Tag: Medicare

Medicare is reviewing whether seniors should undergo spine surgeries at same-day surgery centers, the government-run health program announced Wednesday, five months after a USA Today Network-Kaiser Health News investigation revealed a spate of patient deaths following the procedures. The proposal states that Medicare officials will examine whether these procedures “pose a significant safety risk” to […]

Elderly patients spent over two weeks in uncontrolled pain or respiratory distress. Acute care was rare on weekends. And recruiters went door-to-door pitching fraudulent schemes, luring healthy patients to sign up for hospice in exchange for free housecleaning and medicine. These details come in a report on hospice released Monday with a government watchdog agency […]

The Trump administration announced a plan Friday that will affect about 40 percent of the payments physicians receive from Medicare. Not everybody’s pleased. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services calls its proposed plan a historic effort to lessen paperwork and improve patient care. But some doctors and advocates for patients fear maybe it's a […]

This week, I answer questions from readers who are worried about Medicare and insurance for long-term care. Q: Can getting a genetic test hinder being able to buy long-term-care insurance later on? If you do obtain a plan, can the insurer drop you once you find out the results of a genetic test? In general, […]

Medicare pays vast sums of dollars every year for prescription creams, gels and lotions made-to-order by pharmacies – mainly as pain treatments. But a brand new report finds that officials are concerned about possible fraud and patient safety risks from products made at nearly a quarter of the pharmacies that fill the bulk of those […]

Medicare paga cientos de millones de dólares cada a~no por cremas, geles y lociones recetadas, preparadas por encargo en farmacias, principalmente para tratamiento del dolor. Pero un nuevo informe revela que funcionarios están preocupados por posible fraude y riesgo para los pacientes, por productos fabricados en casi una cuarta parte de las farmacias que preparan […]

BALTIMORE – When Medicare in 2011 decided to pay for an innovative procedure to replace leaky heart valves by snaking an artificial replacement up through arteries, the goal ended up being to offer relief to the tens of thousands of patients too frail to pass through open-heart surgery, the gold standard. To help ensure great […]

Accountable care organizations were one of the key initiatives from the Affordable Care Act, designed to help control soaring Medicare costs. ACOs were likely to save the federal government nearly $5 billion by 2021, based on the Congressional Budget Office. It hasn't come anywhere close. On Thursday, the Trump administration proposed an overhaul to the […]

Three months after President Mr . trump announced his blueprint to lower your drug prices, administration officials have begun putting some teeth behind the rhetoric. Many details haven't yet been announced. But pros who seriously consider federal drug policy and Medicare rules say the administration is preparing to incrementally roll out a multipronged plan that […]

The inspector general in the Department of Health and Human Services this month launched an examination into federal oversight of skilled assisted living facilities amid signs some homes aren't meeting Medicare's minimum staffing requirements. The review comes on the heels of the Kaiser Health News and Ny Times investigation that found nearly 1,400 nursing facilities […]