BEFORE SPEAKER John Boehner steps down, Health Turnup has learned he is racing against the clock in private negotiations with the President over trademark rights to the term "Obamacare." Sources close the Speaker state that he seeking to obtain rights to the term on behalf of the Foundation he is establishing post-retirement for his upcoming Speaker Library.

"I have spent the past five-plus years, almost 24/7 battling Obamacare, and in the process, no one has uttered that nine-lettered word more than me. I think it is only fair that future use of the term benefit those who have used it the most," the Speaker commented to Health Turnup in response to questions on the Trademark issue.

At stake are the potential residuals from licensing of sales for tee-shirts, bumper-stickers, buttons, and poster sales for and against the Affordable Care Act, as well as insurance products and services that wish to reference the term.

The problem for Boehner, is that the President currently has control over the trademark rights. Two years ago, a half-dozen trademark applications with the word "Obamacare" were filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which turned down the applications, citing among other things, that Federal law prohibits registering a mark that "consists of or comprises a name, portrait, or signature identifying a particular living individual except by his written consent."

Sources close to the President state that Obama plans to withhold consent to any such applications for an Obamacare trademark, until he too steps down from office in 2017, and then will file a trademark application on behalf of his own Presidential library.

"Look what Pat Riley did with the term Three-Peat, when he trademarked it while coaching the Los Angeles Lakers, after winning two consecutive titles in the late eighties," the Presidential source told Health TurnUp. "Never mind that the Lakers turned around and lost in the championships after Riley obtained the trademark. Riley still gets coin whenever anyone wants to use the term commercially. Although I guess that won't include the Lakers anytime soon." 

Sources speculate that Boehner could be dangling withdrawing the House lawsuit against Obamacare slated to be heard by a federal judge: United States House of Representatives v. Burwell, as his negotiating leverage. Citing that the case won't wind its way thought the courts until after Obama leaves office, a source close to Boehner states the Speaker is also motivated to try to prevent the President from cashing in on the lawsuit.  The source adds "the last thing the Speaker wants is for the President to get residuals from the 'Down with Obamacare' shirts that will be distributed to everyone standing in front of the courthouse when this reaches trial.

THE FDA HAS JUST announced device approval for a fax machine that can transmit prescription orders back in time to a 1980s pharmacy that can fill the orders at a price much cheaper than today's inflated rates. William Mazeltov, MD, MPH, deputy director for science and chief scientist in the FDA's Center for Devices stated in the just issued FDA release that "millions of Americans suffering from significant, sometimes triple digit prescription price increases this year, will have the potential to enact momentous savings by ordering their prescription drugs from a pharmacy based in a previous era."

Irwin Allen, PhD, the patent-holder and CEO of RxTimeFax explains that while transportation of humans or materials through time has not proved feasible, electronic transmissions through time has now proven to be viable. "I discovered the capability quite by accident. When tinkering with an old fax machine, I received a fax dated 1982 from a pharmacy in Westfield, New Jersey. Upon further investigation, the fax hadn't been sitting in the queue for decades, it had just been sent. While the contents of the fax was simply a list of jokes that pharmacist meant to forward to a friend, we were able to reverse engineer the transmission and begin sending communications to the pharmacist from our future."

Allen states the process involves faxing the prescription order to the 1982 pharmacy, who then fills the order and sends it UPS or FedEX with the delivery date designated for 2015.

The FDA's Dr Mazeltov cautions that "RxTimeFax won't work for every prescription, You have to order a drug that was available in 1982 with a shelf life of at least 33 years."

Allen concurs there are a few bugs still to be worked out. "The pharmacist continues to fax us these forwarded jokes and drawings with bawdy punch-lines. He also sometimes forwards political rants. We can't seem to get him to stop."

DOCTOR MICHAEL CRABTREE excitedly shows off his new CD player to patients in his Oakland, California office. He and partner Doctor Amari Cooper are busy converting their office from vinyl electronic health records to CD-ROMs, and can't wait for the process to be completed.

"I know we're a little ahead of the curve for healthcare, converting from vinyl to CD-ROM, but it seems like healthcare is a little behind all the other sectors in our economy in terms of keeping up with technology, and we just want to do our part," Doctor Crabtree adds.

He is not alone. A growing number of physicians and hospitals are paving the way to make vinyl obsolete in healthcare, and are declaring this the era of CD-ROMs. Kahlil Mack, President of the American Healthcare Technology Advancement Association, says "our latest medical office survey indicates that 72% of physician offices are now Y2K compliant, which is up ten percentage points from five years ago. There is no reason to believe that medical offices and hospitals around the country can't put their heads together and achieve the same level of success in converting their records from vinyl to CD-ROM.

"There are many advantages to converting from vinyl records," Mack continues. "We are quite optimistic that physicians and hospitals will embrace this new technology.  

WHILE THERE WAS some initial concern that the Affordable Care Act's so-called 'Cadillac Tax' that takes effect in 2018 would dampen demand for General Motor's 2018 Cadillac models, industry analysts are now in general agreement that the provision should not negatively impact Cadillac sales.

"Certainly anytime there is a special purpose tax imposed on large discretionary purchases, there is going to be a concern that demand will diminish accordingly, at least in the short-term," comments economist Milton Bradley, PhD. "But the documented irrational economic behavior of Cadillac purchasers would seem to shield General Motors from normal principles of behavioral economics, that might otherwise affect demand under such circumstances."

Industry analyst Cade McNown with J.D. Powerade agrees with Bradley's conclusions, and notes that there is some disagreement as to if the tax provided for in the Affordable Care Act, actually applies to Cadillac purchases beginning in 2018. "Someone needs to read through the Act and see if that's actually true," says McNown.