Navigating the Medicare system can be frustrating and even frightening for many people, but the National Council on Aging has created an improved site to make it easier. The NCOA’s www.mymedicarematters.org offers personalized tools and enrollment advice to anyone looking for Medicare information. According to a news release from NCOA, the site has always offered… Continue reading Help for Navigating The Medicare Maze
Tag: Medicare Guide
Cheaper Private Health Care = More Medicare Spending
When private prices for health care services decrease, Medicare spending increases, according to a study led by the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California and published online by Health Services Research on November 27th 2014. The finding raises the possibility that physicians and hospitals may be… Continue reading Cheaper Private Health Care = More Medicare Spending
CMS Medicare Quality Improvement Initiatives
On October 6th 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced two initiatives to improve the quality of post-acute care. First, the expansion and strengthening of the agency’s widely-used Five Star Quality Rating System for Nursing Homes will improve consumer information about individual nursing homes’ quality. Second, proposed new conditions of participation for… Continue reading CMS Medicare Quality Improvement Initiatives
$15 Billion Physician Training System Needs Overhaul
The U.S. should significantly reform the federal system for financing physician training and residency programs to ensure that the public’s $15 billion annual investment is producing the doctors that the nation needs, says a new report release in July 2014 by the Institute of Medicine. Current financing — provided largely through Medicare — requires little accountability, allocates funds independent of workforce needs or educational outcomes, and offers insufficient opportunities to train physicians in the health care settings used by most Americans, the report says.
Change to Medicare Part D Would Save $5 Billion
The federal government could save over $5 billion in the first year by changing the way the government assigns Part D plans for Medicare beneficiaries eligible for low-income subsidies, according to new research from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.
Medicare Reforms Save Money
Reforms to Medicare regulations identified as unnecessary, obsolete, or excessively burdensome on hospitals and other health care providers will save nearly $660 million annually, and $3.2 billion over five years, through a rule issued on May 8th 2015 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services (CMS).
Medicare’s Flawed Adjustment Methodology
The methodology Medicare uses to adjust the billions of dollars it pays health plans and hospitals to account for how sick their patients are is flawed and should be replaced, according to study by Dartmouth Atlas Project investigators published in the journal BMJ in April 2014.
Medicare Data on How Much Docs Are Paid
A historic release of data gives Medicare beneficiaries an unprecedented look at the medical services physicians provide and how much they are paid.On Arpil 9th 2014, as part of the Obama administration’s work to make our health care system more transparent, affordable, and accountable, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the release of new, privacy-protected data on services and procedures provided to Medicare beneficiaries by physicians and other health care professionals.
Proposed 2015 Medicare Part C Updates
Medicare beneficiaries can get greater protections, value, and care in the Medicare services they receive through the proposed policies in March of 2014 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The 2015 Advance Notice and draft Call Letter takes important steps to improve payment accuracy for Medicare Advantage (Part C) for 2015.
Medicare Part D Saved $1.5 Billion a Year
Good news about Medicare Part D from a study done by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Illinois at Chicago: The prescription coverage saved expenditures totaling $1.5 billion annually for the first four years and also significantly reduced hospital admissions. The data were published in March 2014 by the National Bureau of Economic Research
Medicare to Ban Dangerous Prescribers
According to a January 6th 2014 report in Pro Publica by Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein, Medicare plans to “arm itself with broad new powers to better control — and potentially ban — doctors engaged in fraudulent or harmful prescribing.” Pro Publica is an independent, non-profit newsroom based in New York City that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.
Medicare Provision Helps Boomers Stay Well
By Judy Kirkwood
If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as Ben Franklin noted long ago, shouldn’t our health system reward and emphasize prevention rather than the cure?
In fact, just a few days ago the Obama administration hired a PR firm to conduct a public education campaign about the utilization of preventive benefits and services included in the Affordable Care Act.