The House of Representatives is in session this week for a few days principally to address Superstorm Sandy relief according to the Hill’s Floorwatch. The Senate is out until after the inauguration next Monday.  Congress did pass and the President signed a bipartisan bill again according to the Hill that will facilitate settlement of Medicare liens in negligence lawsuits. That was a big issue for the plaintiffs’ bar.

The AMA News reads the tea leaves created by the recent government report on healthcare spending in 2011, the first calendar year of ACA implementation. The AMA News which has been dismayed by the drop in physician’s services in 2009 – 10 is encouraged by this report.  It’s definitely worth a peek. The AMA News also reflected on the five biggest concerns for doctors this year — the ACA leads the pack.

The Wall Street Journal’s Numbers Guy columnist, whom the FEHBlog enjoys reading, wrote on a recent Journal article about a study finding that overweight (not obese) people tend to live longer than “normal” weight people measured on the BMI scale. The Numbers Guy writes that the utility of the obesity measure on the BMI scale is well accepted but once you get below that level into overweight the consensus breaks up. That makes sense to the FEHBlog who lost quite a bit of weight over the last year  and is still overweight on the BMI scale (26.2 — normal is from 18.5 to 24.9). The point is that a dietitian friend explained to me that it’s important for older people (including the FEHBlog) to have a little weight on their bones because if serious illness strikes you can lose weight fast. That may explain the longevity finding.