Saturday, August 31, 2013

ObamaCare’s architects reap windfall as Washington lobbyists

ObamaCare has become big business for an elite network of Washington lobbyists and consultants who helped shape the law from the inside.

More than 30 former administration officials, lawmakers and congressional staffers who worked on the healthcare law have set up shop on K Street since 2010.

Major lobbying firms such as Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock, The Glover Park Group, Alston & Bird, BGR Group and Akin Gump can all boast an Affordable Care Act insider on their lobbying roster � putting them in a prime position to land coveted clients.

�When [Vice President] Biden leaned over [during the signing of the healthcare law] and said to [President] Obama, �This is a big f’n deal,� � said Ivan Adler, a headhunter at the McCormick Group, �he was right.�

Veterans of the healthcare push are now lobbying for corporate giants such as Delta Air Lines, UPS, BP America and Coca-Cola, and for healthcare companies including GlaxoSmithKline, UnitedHealth Group and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

Ultimately, the clients are after one thing: expert help in dealing with the most sweeping overhaul of the country�s healthcare system in decades.

“Healthcare lobbying on K Street is as strong as it ever was, and it’s due to the fact that the Affordable Care Act seems to be ever-changing,” Adler said. “What’s at stake is huge. … Whenever there’s a lot of money at stake, there’s a lot of lobbying going on.”

The voracious need for lobbying help in dealing with ObamaCare has created a price premium for lobbyists who had first-hand experience in crafting or debating the law.

Experts say that those able to fetch the highest salaries have come from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) or committees with oversight power over healthcare.

Demand for ObamaCare insiders is even higher now that major pieces of the law, including the healthcare exchanges and individual insurance mandate, are being set up through a slew of complicated federal regulations.

�Congress is easy to watch,� said Tim LaPira, a politics professor at James Madison University who researches the government affairs industry, �but agencies are harder to watch because their actions are often opaque. This leads to a greater demand on K Street� for people who understand the fine print, he said.

�K Street’s agenda follows the government’s agenda. It’s not typically the other way around,” he said.

Watchdogs say the rise of the ObamaCare lobbyist is another example of the �revolving door� that turns public service into private enrichment.

�After passage of major legislation, those who have networks on Capitol Hill take exceedingly lucrative jobs with the same industries subject to the legislation,� said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen. �It raises questions about the [bill's] integrity.�

For K Street, healthcare lobbying has been a bright spot in what has otherwise been a down business cycle.

While lobbying revenue at major firms has been flat or declining in recent years, the healthcare law has generated steady work � a trend that is likely to continue for years to come.

That�s because ObamaCare runs on a long timeline � well into the next administration. Unless the law is severely crippled, the reform’s rules and requirements will be rolling out through at least 2020.

That�s good news for lobbyists who want to sign up clients for the long haul.

The windfall from the healthcare overhaul is being reaped at firms large and small. Some veterans of the legislative push have landed at boutique firms that are increasingly specializing in lobbying niches.

The firm Avenue Solutions, for instance, recently hired Yvette Fontenot, a former staffer for both the Senate Finance Committee, which wrote ObamaCare�s tax-related provisions, and HHS’s Office of Health Reform, which is assisting the implementation.

Since her hire in April, the four-woman firm has picked up Health Care Service Corp. as a client, and Fontenot is now lobbying for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association as well.

The Democratic firm banks about $3 million in revenue per year, records show, but is on pace for growth in 2013, earning $1.8 million through the first half of the year.

It�s not just ex-staffers who are becoming trusted ObamaCare guides � former members of Congress are lobbying on the law as well.

Former Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) joined Alston & Bird in 2011 after dealing with healthcare and tax issues as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Now Pomeroy and his one-time chief of staff, Bob Siggins, are lobbying on ObamaCare for clients such as clients such as Vision Service Plan, the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans and Medicare � a health insurance provider.

Consulting is another avenue former staffers and officials can take to work for outside interests while they look to comply with and shape the impending regulations.

�This is not a do-it-yourself project; it’s complicated,� said Adler. �They need help from insiders to help navigate this thing correctly.�

Former senior counsel to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Dora Hughes became a senior policy adviser at the law firm Sidley Austin last year.

Hughes is not a registered lobbyist, and told The Hill she mainly provides �strategic policy advice� while abiding by the ethics pledge not to lobby the administration. She has no congressional contacts in her sights, either.

Even the president needs some lobbying know-how when it comes to advancing ObamaCare.

The White House brought on Clinton administration veteran and former lobbyist Chris Jennings last month to help navigate the implementation of the law.

During a call with several directors of the state healthcare exchanges on Wednesday, Jennings was seated in a plum position � right next to Obama.

ObamaCare’s architects reap windfall as Washington lobbyists

ObamaCare has become big business for an elite network of Washington lobbyists and consultants who helped shape the law from the inside.

More than 30 former administration officials, lawmakers and congressional staffers who worked on the healthcare law have set up shop on K Street since 2010.

