Former Part B News reporter Christopher Weaver, along with his colleague Kate Steadman, received praise from The New York Times columnist David Brooks for work on an article titled "Congress often blocks Medicare changes that would cut costs." Brooks cited the article from the Kaiser Health News division when pointing out Medicare has often tried pilot programs to improve care, reduce costs and make the program more efficient, but "Congress rejected them because doctors or hospitals or somebody else lobbied against them." For example, Congress has yet to enact a bundling demo project regarding heart surgeries that started in the 1990s.
Setting politics aside, there are several Medicare demonstrations going on right now or will begin soon; such as electronic health records (EHR), acute care episode and medical home demonstrations. Do you think any of these projects have a chance of ever being implemented? Is it worth participating in these demos?