Category: Aging

Biden Administration Sets Higher Staffing Mandates. Most Nursing Homes Don’t Meet Them.

The staffing regulation was disparaged by the industry as unattainable. Patient advocates say it doesn’t go far enough. Labor unions welcomed the requirement.

Medicare’s Push To Improve Chronic Care Attracts Businesses, but Not Many Doctors

Most Medicare enrollees have two or more chronic health conditions, making them eligible for a federal program that rewards physicians for doing more to manage their care. It shows promise in reducing costs. But not many doctors have joined.

Biden Is Right About $35 Insulin Cap but Exaggerates Prior Costs for Medicare Enrollees

Most Medicare enrollees likely were not paying a monthly average of $400 — as President Joe Biden stated — before the insulin cap took effect. However, because costs and other factors result in widely varying prices, some Medicare enrollees might have paid that much in a given month.

How Primary Care Is Being Disrupted: A Video Primer

Under pressure from increased demand, consolidation, and changing patient expectations, the model of care no longer means visiting the same doctor for decades.

Social Security Chief Testifies in Senate About Plans to Stop ‘Clawback Cruelty’

Commissioner Martin O’Malley testifies to two Senate panels that his agency will stop the “injustices” of suspending people’s monthly benefits to recover alleged overpayments. The burden will be on the Social Security Administration to prove the beneficiary was to blame.

Exclusive: Social Security Chief Vows to Fix ‘Cruel-Hearted’ Overpayment Clawbacks

New Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley is promising to change how the agency reclaims billions of dollars it wrongly pays to beneficiaries, saying the existing process is “cruel-hearted and mindless.”

Concerns Grow Over Quality of Care as Investor Groups Buy Not-for-Profit Nursing Homes

For-profit groups own more than 70% of U.S. nursing homes. Industry leaders and researchers wonder whether corporations and investors can succeed where not-for-profit organizations have struggled. Or, will quality of care suffer in the name of making money?

An Arm and a Leg: The Medicare Episode

On this episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” host Dan Weissmann breaks down the complicated and expensive world of Medicare with practical tips to pick the right plan and avoid penalties.

Biden Said State of the Union Is Strong and Made Clear His Campaign Is Off and Running

President Joe Biden used his roughly 68-minute address to Congress to counter lackluster public approval ratings and draw clear contrasts between his administration’s policies and those of Donald Trump and some congressional Republicans. Abortion and health care were in the spotlight.

Whistleblower Accuses Aledade, Largest US Independent Primary Care Network, of Medicare Fraud

A recently unsealed lawsuit alleges Aledade Inc. developed billing software that boosted revenues by making patients appear sicker than they were.