Hi, all. Today's report features:
• New HHS Rule holds insurers accountable: The "medical loss ratio" rule will require health insurance companies to spend 80-85% of health care insurance premiums on patients’ costs instead of overhead. Includes a White House White Board presentation from Nancy-Ann DeParle, Director of the Office of Health Reform at the White House, a press conference with HHS Sebelius and endorsements from consumer groups.
• First Question and daily press briefing: WH Press Secretary Gibbs takes questions submitted via Twitter and holds the daily press briefing.
• The First Lady's "Let's Move!" event: Mrs. Obama visits an elementary school in Miami to promote salad bars in schools as part of her campaign for children's health.
• NATO Summit Presidential Press Conference: New video from the White House of the President's remarks and Q & A with reporters in Portugal.
• The President on "Mythbusters": In an episode to be broadcast Dec. 8, President Obama tells Adam and Jamie that he'd like them to re-test the myth of the Archimedes Solar Ray -- this time with more manpower.
• NEW HHS RULE: INSURERS MUST SPEND 80-85% OF PREMIUMS ON PATIENTS •
From the White House, Nov. 22, 2010:
White House White Board: Your Healthcare Dollar
Today, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a new rule called the "medical loss ratio" rule that will require health insurance companies to spend 80 to 85 percent of your health care insurance premiums on making you healthier instead of overhead costs like advertising or executive compensation. Like many other provisions in the Affordable Care Act, the medical loss ratio rule brings a whole new level of transparency to the health insurance marketplace and holds the insurers accountable.
Nancy-Ann DeParle, Director of the Office of Health Reform at the White House, takes some time to explain the new rule and why it’s so important in this video:
If you’d like to learn more, visit HealthCare.gov. And if you have questions about the medical loss ratio rule or the Affordable Care Act in general, tune in tomorrow for a live chat with Nancy-Ann DeParle at 2:15 p.m. EST.
The White House Blog, Nov. 22, 2010:
Tuesday Talks: Health Care Reform Implementation with Nancy-Ann DeParle
Posted by Kori Schulman
Nancy-Ann DeParle, Director of the White House Office of Health Reform, is answering your questions on health reform implementation in a live video chat for Tuesday Talks. In March 2010, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law — the Act gives you better health security by putting in place comprehensive health insurance reforms that hold insurance companies accountable, lower health care costs, guarantee more choice, and enhance the quality of care for all Americans.
Join us for a talk with Nancy-Ann DeParle on Tuesday, November 23rd at 2:15 p.m. EST.
Here's how you can participate:
• Ask your questions in advance on WhiteHouse.gov
• Ask your questions in advance on Facebook
• Join the discussion live through the White House Facebook application
• Watch the chat through WhiteHouse.gov/live
Visit WhiteHouse.gov/healthreform to learn more about health care reform.
From the Department of Health and Human Services, Nov. 22, 2010:
Getting Your Money's Worth on Health Insurance (11/22/2010 Press Conference)
Today, many insurance companies spend a substantial portion of consumers' premium dollars on administrative costs and profits, including executive salaries, overhead, and marketing. Under the Affordable Care Act, consumers will receive more value for their premium dollar.
New medical loss ratio regulations require health insurers to spend 80 to 85 percent of consumers' premiums on direct care for patients and efforts to improve care quality, rather than on administrative costs, starting in 2011. If they don't, the insurance companies will be required to provide a rebate to their customers starting in 2012.
More medical loss ratio resources
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS)
New Affordable Care Act rules give consumers better value for insurance premiums
New medical loss ratio regulations make insurance marketplace more transparent and require insurers to spend premium dollars on care
New regulations issued today by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) require health insurers to spend 80 to 85 percent of consumers’ premiums on direct care for patients and efforts to improve care quality. This regulation, known as the "medical loss ratio" provision of the Affordable Care Act, will make the insurance marketplace more transparent and make it easier for consumers to purchase plans that provide better value for their money.
"Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, millions of Americans will get better value for their health insurance premium dollar," said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "These new rules are an important step to hold insurance companies accountable and increase value for consumers."
Today, many insurance companies spend a substantial portion of consumers’ premium dollars on administrative costs and profits, including executive salaries, overhead, and marketing. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, consumers will receive more value for their premium dollar because insurance companies will be required to spend 80 to 85 percent of premium dollars on medical care and health care quality improvement, rather than on administrative costs, starting in 2011. If they don’t, the insurance companies will be required to provide a rebate to their customers starting in 2012.
