilsack, secretary of agriculture; Hilda Solis, secretary of labor; Karen Mills, administrator of the Small Business Administration, and Dr. Regina Benjamin, the surgeon general, according to news reports and official schedules. Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic majority leader, has a small business event on health care planned in his state of Nevada, too.
Health Care for America Now, a coalition of advocacy groups, is sponsoring 75 events in 27 states this week. The coalition of advocacy groups has set a theme for each day: Monday: Protecting Small Business’s Care; Tuesday: Protecting Seniors’ Care; Wednesday: Protecting Patients’ Rights; Thursday: Protecting Women’s Care; and Friday: Protecting Young Adults’ Care.
Meanwhile, pressing the House Republicans’ case for repeal, Joe Pitts, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, has scheduled a hearing in Harrisburg, Pa., on Wednesday morning. The subject is the health law: “One Year of Broken Promises.” Thomas W. Corbett, Pennsylvania’s Republican governor, provides opening remarks.
The Cato Institute in Washington sponsors “The New Health Care Law: What a Difference a Year Makes” on Monday afternoon, focusing partly on the two dozen legal challenges against the law. Guests include a lawyer for Florida’s challenge to the law, a former deputy staff director to a health committee led by the late Senator Edward Kennedy, and Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, who supported the law. Web video feed here.
Many other health industry groups are keeping a low profile this week, though, as reported in The National Journal. They’re seeking changes to the law from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress — and may not be quite sure which way the political wind is blowing.
On a less political, more business, note, America’s Health Insurance Plans, representing nearly 1,300 companies, and the United States Office of Personnel Management, on behalf of about 8 million federal employees, dependents and retirees (including members of Congress and their staff), are holding a conference Thursday and Friday in Washington on the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. They’ll talk about the new law, state insurance exchanges, drugs, accountable care and electronic records. Here’s the agenda.
Medical meetings this week include: the American Academy of Pain Medicine in Washington Thursday to Sunday and, starting Saturday, Alzheimer’s Disease International in Toronto, the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in Washington, the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery in San Diego, and the Society of Interventional Radiology in Chicago. Thanks to Leerink Swann for the calendar.
No F.D.A. advisory committee meetings are scheduled this week.
Let us know if we’ve missed an important event in this busy week.
Health Care for America Now is an Atlantic grantee.