Medicare News Blog

health insurance companies fell with the broader market Monday as concerns over the credit market linger and the sector faces uncertainty with the future of Medicare Advantage reimbursement levels.

To provide for a program of quality measurement and reporting and for the use of value-based payment in Medicare for inpatient hospital services. Quality Measures – Quality measures must be evidence-based, consensus-based and statistically valid.

Statement by Blair Childs, senior vice president of public affairs, Premier healthcare alliance The Premier healthcare alliance commends Representative Jason Altmire for introducing the Quality FIRST Act, a bill that would implement hospital value-based purchasing on a national scale in Medicare.

The Senate on Thursday passed a bill that would authorize an additional $45 million to assist low-income seniors with Medicare premiums and increase incentives for certain drug manufactures to produce antibiotics, CQ Today reports.

The average monthly premium for stand-alone Medicare prescription drug coverage will increase by 24% to $37 next year, according to an analysis of the plans by Avalere Health, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The real issue is the growing budget crunch, and promises made by both sides. Republicans won big subsidies in creating a partly-privatized Medicare covering prescription drugs. Doctors once promised to cut their reimbursements but now resist that.

CMS Acting Administrator Kerry Weems announced the 2009 Medicare prescription drug and Medicare Advantage plan options. Approximately 97 percent of beneficiaries enrolled in a stand-alone prescription drug plan will have access to Medicare drug and health plans in 2009 whose premiums would be the same or less than their coverage in 2008.

The Medicare-PartD.com website now offers Medicare beneficiaries and advocates an insight into the 2009 prescription drug plans. Based on the extensive 2009 Medicare Part D plan information recently released by the Centers for Medicare and medicaid services , Medicare-PartD.com has developed national and state one-page interactive Part D plan summaries.

Federal health officials encouraged Medicare participants on Thursday to shop around for their prescription drug coverage next year because it could include significant price increases or changes regarding which drugs the plans will cover. Overall, the landscape for prescription drug coverage won’t look dramatically different next year. The typical beneficiary will still have dozens upon [...]

Sept. 26, 2008 – Once again, all across the country, people with Medicare will face for 2009 a bewildering choice of nearly 50 prescription drug plans and over 40 Medicare health plans, including HMOs, PPOs, and private fee-for-service plans of every variety.

Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in the prescription drug benefit are more likely to ask pharmacists for generic medications when they pay for them and for more expensive brand-name treatments when the program provides coverage, according to a study released on Thursday by Medco Health Solutions, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Once again, all across the country, people with Medicare will face for 2009 a bewildering choice of nearly 50 prescription drug plans and over 40 Medicare health plans, including HMOs, PPOs, and private fee-for-service plans of every variety. It is a Wild West marketplace and older Americans are ripe for exploitation. Bait-and-switch tactics are in [...]

Seniors battling high cholesterol are more likely to stop taking their medications once they reach the Medicare coverage Gap, a result that may put them at higher risk for heart attack and stroke. New research by Medco Health Solutions, Inc.

Seniors and disabled Ohio residents who get their drug coverage through Medicare-approved plans can expect to pay higher monthly premiums next year, especially if they want comprehensive coverage.

Sept. 25, 2008 – Senior citizens battling high cholesterol are more likely to stop taking their medications once they reach the Medicare coverage Gap, better known as the “Donut Hole,â€Â? a result that may put them at higher risk for heart attack and stroke.