In 2011, the new rules will protect up to 74.8 million insured Americans and estimates indicate that up to 9 million Americans could be eligible for rebates starting in 2012 worth up to $1.4 billion. Average rebates per person could total $164 in the individual market. Important details regarding the new regulation are included below.
The medical loss ratio regulation outlines disclosure and reporting requirements, how insurance companies will calculate their medical loss ratio and provide rebates, and how adjustments could be made to the medical loss ratio standard to guard against market destabilization.
Beginning in 2011, the law requires that insurance companies publicly report how they spend premium dollars, providing meaningful information to consumers. Also beginning in 2011, insurers are required to spend at least 80 percent of the premium dollars they collect on medical care and quality improvement activities. Insurance companies that are not meeting the medical loss ratio standard will be required to provide rebates to their consumers. Insurers will be required to make the first round of rebates to consumers in 2012.
"These rules were carefully developed through a transparent and fair process with significant input from the public, the States, and other key stakeholders," said Jay Angoff, Director of the Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at HHS. "As we build a bridge to 2014, when better, more affordable options are available to consumers, these rules will help make health insurance fairer for consumers now."
The Affordable Care Act required the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to develop uniform definitions and methodologies for calculating insurance companies’ medical loss ratios. Insurance commissioners in every State have a responsibility to protect the interests of the general public, policyholders, and enrollees within their respective States. Today’s regulation certifies and adopts the recommendations submitted to the Secretary of HHS on October 27, 2010 by the NAIC. It also incorporates recommendations from a letter sent to the Secretary by the NAIC on October 13, 2010.
More information about the medical loss ratio
The regulation and other technical information
From the White House, Nov. 22, 2010:
What They’re Saying: New Health Care Rules Protect Consumers
Posted by Stephanie Cutter, Assistant to the President for Special Projects
This morning, the Obama Administration issued a regulation implementing a provision of the Affordable Care Act that will require insurance companies to spend at least 80 to 85 percent of premium dollars on medical care and health care quality improvement, rather than on administrative costs, starting in 2011. If they don’t, the insurance companies will be required to provide a rebate to their customers starting in 2012.
President Obama highlighted the new policy in an email this afternoon, and White House Office of Health Reform Director Nancy-Ann Deparle has recorded a new White House White Board video discussing the policy.
Consumer groups, Congressional leaders and advocates are praising the new rules for helping to give consumers a better value for their premium dollar and bringing transparency to the health insurance marketplace.
Here’s what they are saying:
American Medical Association
"Patients deserve to get the maximum value from their health insurance premiums, and requiring that at least 80 percent of the patients' premium dollars be spent on medical care can help accomplish this goal. The AMA worked closely with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to prevent the health insurance industry from undermining this important patient benefit from the new health care law."
National Business Coalition on Health
"NBCH is pleased to see that quality improvement efforts will be considered a direct medical expense and not administrative overhead. This strengthens the incentive for health plans to invest in developing a robust quality improvement infrastructure than can drive the health care system towards higher value."
AARP
"We are pleased that the Administration has adopted consumer-friendly medical loss ratio rules that, on the whole, strike a smart balance between ensuring value for consumers and compensating insurers for legitimate administrative costs. Coupled with new benefits under the health care law, these regulations ensure consumers will receive better value for their health care dollars."
Consumers Union
"The term ‘medical loss ratio’ isn’t exactly consumer-friendly, but these new rules are very good for consumers. People are going to get better value for their premium dollars."
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
"The Affordable Care Act for the first time requires health insurance companies to disclose information that is intended to help consumers understand the value they are getting for the premiums they pay. This strong rule will help to ensure that patients are accurately informed about the portion of their premiums that are spent on medical care instead of company profits, broker commissions or administrative costs. It signifies the start of a critical consumer-education process that will finally help people with cancer or at risk for cancer to make informed decisions about the plans they purchase."....
• FIRST QUESTION AND DAILY PRESS BRIEFING WITH ROBERT GIBBS •
From the White House, Nov. 22, 2010:
First Question with Robert Gibbs
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs takes questions from Twitter on prospects for the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell and ratification of the New START Treaty in the lame duck session of Congress.
See today’s answers at the First Question dedicated page. Follow @PressSec and @whitehouse for alerts about submitting future questions. Use the #1Q hashtag.
11/22/10: White House Press Briefing
White House Press Briefings are conducted most weekdays from the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room in the West Wing.
