Healthcare Roundup: Reform "Integral" to Recovery, Bayer's $98M Payment, Hospital Inflation Down, and More

(MoneyWatch)  Obama considers healthcare reform "integral" to economic recovery -- After naming Melody Barnes, a former chief counsel to Sen. Ted Kennedy, as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, President-elect Barack Obama said she would be primarily focused on economic-recovery work. But he went on to say: "An integral part of that course will be health care reform, and she will work closely" with his health team, including expected HHS Secretary Tom Daschle. [Source: CQ Healthbeat via kaisernetworks.org]

Bayer HealthCare pays $97.5M in settlement -- The Bayer AG unit agreed to pay the U.S. government $97.5 million to settle charges that it ran a "cash for patient" scheme in which it allegedly offered kickbacks to distributors of diabetic supplies to convert their patients to Bayer products from those of its competitors. The scheme allegedly involved 11 suppliers and ran from 1998 to 2007. [Source: Reuters, Modern Healthcare]

St. Vincent Health pays $1.9M settlement -- The Erie, Penn., health system agreed to pay the U.S. government $1.9 million to settle a whistle-blower lawsuit that charged St. Vincent Health Center had improperly inflated its costs to boost reimbursements under Medicare's "outlier" program. That plan is designed to cover the costs of unusually expensive care at hospitals. [Source: Modern Healthcare]

Hospital prices rose 0.5 percent in October -- Medical inflation at hospitals stood at 0.5 percent in October, down slightly from 0.6 percent the prior month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the preceding 12 months, hospital prices rose 6.5 percent, compared to 7.7 percent in the prior year. [Source: Modern Healthcare]

Medical debt collectors to see higher volume under healthcare reform -- Assuming reform plans expand access to healthcare via mandates to purchase health insurance, medical debt collectors should see their volume of business rise, because more people will see doctors and run up bills, analysts argue. This assumes that individuals still face high deductibles and co-payments. [Source: InsideARM]

The drawbacks of comparative effectiveness research -- The NYT's Andrew Pollack takes a close look at one of the bigger and more significant comparative-effectiveness trials in recent history -- the Allhat study that suggested cheap diuretics were as effective in treating high blood pressure as more expensive branded drugs -- and why it had such a limited effect on actual medical practice. Sobering stuff for folks like me who still think comparative-effectiveness work needs to play a bigger role in improving healthcare quality and restraining costs. [Source: NYT]

Taiwanese manufacturers open hospitals in China -- Instead of building high-tech Western-style hospitals that cater to expatriates and wealthy Chinese, Taiwanese companies -- who also turn out to be big manufacturers in China -- are opening low-cost facilities that aim to provide quality healthcare to ordinary Chinese. [Source: WSJ]

Housing collapse forces choice between paying mortgage, medical bills -- The WSJ profiles individuals who had tapped home-equity loans and similar mortgage-based credit in order to pay big medical bills -- sources of cash that have dried up as housing values fall and credit freezes up. [Source: WSJ]