In Montgomery County, disgusted taxpayers long for security, not gridlock
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on July 31st, 2011 4:34 am by HL
In Montgomery County, disgusted taxpayers long for security, not gridlock
This article was reported by staff writers Kafia Hosh, Michael S. Rosenwald, Robert Samuels, Annys Shin and Marc Fisher.
Melissa Gilley, a stay-at-home mother, figures she doesn’t get a single benefit from the government and she doesn’t want any, but she’s worried about whether her 11-month-old daughter will be able to count on Social Security in her old age. Anna Lostritto depends on the government for disability checks and food stamps; from what she’s been hearing on the radio, those lifelines could vanish and that threat is keeping her up at night. Russ Setareh is moving mountains to save his flooring store, the last remaining piece of what was once a four-store business, but he can’t get any bank to lend him money, which has him wondering how his country will survive if it can’t borrow either.
Back at center of debt debate, Obama faces politically precarious task
He tried to coax lawmakers into striking a grand deficit-reducing bargain. Then he tried disappearing for a week to let Congress figure it out.
Neither approach worked.
Now, with time running out before a possible U.S. government default, President Obama is back at the center of the drama. Only this time, he’s been dragged back on terms that are anything but his own. Now he’s forced to try to come up with a solution over the next 48 hours that has not been apparent in weeks of negotiations.
Medicare rule would decrease payments to hospitals with high re-admission rates
When hospitals discharge patients, they typically see their job as done. But soon they could be on the hook for what happens after Medicare patients leave the premises, and particularly if they are re-admitted within a month.
In an effort to save money and improve care, Medicare, the federal program for the elderly and disabled, is about to release a final rule aimed at getting hospitals to pay more attention to patients after discharge.
A key component of the new approach is to cut back payments to hospitals where high numbers of patients are re-admitted, prodding hospitals to make sure patients see their doctors and fill their prescriptions.