Office of the Press Secretary:
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, 11/22/2010
(Excerpted questions and answers about the ratification of the New START Treaty.)
Q: I also wanted to ask about START. Do you feel that you’ve answered Senator Kyl’s concerns on this issue? At what point does it just become a political disagreement?
MR. GIBBS: Well, I think as the President said on Saturday, that we take everyone at their word that they are here to protect and do all that they can to protect the country. The President spoke with Senator Kyl last week --
Q: Was that before or after he made his –
MR. GIBBS: After. After. The Vice President continues to speak to senators from both sides of the aisle on trying to move this process forward. Look, if Senator Kyl has questions we're happy to address them and to meet them. That's what -- that's an important thing to do in this process.
I think it’s important, if you look at what the series and range of statements that we heard over the course of the weekend from the military, from those retired in the military who had operational roles in our nuclear security, hearing from our allies in NATO and particularly our allies in Eastern Europe, those closest to Russia and the old Soviet Union, in saying clearly that ratification of this treaty is in their best interest and our best interest in getting it done quickly -- that's I think a tremendously important endorsement for those efforts in curtailing the number of deployed nuclear weapons and ensuring an inspection regime as it relates to the Russian nuclear program....
Q: This is on START, and my question will be whether or not -- is whether or not the administration is willing to hand over the entire START record? And let me tell you why I’m asking this. Because there’s a new Republican senator coming in, Mark Kirk, who has quite a shopping list of things he wants before he says he can even think about this, a complete negotiation record of the treaty, also the documents relating to the parallel discussions with the U.S.-Russian resale, all classified briefings about having to terminate liability of –
MR. GIBBS: I’m sorry -- the Russia resale?
Q: With the U.S.-Russian missile defense, the talks that were conducted by Ellen Tauscher. This is according to "Foreign Policy." He wants a whole written analysis of all U.S. Strategic Command information that supports a treaty. He wants all the planning documents. And he wants formal briefings with State, Defense and Energy. What is the posture of the White House -- will they possibly be able to accommodate a want list like this?
MR. GIBBS: I will say, not knowing specifically -- thank you -- I’d have to obviously have somebody look at the technical list. But I think a lot of what Senator-elect Kirk is looking for in way of documentation and briefing and questions, I don't know if some of that has been asked and answered and we’d certainly provide that documentation to him.
I think a discussion with somebody like General Cartwright on missile defense or others at a classified level -- those are conversations that are being had currently with senators right now. So I think if there’s information that we have that can help answer those questions, we’d be more than happy to provide that information, those briefings, that documentation to Senator-elect Kirk or anybody else in order to demonstrate -- General Cartwright would tell him this has no effect on our ability to conduct our own missile defense activities.
And I think a pretty good example of that is NATO agreeing to the President’s phased adaptive approach to protect Europe at a meeting that saw the Russians ultimately participate in at the same time they are arguing -- people like the head of NATO are arguing for ratification of the treaty....
Q: Is it worse for U.S. international relations or U.S.-Russian relations to see this go to the floor and fail than to see it not go to the floor at all?
MR. GIBBS: It is a -- for us not to get this done is, as you have seen those not just in our administration, but again throughout the weekend at NATO, discuss its impact on our security -- those countries, again -- I make mention of this, that border -- that represent that easternmost border with Russia are as -- believes this has to get done as urgently as we do. And I think that is an overwhelming endorsement for why delay on this just doesn’t make a lot of sense.
• THE FIRST LADY'S "LET'S MOVE!" EVENT IN MIAMI •
From MiamiHerald, Nov. 22, 2010:
First Lady visits Riverside Elementary School
First Lady Michelle Obama visited Riverside Elementary School in Little Havana Monday, Nov. 22, 2010 to encourage students to eat their vegetables. She was helping kick off the Let's Move! campaign, which is putting salad bars in 6,000 schools. Emily Michot/Miami Herald Staff.
First Lady visits Riverside ElementarySchool
By Kathleen McGrory
First Lady Michelle Obama stopped by Riverside Elementary on Monday to promote healthy eating.
She visited the Little Havana school to announce a new national initiative to put 6,000 salad bars in schools.
"You guys here at Riverside are the first school in the entire country to get one," Obama told scores of fifth-grade students who had assembled in the cafeteria for the occasion.
The kids cheered.
"See! Kids excited about vegetables and salad bars!" Obama said to the adults in the room. "I want the world to know that."....
"She was over here and she was telling us that fruits and vegetables are healthy for your body," said Ronny Montoya, 11, while munching on sliced cucumbers. "And she touched my shoulder. I will never wash this shirt again."
