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President Obama said on Wednesday he plans to nominate Marilyn Tavenner as administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to replace Dr. Donald Berwick, who has never won the support of Congress. Obama sidestepped the traditional confirmation process in July 2010 to make a recess appointment of Berwick. Tavenner, Berwick's principal deputy, was the Virginia secretary of health and human resources. "Before entering government service, Ms. Tavenner spent nearly 35 years working with healthcare providers in significantly increasing levels of responsibility, including almost 20 years in nursing, 3 years as a hospital CEO and 10 years in various...

"The Health Care Innovation Challenge will award up $1 billion in grants to applicants who will implement the most compelling new ideas to deliver better health, improved care and lower costs to people enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP, particularly those with the highest health care needs." "Awards will range from approximately $1 million to $30 million for a three-year period. Applications are open to providers, payers, local government, public-private partnerships and multi-payer collaboratives."

Health Reform: The tax-exempt seniors group that pushed hard to get ObamaCare passed stands to reap a billion-dollar reward over the next decade as ObamaCare destroys the competition to the products it endorses. During what passed for a debate on ObamaCare, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which administers benefits under Medicare, issued what can only be called a gag order after private insurer Humana Inc. warned its Medicare Advantage customers in a letter that ObamaCare might cause them to lose some benefits. It was because that letter exposed one of Obama-Care's biggest lies — the claim that...

WASHINGTON -- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has estimated that in 2012 Medicare physician reimbursement will be cut by 29.5%. When President Obama signed a bill in 2010 to postpone the scheduled 25% cut in Medicare reimbursement through 2011, physicians were aware that the pay cut would be greater than 25% come 2012. And, if CMS' estimate holds true, it will be.

Washington (CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration is standing “firmly” behind the nomination of Dr. Donald Berwick -- who was recess-appointed without Senate confirmation last summer to run Medicare and Medicaid -- despite growing Republican opposition because of his controversial comments, such as the remark that a “civilized and humane” health care funding plan “must redistribute wealth.” “The president stands firmly behind the nomination of Don Berwick because he’s far and away the best person for the job, and he’s already doing stellar work at CMS saving taxpayer dollars by cracking down on fraud, and implementing delivery system reforms that...

According to Politico , President Obama will be forced to abandon his controversial nomination of Donald Berwick as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Politico reports that “Senate Democrats have given up on confirming Don Berwick as CMS administrator in the wake of a letter from 42 Republican senators opposing the nomination,” as “there's no way for Berwick to get the 60 votes needed to clear the Senate.” As with his various “czars,” President Obama had previously circumvented the Senate confirmation process (despite having a Democratically controlled Senate) to install Berwick in his post....

An Obama administration official on Wednesday confirmed that four states -- including Florida, Tennessee and Ohio -- have been granted waivers from the regulatory requirements of the national health care law. Steve Larsen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, confirmed the news under questioning from Rep. Cliff Stearns at an oversight hearing for the House Energy and Commerce committee.

Reform: As the head of Medicaid and Medicare services testifies in favor of ObamaCare, the CBO director says it will destroy 800,000 jobs. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once famously said that we'd have to pass ObamaCare to see what was in it. She also boasted that the health care bill would create 4 million jobs — "400,000 of them almost immediately." Now that we've seen what's in it, we realize the possible consequences for our physical and economic health. And congressional testimony before GOP-led committees has given us fresh reasons for...

Complete title: Sen. Rand Paul: Medicare Chief Berwick Is Qualified to Run Health Care System -- In England or Sweden (CNSNews.com) – Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said that Dr. Donald Berwick, re-nominated this week by President Obama to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is qualified to oversee a nationwide health care system in England or Sweden.“I think Don Berwick would be a great head of health care in maybe England or Sweden or something,” Paul, an ophthalmologist, told CNSNews.com about Berwick, a pediatrician. “He said he admires the British system, so I think maybe we should...

