Older and disabled Americans discover a host of problems, including unanticipated costs and barriers to getting care, when they get sick and need care through their Medicare private health plans, according to a new report from the Medicare Rights Center. “There’s a striking pattern to the problems we hear from people enrolled in Medicare private [...]
By Bob Moos, The Dallas Morning News Apr. 27–CHRIS RICHMEIER LIVES FOR TOMORROW — August, to be exact. That’s when his Medicare coverage will begin and his struggles paying for medical care will end. Mr.
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Nearly all hospitals that accept Medicare must provide emergency services, the Centers for Medicare and medicaid services said Thursday.
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Wilson Health Information, LLC, one of the nation’s leading consumer insights firms, named MemberHealth’s CCRx National Medicare Part D plan the highest-rated Medicare Part D plan in overall customer satisfaction.
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“The Medicare funding warning included in this year’s Trustees Report is just the latest of many ticking time bombs hidden in the pages of the Medicare modernization act of 2003. This warning is arbitrary and completely ignores the real challenge facing Medicare, which is the sky-rocketing cost of our nation’s healthcare system. [click link for [...]
The Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA) said the availability of safe and effective generic versions of biopharmaceuticals, or biogenerics, could save the Medicare system billions of dollars annually and help to ensure the solvency of the program in future years. [click link for full article]
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Social Security is projected to stay solvent until 2041, but the government says Medicare will be bankrupt in 12 years. In a recent report, the program’s trustees say urgent reform is necessary if the nation wants to save Medicare.
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President Bush on Monday said he would continue to oppose efforts to revise the Medicare prescription drug benefit, the AP/Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. [click link for full article]
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The Medicare hospital trust fund will become insolvent by 2019, one year later than estimated last year, according to a report released on Monday by the board of trustees for Medicare and Social Security, the Washington Post reports (Lee, Washington Post, 4/24). The board includes four Bush administration officials and two public trustees (Alonso-Zaldivar, Los [...]
A computer glitch that is siphoning money out of some Medicare beneficiaries’ Social Security checks has raised the ire of four Florida lawmakers who want the Medicare agency to explain why it can take months to return such money to beneficiaries.
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“Congress ought to eliminate the subsidies” for private Medicare advantage plans “unless it is willing to subsidize the same benefits — at enormous cost — for the far greater number of people enrolled in standard Medicare,” a New York Times editorial states. [click link for full article]
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Mary Agnes Carey, associate editor of CQ HealthBeat, examines Senate rejection of legislation that would allow the federal government to negotiate Medicare prescription drug prices, Senate approval of a bill that would expand stem cell research funding and House and Senate discussions on FDA reauth [click link for full article]
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Hospitals and small physician practices that obtain a significant amount of their revenue from Medicare reimbursements “stand to be the hardest hit” by a “little-known provision” included in a 2005 federal tax law, the Wichita Eagle reports. [click link for full article]
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Two newspapers on Friday published opinion pieces discussing Medicare. Summaries appear below. [click link for full article]
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Express Scripts (Nasdaq: ESRX), a leading pharmacy benefit manager, today announced results of an analysis examining the 2006 prescription claims history of 220,000 non-low-income seniors with Medicare drug plans that have a standard coverage gap, “doughnut hole,” of $2,250.
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