Major lobbying firms such as Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock, The Glover Park Group, Alston & Bird, BGR Group and Akin Gump can all boast an Affordable Care Act insider on their lobbying roster � putting them in a prime position to land coveted clients.

�When [Vice President] Biden leaned over [during the signing of the healthcare law] and said to [President] Obama, �This is a big f’n deal,� � said Ivan Adler, a headhunter at the McCormick Group, �he was right.�

Veterans of the healthcare push are now lobbying for corporate giants such as Delta Air Lines, UPS, BP America and Coca-Cola, and for healthcare companies including GlaxoSmithKline, UnitedHealth Group and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

Ultimately, the clients are after one thing: expert help in dealing with the most sweeping overhaul of the country�s healthcare system in decades.

“Healthcare lobbying on K Street is as strong as it ever was, and it’s due to the fact that the Affordable Care Act seems to be ever-changing,” Adler said. “What’s at stake is huge. … Whenever there’s a lot of money at stake, there’s a lot of lobbying going on.”

The voracious need for lobbying help in dealing with ObamaCare has created a price premium for lobbyists who had first-hand experience in crafting or debating the law.

Experts say that those able to fetch the highest salaries have come from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) or committees with oversight power over healthcare.

Demand for ObamaCare insiders is even higher now that major pieces of the law, including the healthcare exchanges and individual insurance mandate, are being set up through a slew of complicated federal regulations.

�Congress is easy to watch,� said Tim LaPira, a politics professor at James Madison University who researches the government affairs industry, �but agencies are harder to watch because their actions are often opaque. This leads to a greater demand on K Street� for people who understand the fine print, he said.

�K Street’s agenda follows the government’s agenda. It’s not typically the other way around,” he said.

Watchdogs say the rise of the ObamaCare lobbyist is another example of the �revolving door� that turns public service into private enrichment.

�After passage of major legislation, those who have networks on Capitol Hill take exceedingly lucrative jobs with the same industries subject to the legislation,� said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen. �It raises questions about the [bill's] integrity.�

For K Street, healthcare lobbying has been a bright spot in what has otherwise been a down business cycle.

While lobbying revenue at major firms has been flat or declining in recent years, the healthcare law has generated steady work � a trend that is likely to continue for years to come.

That�s because ObamaCare runs on a long timeline � well into the next administration. Unless the law is severely crippled, the reform’s rules and requirements will be rolling out through at least 2020.

That�s good news for lobbyists who want to sign up clients for the long haul.

The windfall from the healthcare overhaul is being reaped at firms large and small. Some veterans of the legislative push have landed at boutique firms that are increasingly specializing in lobbying niches.

The firm Avenue Solutions, for instance, recently hired Yvette Fontenot, a former staffer for both the Senate Finance Committee, which wrote ObamaCare�s tax-related provisions, and HHS’s Office of Health Reform, which is assisting the implementation.

Since her hire in April, the four-woman firm has picked up Health Care Service Corp. as a client, and Fontenot is now lobbying for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association as well.

The Democratic firm banks about $3 million in revenue per year, records show, but is on pace for growth in 2013, earning $1.8 million through the first half of the year.

It�s not just ex-staffers who are becoming trusted ObamaCare guides � former members of Congress are lobbying on the law as well.

Former Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) joined Alston & Bird in 2011 after dealing with healthcare and tax issues as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Now Pomeroy and his one-time chief of staff, Bob Siggins, are lobbying on ObamaCare for clients such as clients such as Vision Service Plan, the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans and Medicare � a health insurance provider.

Consulting is another avenue former staffers and officials can take to work for outside interests while they look to comply with and shape the impending regulations.

�This is not a do-it-yourself project; it’s complicated,� said Adler. �They need help from insiders to help navigate this thing correctly.�

Former senior counsel to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Dora Hughes became a senior policy adviser at the law firm Sidley Austin last year.

Hughes is not a registered lobbyist, and told The Hill she mainly provides �strategic policy advice� while abiding by the ethics pledge not to lobby the administration. She has no congressional contacts in her sights, either.

Even the president needs some lobbying know-how when it comes to advancing ObamaCare.

The White House brought on Clinton administration veteran and former lobbyist Chris Jennings last month to help navigate the implementation of the law.

During a call with several directors of the state healthcare exchanges on Wednesday, Jennings was seated in a plum position � right next to Obama.

