Congress Passes Tweak To ACA’s Small Business Rules

The AP (10/2) reports that Congress yesterday approved “legislation aimed at preventing premium increases that some smaller businesses were expecting next year under President Barack Obama’s health care law.” Currently, the ACA defines small businesses as having up to 50 workers. That number increases to 100 on Jan. 1, 2016. The bill approved Thursday “would keep the small business definition at 50 workers but let states increase the number if they choose.”

        The New York Times (10/2, Pear, Subscription Publication) reports a White House “spokeswoman confirmed that Mr. Obama would sign the bill, but she declined to discuss its substance.” According to the Times, recent comments “by administration officials suggested that they did not particularly like the legislation but could not stop the growing wave of bipartisan support for it.”

        According to National Journal (10/2, Subscription Publication), the Senate version was authored by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Tim Scott (R-SC). Shaheen said in a statement after the bill’s passage, “This bill is a win for businesses across this country, a win for bipartisanship and I’m very pleased it’s headed to the President’s desk.”

        In an analysis piece, meanwhile, The Hill (10/2, Sullivan) notes the bill’s “drama-free” passage and considers whether it marks “a shift in the legislative debate” over the ACA. Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-CA) stated, “I do believe that this hopefully is the beginning of a lot of little fixes to a big, big law that’s not perfect.” According to the Wall Street Journal (10/2, Radnofsky, Subscription Publication), the bill’s passage could increase the likelihood that other changes to the law will be approved, such as a “Cadillac tax” repeal.

CDC Debuts New Tool To Track Antibiotic Resistance

TIME (8/21, Sifferlin) reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday “rolled out a new interactive tool,” called the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS), that “allows users to follow the spread of antibiotic resistant bugs nationwide.” CDC data reveals that of the two million illnesses reported every year, “23,000 deaths” are “associated with antibiotic resistant bacteria.” The tool has been useful in tracking “down trends in resistance.” For example, “the FDA withdrew approval for Enrofloxacin (a fluoroquinolone) in chickens after NARMS data revealed growing fluoroquinolone-resistant bacterial infections among Americans.” TIME notes that the tool is now available to the public for free.

Hospitals Using Technology To Reduce Readmissions

FierceHealthIT (8/21, Dvorak) reports “high readmissions continue to be a thorn in the side of the healthcare industry, with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announcing earlier this month that most hospitals will face some sort of Medicare penalty for excessive 30-day readmissions.” As a result, “as penalties continue to come down and costs continue to rise, providers are using all the tools at their disposal to combat the problem, with the goal of keeping patients healthy the most important of all.” Hospitals such as Cleveland Clinic are using technology to help “in this effort through initiatives such as a discharge readiness tool, a big data approach to identify patients at high risk for admissions and an effort engage them in their own care through patient portals, added Cynthia Deyling, Cleveland Clinic’s chief quality officer.”