In Case You Missed It — Healthcare Daily Digest for Tuesday, 8 January

Thanks, in no small part, to the Great Recession, Americans have continued a trend that started in 2009: not spending a lot on healthcare. This means: fewer annual physicals, more waiting-it-outs for things like flus and bronchitis, periodic let’s-hope-for-the-best on moles and aches/pains.

Jeffrey Young over at the Huffington Post shows us both our bleak past, both distant and recent, but mitigates it with the sliveriest sliver of hope for the future.

The Bad News: “U.S. health care spending rose at the lowest rates in more than half a century between 2009 and 2011, according to a report issued by federal auditors Monday.” And “The recent slowdown in spending happened mainly because Americans lost health insurance and incomes during the Great Recession and in the sluggish recovery that followed, the report concludes.”

The Kinda-Bad-Kinda-Maybe-Good News: “President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care reform law has had a ‘minimal’ effect on overall health care spending to date, the report says, because little of it is already in place.” And “Over time, Obamacare is projected to have a small effect on total health care spending in the U.S., the actuary’s office reported last June. Between 2011 and 2021, health care reform will increase U.S. health spending by $478 billion, which is 0.1 percent more than the nation would have spent if Obama hadn’t signed the law, according to the 2012 report.”

The Good(ish) News: “In the meantime, 2011 offered hints that some of the factors that kept health care spending increases relatively low might be changing, the report suggests. People began to use more health care and to use more ‘intense’ services that tend to be costlier during the year, the report said.” (Yay! Yay for people getting sick enough to actually need/use/spend-on healthcare! ::sigh::)

Matthew Yglesias over at Slate.com suggests this: “But I think the existence of a recession-induced spending slowdown probably tells us just what it will take to “bend the curve” on health care spending—namely for people to be out of money. Absent a crazy credit bubble, people can only spend so much on health care services. But I think the evidence is pretty strong that the typical middle-class American would spend a large share of his or her marginal dollar on health care. If we started to see the kind of wage growth we saw in the ’50s and ’60s, we wouldn’t suddenly leap up to owning seven cars per capita. We’d probably spend a lot on health care, either buying a greater volume of services or paying a premium to avoid a lot of the hassle costs that have emerged in recent health care practice.”

Other headlines you should probably check out, seeing as how I’ve laid them out for you below you’re welcome:

In the Future, Everything Will Get an Acronym: The New England Journal of Medicine argues that it’s about time for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to start implementing “shared decision making” (SDM) programs, like it’s supposed to under Section 3506 of the Affordable Care Act. Why? It will “promote an ideal approach to clinician–patient decision making, improve the quality of medical decisions, and reduce costs.”

Battle of the Headlines!: According to insidePatientFinance.com, “Healthcare Data Security is a Myth.” Over at JD Supra Law News: Are Your Mobile Devices HIPAA Compliant? Practical Steps to Ensure Compliance.” Of course, there’s not really a battle here; agencies still need to be vigilant about HIPAA and data security; however, is it possible that we’re sounding the alarm too often?

Speaking of HIPAA…: “HHS issues first-ever HIPAA fine to small organization, for portable device data breach.

When Harry Met Sally, Part Deux: When Republican Florida Governor (was that redundant?) met with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, it wasn’t at Katz’s Deli, no one faked anything, and he definitely did not want what she was having. “Scott, a vocal critic of the Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare, told reporters following the meeting in Washington that Medicaid program costs, which state officials say could mushroom over the next 10 years, continue to be his major concern.”