A new government watchdog report outlines vulnerabilities in Medicare’s $17 billion hospice program, pointing to inadequate services, inappropriate billing and outright fraud.
Category: Medicare
Medicare Reconsiders Paying For Seniors’ Spine Operations At Surgery Centers
After a USA Today Network-Kaiser Health News investigation, Medicare announced last week that it is re-evaluating whether these procedures “pose a significant safety risk” to patients.
No Gaps In Understanding: Here’s Your Primer On Medigap Coverage
Seniors often don’t realize that private insurers are required to offer Medigap policies, or supplemental insurance, only when people first sign up for Medicare.
Medicare’s historic proposal to change how it pays physicians
The word “historic” is often used by PR professionals to hype something that is, well, pretty run-of-the-mill. They figure that no one is going to read a news release that announces “[Name of organization] proposes small change that really won’t make much of a difference.” The problem is that when something is done that really […]
Tennessee-Based Pain Management Group To Close Clinics Amid Financial Turmoil
The CEO of Comprehensive Pain Specialists was indicted in April. Now the group is closing clinics across several states.
Searching for Savings in Medicare Drug Price Negotiations
In response to higher drug spending growth and heightened attention to drug prices, some policymakers have proposed allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs. This issue brief provides a short history of this proposal, describes va…
The Distributional Consequences of Medicare Premium Support Proposal
The Distributional Consequences of a Medicare Premium Support Proposal This article analyzes the expected distributional impact of enacting a premium support proposal for Medicare based on legislation introduced by Sen. Breaux and Sen. Frist in 1999. T…
Current Trends and Future Outlook for Retiree Health Benefits: Findings from the Kaiser/Hewitt 2004 Survey on Retiree Health Benefits
Current Trends and Future Outlook for Retiree Health Benefits: Findings from the Kaiser/Hewitt 2004 Survey on Retiree Health Benefits A new survey of large employers finds businesses and retirees experienced double-digit increase in retiree health cost…
The Impact of Cost Sharing on Appropriate Utilization and Health Status: A Review of the Literature on Seniors
The Impact of Cost-Sharing on Appropriate Utilization and Health Status: A Review of the Literature on Seniors This article provides a review of research that has addressed the impact of patient cost-sharing on the use of health care services and subse…
Health Care and the 2004 Elections
** Update: For information on health care and the 2008 election, visit www.health08.org. ** Health care issues continue to be important for many Americans and a vital part of the policy debates in Washington and around the country. During an election s…
