Crains New York - July 9, 2012 - (Page 12)

OPINION A Fixing a sickly health system Medicare costs). Single patients can run up charges totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Because the two programs don’t work well with each other, their shared customers get disjointed and costly care. Past attempts to coordinate the two programs failed because the state lacked the authority it needed. State officials say Obamacare finally gives them the flexibility—and possibly the money—to fix this madness. One promising solution: health homes. These are teams of service providers who work together to help troubled patients get their acts together. The federal government will pay New York 90% of the cost of its healthhome pilot project, which could be scaled up nationwide. There are lots of similar examples where the feds will pay the state to pioneer better and cheaper care—not just for disabled addicts but for a broad spectrum of patients. These models, if they work, would likely become the new standard, saving businesses money on their insurance premiums. The divisive legal fight over Obamacare is over. New York should unite on using the Affordable Care Act to transform our costly health care system. CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS editor in chief Rance Crain publisher, vp Jill R. Kaplan EDITORIAL editor Glenn Coleman deputy managing editors Valerie Block, Erik Ipsen assistant managing editors Erik Engquist, Jeremy Smerd senior producer, news Elisabeth Butler Cordova news producer Lauren Elkies contributing editor Elaine Pofeldt columnists Greg David, Alair Townsend crain’s health pulse editor Barbara Benson senior reporters Theresa Agovino, Aaron Elstein, Lisa Fickenscher, Matthew Flamm, Daniel Massey, Miriam Kreinin Souccar reporters Amanda Fung, Andrew J. Hawkins, Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, Adrianne Pasquarelli web reporter, producer Ian Thomas art director Steven Krupinski deputy art director Carolyn McClain staff photographer Buck Ennis copy desk chief Steve Noveck copy editor Thaddeus Rutkowski data editor Suzanne Panara assistant data editor Emily Laermer researchers Eva Saviano, Amy Stern interns Esthena Brutten, Ken Christensen, Cara Eisenpress, Emily Lundeen, Mary Shell ONLINE AND INTERACTIVE SERVICES general manager, online & e-commerce strategy Kira Bindrim senior web developer, interactive Chris O’Donnell ADVERTISING, MARKETING AND PRODUCTION advertising director Trish Henry senior account managers Irene Bar-Am, Courtney McCombs, Sheryl Rose, Suzanne Wilson account executive Jill Bottomley Kunkes sales coordinator Danielle Wiener newsletter product manager Alexis Sinclair credit Todd J. Masura (313-446-6097) director, audience development Michael O’Connor senior marketing manager Catherine Schutten event producer Courtney Williams reprint sales manager Lauren Melesio production and pre-press director Michael Corsi advertising production manager Suzanne Fleischman Wies TO SUBSCRIBE: ll New Yorkers, whether peeved or pleased that the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act, should support the state’s attempts to take advantage of “Obamacare.” The savings to taxpayers could be substantial. Businesses would benefit as well if the state and providers of health care succeed in their quest to improve its delivery. We spend an extraordinary amount on medical care in this state. Medicaid alone will eat up $54 billion in New York this year, or about what Intel generated in revenues last year. Billions more are spent on care for current and former state workers. Costs have been increasing unsustainably. The state, with cooperation from the health care industry, is pursuing reforms that could save the federal government—which typically pays half the state’s Medicaid tab—$17.1 billion over five years. The Cuomo administration is asking Washington to send New York $10 billion of that savings to implement the reforms. It’s an investment that should pay for itself many times over. The fee-for-service system attempts to compensate providers for everything they do, but it is riddled with waste. Look at the 700,000 elderly, poor or disabled New Yorkers enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid. You’ll find them in emergency rooms across the state running up ungodly bills, only to return a few weeks later. Many suffer from multiple chronic illnesses. They account for 14% of Medicaid enrollees but 36% of the program’s costs (and 48% of New York can take advantage of reform to cut costs CRAIN’S ONLINE POLL COMMENTS Money-market funds: A-OK bloomberg news ‘LONG ON FEARMONGERING, SHORT ON FACTS’ DO YOU AGREE WITH THE SUPREME COURT’S ‘OBAMACARE’ RULING? Yes. “In the end, this health plan will benefit most Americans.” No. “It does too little to ease employers’ health care