The salad bar initiative is part of Obama's Let's Move campaign to reduce childhood obesity.
It dovetails with efforts already underway in Miami-Dade. For example, the school system recently partnered with local chefs to create healthy new recipes for school lunches. The district also has a farm-to-school program, and many schools have their own vegetable gardens.
Many of the district's middle and high schools already have salad bars. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said he wants to see a salad bar in every elementary school cafeteria, too....
From the Office of the First Lady, November 22, 2010:
Remarks by the First Lady at Salad Bars to Schools Event
.... MRS. OBAMA: And what the goal is that they’re going to give 6,000 schools salad bars like these -- 6,000 of them....
So what they’re doing through this partnership is that they’re providing schools with all of the equipment. Because it takes a lot to make one of these things, right? You got to have the trays and the tools, the utensils, the thermometers -- all the things you need to make sure that the salad stuff is safe and healthy. And then it’s going to be up to the schools themselves to fill it with vegetables and fruits.
And that's one of the reasons why your school is one of the first, because you’ve got that wonderful garden out there. And once you start harvesting from that garden you can take that, put it in your salad bar, and have it for your lunches and for all your snacks.
So that's one of the reasons why we chose to come here first, because you started out with good stuff by planting your own garden. Not every school is going to have their own garden, but they can still find vegetables and fruits and stock their salad bars.
Because one of the things we know is that this kind of stuff is really expensive, and not every school has the money that it takes to bring the salad bar in, even if they want to make it happen. So that's why this team of folks is so important, because they pulled together all these resources to make this happen.
And I want to make sure that other schools out there around the country that are watching know that if they want to get involved and if they’re interested in getting their school a part of this initiative, they just have to apply -- go on the Web to saladbars2schools.org.
So I want to encourage schools out there who want to get this kind of resource, to make it happen....
But there’s one last thing I want to make sure everybody knows, is that we also need Congress to do their part. And one of the things that we hope will get passed soon is the Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill. And that's going to provide money and resources to more schools so that we can improve nutrition, get better food into school lunchrooms, that we get more nutrition education into the classrooms, that we get more physical education.
So we hope that Congress will do their part. And we're excited about the progress that we've made just all on our own. And that's because of you guys -- okay?....
From SaladBars2Schools.org:
Grant Guidelines for School Salad Bars
Who May Apply?
Any K-12 school district or individual school participating in the National School Lunch Program is eligible to apply. Schools/districts with Bronze status or above in the Healthier US School Challenge (HUSSC), will have priority in receiving a fully funded salad bar as money is raised; with the stipulation that the school desires and can support a salad bar every day in school lunch....
What Salad Bar is Provided?
A portable 72 inch 5-well insulated salad bar with two tray slides; divider bars; four 4-inch deep full pans with covers; eight 4-inch deep half pans with covers; and eight 4-inch deep quarter pans with covers; five buffet chilling pads; 24 serving tongs; 24 serving spoons; four squeeze bottles; one cutting board; one chef's knife; one paring knife; one peeler and one digital pocket thermometer....
• NEW WHITE HOUSE VIDEO: NATO SUMMIT PRESIDENTIAL PRESS CONFERENCE •
From the White House, Nov. 22, 2010:
NATO Summit Presidential Press Conference
President Obama speaks to the media after the NATO Summit in Lisbon, Portugal and reports on progress made on the way forward in Afghanistan, the new approach to European missile defense, reducing nuclear weapons, and keeping the U.S. NATO partnership strong. November 20, 2010.
Full transcript of the press conference.
(I posted a three-part video version of this press conference in the 11/21 report.)
• THE PRESIDENT ON "MYTHBUSTERS" •
From DiscoveryNetworks, November 22, 2010:
MythBusters - President's Challenge, December 8, 2010
Watch MythBusters Wednesdays at 9 PM ET/PT
In this extra-special episode of MYTHBUSTERS, Adam and Jamie tackle a request from the highest ranking viewer of all: the President of the United States, Barack Obama. President Obama tells Adam and Jamie that he'd like them to re-test the myth of the Archimedes Solar Ray -- this time with more manpower. The myth, which says that Greek scientist Archimedes set fire to an invading fleet using only mirrors and the sun, has been tested by MYTHBUSTERS twice before (and busted). After developing a unique mirror aiming system, Adam and Jamie use the President's STEM connections and enlist 500 student volunteers ready to light a fire for science!