(CNSNews.com) – Health care reform programs that are similar to those promoted by the ObamaCare law do not save the government money or reduce health care costs, according to a new report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
The report examined 10 major demonstration projects conducted by Medicare in which managed care programs and value-based payment programs are evaluated. The two types of health care reforms are key features of ObamaCare – the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which became law in March 2010.
In the managed-care programs – where care-management companies were hired to coordinate care between doctors and patients with chronic diseases like diabetes, sending nurses to monitor whether patients were following doctor’s orders – the CBO found that the programs did not reduce costs enough to save the government money.
“The evaluations show that most programs have not reduced Medicare spending: In nearly every program involving disease management and care coordination, spending was either unchanged or increased relative to the spending that would have occurred in the absence of the program,” the report said.
In the case of value-based payment programs – where hospitals are paid based on whether they achieve better outcomes for their patients – the CBO again found that all but one of the programs assessed did not reduce health care costs enough to save Medicare any money.
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