If and when a new Congress comes in, the fastest way to eliminate Obamacare will be by shutting down its "operating system" the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services and investigating its unconfirmed director, Donald Berwick. And it should start by pulling the plug on Berwick's Triple Aim Program and the billions of dollars he has for implementing it. The Triple Aim Program (TAP) focuses on "improving the patient experience, improving population health and lowering per capita health care costs." Berwick claims that all three are achievable not through consumer driven healthcare. In various speeches and slide presentations, Berwick claims...

(CNSNews.com) – A coalition of health care groups is urging Congress to withhold money for implementing the new health care law as a means of forcing the controversial new Medicare chief – who bypassed the Senate confirmation process through a recess appointment – to at least answer questions from members of the coalition.Marking three months since President Barack Obama recess-appointed Dr. Donald Berwick to be administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), six groups sent a letter to members of Congress about Berwick, who has openly advocated the rationing of health care and argued that “humane”...

Medicine: After the recess appointment of a Medicare and Medicaid head, an FDA panel drops its endorsement of a widely used cancer drug. Another FDA-approved cancer therapy may not be paid for. It begins. It didn't take long for the health care philosophy of Dr. Donald Berwick, President Obama's choice to head the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, and an appointee we have labeled a "one-man death panel," to have an effect. Berwick is an admirer of Britain's National Health Service and its National Institute for Clinical Excellence, with the Orwellian-acronym NICE. "NICE," Berwick has said, "is extremely effective...

When people read words such as “Congressional Budget Office,” or “Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS),” they assume that these are agencies in Washington run by people who have nothing with partisan politics. Therefore, it was welcome news that “the Trustees of the CMS reported that Medicare got twelve more years of life due to Health Care Reform (HCR).” Few however know that the following people are The Trustees: •Timothy F. Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury •Hilda L. Solis, Secretary of Labor •Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services •Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security •Donald M....

When people read words such as “Congressional Budget Office,” or “Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS),” they assume that these are agencies in Washington run by people who have nothing with partisan politics. Therefore, it was welcome news that “the Trustees of the CMS reported that Medicare got twelve more years of life due to Health Care Reform (HCR).” Few however know that the following people are The Trustees: •Timothy F. Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury •Hilda L. Solis, Secretary of Labor •Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services •Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security •Donald M....

Barack Obama’s recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick as head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) marks a new low in his destructive presidency, and that is saying something!

Health Care: The president recess-appoints a fan of rationing and Britain's National Health Service to direct one-third of American health care. Why does the administration want his views hidden from scrutiny? 'The decision is not whether or not we will ration care — the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open." That's what Dr. Donald Berwick, President Obama's nominee to head the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, told a National Institutes of Health publication a year ago, when he was just president and CEO of the Institute for Health Care Improvement. Such views were to be...

Medicine: The administration's nominee to run Medicare and Medicaid is a fan of Britain's National Health Service and rationing services. He believes in less discretion for your doctor, more power for your government. 'The decision is not whether or not we will ration care — the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open" is what Dr. Donald Berwick, President Obama's nominee to head the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, said in an interview published in Biotechnology Healthcare in June 2009. The question is whether the Senate will confirm Berwick with open eyes. Berwick says: "NICE is...

One of President Obama's primary justifications for pushing health care legislation has been that the status quo is "unsustainable" because of the skyrocketing cost of medical care in the United States. The way to rein in costs, he argues, is to do adopt the policies that he and his fellow Democrats are proposing. But a new report by the government actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a branch of the Obama administration's Department of Health and Human Services, has found that the exact opposite is true. CMS took a close look at the health care bill that...

The government paid more than $47 billion in questionable Medicare claims including medical treatment showing little relation to a patient's condition, wasting taxpayer dollars at a rate nearly three times the previous year. Excerpts of a new federal report, obtained by The Associated Press, show a dramatic increase in improper payments in the $440 billion Medicare program that has been cited by government auditors as a high risk for fraud and waste for 20 years. It's not clear whether Medicare fraud is actually worsening. Much of the increase in the last year is attributed to a change in the Health...

