I was reading Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish the other day and came across this blurb:
The current Ryan budget will impact today’s seniors immediately, due to its cuts to Medicaid. I blog about dialysis; here’s how the Ryan budget plays out in the provision of dialysis:
The blurb is from an e-mail and Sullivan does not name the author or give a link back. You should read the whole post. It is well written and very clear. The author opened my eyes about the importance of Medicaid to incenter dialysis.
After I finished it, I wondered who the author was. After a minute I sent off an e-mail to my best guess and today I received an e-mail telling me I was right.
Can you guess the author. Put your guess in the comments.
I think this is HemoDoc
Bill P or HemoDoc
I think it is a credit to Peter that his blog doesn't reveal his politics – I'm the liberal one with deep concerns over cuts to Medicaid funding.
One question about the Romney/Ryan proposal for CMS is the ESRD entitlement, would it exist if their budget passed into law? It would depend how the legislative language is written but it would be consistent with the Romney/Ryan vision to wind down the ESRD program and have dialysis services covered/funded by the private insurance plans their plan would fund.
But beyond the actual funding of dialysis, are the other elements of CMS's ESRD program. For instance, there is the issue of the regulations that currently govern dialysis. In general the Romney/Ryan ticket is talking about unleashing healthcare by rolling back regulations. One of their complaints about CMS's involvement in healthcare is that CMS 'dictates' how care is provided and what constitutes a specific billable service. Does anyone think the provision of dialysis would be improved if there were no Conditions of Coverage?
Cheers
Bill
So Bill outed himself. Thanks Bill. Your insight is unique and valuable.