Friday, August 30, 2013

Money May Be Motivating Doctors To Do More C-Sections

More From Shots - Health News HealthSleeping Pills Most Popular With Older People, WomenHealthCan Wife Insured Through Estranged Husband's Job Use Exchange?HealthMoney May Be Motivating Doctors To Do More C-SectionsHealthStudy: Price Shocks On Health Exchanges Appear Unlikely

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Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Despite Distaste For Health Law, Americans Oppose Defunding

More From Shots - Health News HealthDiverse Gut Microbes, A Trim Waistline And Health Go TogetherHealthLooking For Free Condoms? There's A Health Department App For ThatHealthDespite Distaste For Health Law, Americans Oppose DefundingHealthVaccinating Babies For Rotavirus Protects The Whole Family

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Saturday, August 24, 2013

Another Study Of Preemies Blasted Over Ethical Concerns

More From Shots - Health News HealthDoctors Fleeing Medicare? Not So Fast, Feds SayHealthTo Reduce Prejudice, Try Sharing Passions And CulturesHealthAnother Study Of Preemies Blasted Over Ethical ConcernsGoverningFor Strokes, Superfast Treatment Means Better Recovery

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Friday, August 23, 2013

More Options This Fall For Some Small-Business Workers

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Friday, August 16, 2013

Getting People Out Of Nursing Homes Turns Out To Be Complicated

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Thursday, August 15, 2013

Obamacare: People With Disabilities Face Complex Choices

More From Shots - Health News Health CareGetting People Out Of Nursing Homes Turns Out To Be ComplicatedHealthChronic Insomnia? Hitting The Treadmill Could Help ... EventuallyHealthA Safety Checklist To Save Teen Athletes' LivesHealthEvidence Supports Pill To Prevent Some Prostate Cancers

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Doctors Look For A Way Off The Medical Hamster Wheel

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Thursday, August 8, 2013

If You Could Live To 120, Would You Really Want To?

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Friday, August 2, 2013

‘Medicare for All’ would cover everyone, save billions in first year

From PNHP –

Economist says Canadian-style, single-payer health plan would reap huge savings from reduced paperwork and from negotiated drug prices, enough to pay for quality coverage for all � at less cost to families and businesses

Upgrading the nation�s Medicare program and expanding it to cover people of all ages would yield more than a half-trillion dollars in efficiency savings in its first year of operation, enough to pay for high-quality, comprehensive health benefits for all residents of the United States at a lower cost to most individuals, families and businesses.

That�s the chief finding of a new fiscal study by Gerald Friedman, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. There would even be money left over to help pay down the national debt, he said.

Friedman says his analysis shows that a nonprofit single-payer system based on the principles of the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, H.R. 676, introduced by Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., and co-sponsored by 45 other lawmakers, would save an estimated $592 billion in 2014. That would be more than enough to cover all 44 million people the government estimates will be uninsured in that year and to upgrade benefits for everyone else.

�No other plan can achieve this magnitude of savings on health care,� Friedman said.

His findings were released this morning [Wednesday, July 31] at a congressional briefing in the Cannon House Office Building hosted by Public Citizen and Physicians for a National Health Program, followed by a 1 p.m. news conference with Rep. Conyers, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and others in observance of Medicare�s 48th anniversary at the House Triangle near the Capitol steps. A copy of Friedman�s full report, with tables and charts, is available here.

Friedman said the savings would come from slashing the administrative waste associated with today�s private health insurance industry ($476 billion) and using the new, public system�s bargaining muscle to negotiate pharmaceutical drug prices down to European levels ($116 billion).

�These savings would be more than enough to fund $343 billion in improvements to our health system, including the achievement of truly universal coverage, improved benefits, and the elimination of premiums, co-payments and deductibles, which are major barriers to people seeking care,� he said.

Friedman said the savings would also fund $51 billion in transition costs such as retraining displaced workers from the insurance industry and phasing out investor-owned, for-profit delivery systems.

Over the next decade, the system�s savings from reduced health inflation (�bending the cost curve�), thanks to cost-control methods such as negotiated fees, lump-sum payments to hospitals, and capital planning, would amount to an estimated $1.8 trillion.

�Paradoxically, by expanding Medicare to everyone we�d end up saving billions of dollars annually,� he said. �We�d be safeguarding Medicare�s fiscal integrity while enhancing the nation�s health for the long term.�

Friedman said the plan would be funded by maintaining current federal revenues for health care and imposing new, modest tax increases on very high income earners. It would also be funded by a small increase in payroll taxes on employers, who would no longer pay health insurance premiums, and a new, very small tax on stock and bond transactions.

�Such a financing scheme would vastly simplify how the nation pays for care, restore free choice of physician, guarantee all necessary medical care, improve patient health and, because it would be financed by a program of progressive taxation, result in 95 percent of all U.S. households saving money,� Friedman said.

Friedman�s findings are consistent with other research showing large savings from a single-payer plan. Single-payer fiscal studies by other economists, such as Kenneth E. Thorpe (2005), have arrived at similar conclusions, as have studies conducted by the Congressional Budget Office and the General Accountability Office in the early 1990s. Other studies have documented the administrative efficiency and other benefits of Canada�s single-payer system in comparison with the current U.S. system.

Friedman�s research was commissioned by Physicians for a National Health Program, a nonprofit research and educational organization of more than 18,000 doctors nationwide, which wanted to find out how much a single-payer system would cost today and how it could be financed.

�Funding H.R. 676: The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act � How we can afford a national single-payer health plan in 2014,� by Gerald Friedman, Ph.D., Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.