Medicare's chief actuary told The Hill on Thursday that it is unclear if he will have a cost estimate of the House healthcare reform bill before a scheduled vote this weekend. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has put the cost of the measure at $894 billion over 10 years, noting that it would reduce the deficit by $30 billion over the same time period. Republicans believe the price tag of the bill is much higher. But it doesn't sound like Rick Foster, the chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), will deliver his cost estimate before...

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently analyzed the House bill 3200 for the effect of the bill on health care costs. Here's the conclusion. The nation's medical costs will keep spiraling upward even faster than they are now under Democratic legislation pending in the House, a report from government economic experts concluded Wednesday. Republicans said the report is a warning sign that health care legislation is likely to fall short of President Barack Obama's goal of "bending the cost curve" by slowing torrid rates of medical inflation.

CMS Warns Humana to Stop Mailings to Medicare Advantage Members on Potential Ill Effects of Health Reform Just days prior to the start of the 2010 Medicare Advantage (MA)/Part D selling season, Humana Inc. found itself in hot water with CMS. At the urging of federal lawmakers including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), a chief architect of health care reform efforts, CMS sent a Sept. 18 letter to Humana Inc. telling the company “immediately” to stop member mailings warning that reform legislation could hurt “millions of seniors and disabled individuals [who] could lose many of the important benefits...

Just a couple short weeks ago, an overly emotional House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (R-Calif.) warned the American people about the level of rhetoric in the health care debate. She choked back crocodile tears as she expressed her fears that the level of discourse in the debate could lead to violence. To paraphrase one of Ann Coulter’s best lines, Pelosi was so upset her expression almost changed. “I think we all have to take action and responsibility for our words,� Pelosi said. “We are a free country and this balance between freedom and safety is one that we, um, have to...

ACORN is using a tangled web of tax-exempt organizations to funnel tax money to itself according to a detailed review released last night by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.Some or all of them may be nothing more than shell companies used to pass money from the government directly through to ACORN and its affiliates. “This analysis regarding the vast number of charitable organizations that ACORN set up to funnel money to itself raises questions about whether ACORN used the entities to advance the charitable mission of helping poor people get housing, or whether...

Free Speech: The Senate votes against transparency as the administration silences a private insurer for exposing the president's health care proposal. Meanwhile, AARP is allowed to tout reform as it awaits payday. We weren't surprised when the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday voted 12 to 11 against allowing two weeks for the Congressional Budget Office to complete its cost analysis of the health care bill pushed by Montana Democrat Max Baucus and to put the bill online in its original wording. Instead, the Senate panel passed another amendment to require the committee to post the full bill online in "conceptual"...

Jonathan Blum, an acting director at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is apparently responsible for issuing a gag order against Humana, Inc., on Monday evening. Blum is a former staffer to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee currently in markup of their own chopped salad version of the health care bill. Baucus has taken credit in the media for demanding CMS issue the unprecedented order.  CMS also changed their mailing guidelines to include a ban on any Medicare Advantage (MA) provider sending information or placing information on their websites regarding the non-partisan Congressional...

Health insurers accused the U.S. Medicare agency on Tuesday of political interference in a battle over whether the industry can lobby its customers directly over healthcare legislation. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees the Medicare program for the elderly and disabled as well as privately run Medicare alternatives, said on Monday it was investigating a letter Humana Inc sent enrollees about efforts to overhaul the nation's healthcare system. Humana's letter, sent in an envelope citing important plan information, told customers the Democrats' bills could hurt "millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many of the...

George Orwell call your office.  Again. Was it only two months ago that Cong. John Carter (R-Tx) and a few other conservatives were protesting the Democrats’ censorship of their constituent mailings? Yes, it was.  When  Judge Carter tried to describe Obamacare as “government-run healthcare� the House Franking Commission told him he couldn’t use the term in a constituent mailing that would be mailed for free as are most constituent mailings.  Not only could he not use those words, he couldn’t use the words “Democratic Party.�   Now, the Democratic Party (i.e., the Obama administration) wants to censor the mailings sent...