costs.” Date of poll: June 28 633 votes 54% Yes 46% No Aaron Elstein’s In the Markets column suggesting “danger” for money-market-fund customers ( June 25) is long on fearmongering and hyperbole but short on facts. His rendering of what happened in 2008 is just plain wrong. The meltdown occurred because certain financial institutions placed enormously leveraged bets on the subprime housing market, amplified in many cases by derivatives and by the Federal Reserve’s easymoney policy. When those bets went bad, the complex web of counterparty arrangements threatened to cause a general collapse of the system. Money-market funds required liquid markets, not tax dollars, to weather the financial storm. Unlike banks and other financial-services companies, money-market funds did not need to get rid of any toxic assets. Portfolios were sound, but the global liquidity crisis prevented the funds from selling assets. The industry requested liquidity in the system, rather than federal insurance and certainly not a bailout. In fact, money-market-fund companies paid $1.2 billion to the U.S. Treasury for insurance that was not asked for and never used. Looking at the reality of the situation, one could even say that moneymarket funds were a victim, not a culprit, of the financial crisis. Further, the one fund that “broke the buck” did so in September 2008, after an unprecedented period that saw the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a number of major financial institutions on the brink and inconsistent responses to these events by government. When the dust settled, investors in the Reserve Primary Fund lost just a penny on the dollar, and taxpayers did not lose a dime. Mr. Elstein also seems to think that money-market funds skirt regulations. Not true. The industry has worked with the Securities and Exchange Commission and has been the subject of strict regulations for decades. In 2010, the SEC enacted enhanced regulations to improve the credit quality, maturity, liquidity and transparency of money-market funds. They were put to an early test in the summer of 2011. While money-market-fund assets declined 10% during this period of uncertainty, there were no issues. Under the amended SEC rules, moneymarket funds had all the cash they needed to cover the redemption requests. The reality is that money-market funds are well regulated, and the system, particularly in light of the 2010 amendments, is running smoothly. —john w. mcgonigle Vice president and chief legal officer Federated Investors Inc. Pittsburgh For print and digital subscriptions or customer service, e-mail customerservice@crainsnewyork.com or call 877-824-9379 (in the U.S. and Canada) or 313-446-0450 (all other locations). $3.00 a copy for the print edition; or $99.95 one year, $179.95 two years, for print subscriptions with digital access. www.crainsnewyork.com/subscribe TO ADVERTISE: Contact Advertising Director Trish Henry at thenry@crainsnewyork.com or call 212-210-0711. www.crainsnewyork.com/advertise FOR INFORMATION ON OUR EVENTS: Contact Event Producer Courtney Williams at cwilliams@crainsnewyork.com or 212-210-0257. www.crainsnewyork.com/events TO CONTACT THE NEWSROOM: 711 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017-4036 editorial phone: 212.210.0277 fax 212.210.0799 Entire contents ©copyright 2012 Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. ®CityBusiness is a registered trademark of MCP Inc., used under license agreement. PUBLISHED BY CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. chairman Keith E. Crain president Rance Crain secretary Merrilee Crain treasurer Mary Kay Crain executive vp, operations William Morrow senior vp, group publisher Gloria Scoby group vp, technology, circulation, manufacturing Robert C. Adams vp/production, manufacturing David Kamis chief information officer Paul Dalpiaz founder G.D. Crain Jr. (1885-1973) chairman Mrs. G.D. Crain Jr. (1911-1996) FOR THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS: Go to www.crainsnewyork.com/poll to have your say. CRAIN’S WELCOMES SUBMISSIONS to its opinion pages. Send letters to letters@crainsnewyork.com. Send columns of 475 words or fewer to opinion@crainsnewyork.com. Please include the writer’s name, company, address and telephone number. 12 | Crain’s New York Business | July 9, 2012 http://www.crainsnewyork.com/subscribe http://www.crainsnewyork.com/advertise http://www.crainsnewyork.com/events http://www.crainsnewyork.com/poll

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - July 9, 2012

Crains New York - July 9, 2012
Contents
In the Markets
The Insider
Small Business
Business People
Executive Moves
Real Estate Deals
Opinion
Greg David
For the Record
Classifieds
From Around the City
New York, New York
Source Lunch
Out and About
Snaps

Crains New York - July 9, 2012