A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools bus stop is right in front of a registered sex offender's house, but CMS won't change the bus stop's location despite parents' pleas. That has parents in the Winget Pond neighborhood ticked off. They contacted us after getting their childrens' bus assignments in the mail. His name is Robert Lance Neal. Court records show he's a registered sex offender, convicted for sexually abusing a 10-year-old in Illinois. Now, records show Neal lives on Arrington Heights Place in Charlotte. Out his front door is a CMS bus stop. "Eight to ten that I'm aware of," a mother says...

Note: The following text SNIPPET is a quote: News Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, July 6, 2009 Secretary Sebelius Announces Availability of $40 Million in Grants to Help Insure More Children HHS Secretary, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter Encourage Community Organizations, State and Local Governments to Apply HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced the availability of up to $40 million in grants to help reach families whose children qualify but are not yet enrolled in state Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP). Sebelius was joined for the announcement by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter. Colorado has been a leader in the...

Hundreds of NC FreedomWorks Members Rally in Raleigh Activists fight tobacco tax increase, demand smaller government Contact: Allen Page Phone: (336) 213-1167 Email: apage@freedomworks.org Raleigh, North Carolina - Today, Governor Mike Easley and many North Carolina legislators got a lot more than they bargained for when they proposed a massive tax increase on smokers. That’s because over 400 FreedomWorks activists traveled from all across the North Carolina to the state Capitol to tell their representatives and senators: “We Want Less”. During the 6th annual ‘FreedomWorks CSE Day at the Capitol’, activists focused on the campaign against the 900 percent increase...

Bush official tells agencies to ignore GAO memo that knocks fake stories. WASHINGTON – The White House, intent on continuing to crank out "video news releases" that look like television news stories, has told government agency heads to ignore a Government Accountability Office memo criticizing the practice as illegal propaganda.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Tuesday it has filed civil lawsuits against 15 natural gas traders for reporting false information on deals to industry newsletters in an attempt to manipulate market prices.The traders worked for Enserco Energy, Mirant Americas Energy Marketing (MIRKQ: news, chart, profile) , Cinergy Corp. (CIN: news, chart, profile) , Duke Energy Trading and Marketing (DUK: news, chart, profile) , CMS Field Services (CMS: news, chart, profile) , and Shell (RD: news, chart, profile) affiliate Coral Energy Resources, when they carried out these activities, the commission said in a statement. Concord Energy, a...

The first call Sheldon Goldberg got on his first day as president of the Alzheimer's Association was not from a patient or a doctor but from Michael D. Bromberg, chairman of the Capitol Health Group, a well-connected Washington lobbying firm. "He said he had a problem," Goldberg recalled, "and the problem was the position of the Alzheimer's Association." Bromberg represented an industry that stood to make millions if PET scans -- already used to help diagnose some cancers -- were to be reimbursed by Medicare as a test for Alzheimer's. Medicare officials had already said no, citing inadequate evidence that...

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS An obese Massachusetts woman and her 8-month-old fetus died of complications 18 months after the woman had stomach-stapling surgery, an apparent first that is leading to warnings about the risks of pregnancy soon after the surgery. The deaths, in 2002, raise concerns because most of the 110,000 people who have gastric, or stomach, bypass surgery each year in the United States are women in their child-bearing years, say doctors at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston who tried to save the woman and fetus. They reported on the case in a letter in Thursday's New England Journal...

The head of the Bush administration's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Wednesday defied a congressional subpoena to testify before the House Small Business Committee, and may face a citation for contempt of Congress. Thomas Scully, administrator of the agency formerly known as the Health Care Financing Administration, had previously agreed in writing to testify before the committee at a hearing chaired by Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.). That was when the committee hurriedly drafted a subpoena, which it served via fax and which Scully's office acknowledged. In a letter to Manzullo Wednesday afternoon, Scully said he "had been looking...