Medicare

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Not Dying? Hospices Want You Anyway

 Not Dying? Hospice 
 Wants You Anyway 
WAPO INVESTIGATION
Dec 27, 2013 7:30 AM CST

Not Dying? Hospice Wants You Anyway

Recruiting healthier patients for profit, 'Washington Post' reveals

(Newser) - Hospice care is for the terminally ill, yet the number of "hospice survivors" jumped 50% in California between 2002 and 2012. Something to celebrate? Not quite: A Washington Post investigation into the $17 billion industry now dominated by for-profits reveals hospice companies recruit patients who aren't dying because...

Brand-Name Drugs Cost Medicare Billions

Doctors with ties to industry go with pricey versions instead of generics

(Newser) - So much money wasted, such a seemingly simple fix. A ProPublica investigation finds that a relatively small group of doctors costs taxpayers hundreds of millions dollars per year because they choose to prescribe pricey brand-name drugs to low-income Medicare patients instead of generic versions. Is it because they have hearts...

Finally, Washington Sees a Way Out

Obama, House GOP leaders to meet today

(Newser) - Signs of hope in DC: Both parties are increasingly pushing for an end to the government shutdown and a debt-ceiling increase, with President Obama set to meet with 18 top House Republicans today, the Hill reports. Those Republicans include Paul Ryan, who's at the forefront of a short-term plan...

Medicare Has Been Paying for Prescriptions Written by ... Art Therapists

Paid $31.6M in 2009 for prescriptions written by people who aren't authorized to write them

(Newser) - Massage therapists and home contractors are not authorized to prescribe drugs—but Medicare will still cover the cost, anyway. That's according to a new study by the Department of Health and Human Services, which found Medicare paid $31.6 million in 2009 as part of its Part D program...

Growing Medicare Expense ... Eyelid Lifts?
 Growing Medicare 
 Expense ... Eyelid Lifts? 
in case you missed it
Jun 1, 2013 1:45 PM CDT

Growing Medicare Expense ... Eyelid Lifts?

Critics say doctors, patients gaming the system

(Newser) - Medicare is never, ever supposed to pay for cosmetic surgery, but the Miami Herald has dug up numbers on eyelid lifts that look mighty suspicious. Medicare will pay for the procedure—booming in popularity among aging Americans looking for less droopy eyes—but only if a doctor deems it medically...

Medicare Fund Gets Less Dire Diagnosis

Trustees say it can keep paying benefits until 2026

(Newser) - Not a hoax, not a dream, not an imaginary story: Medicare is doing better financially than anyone thought. The main trust fund that funds the healthcare program has announced that it expects to be able to pay full benefits through 2026, two years longer than previously believed, the Wall Street ...

It's Official: Hospital Bills Make No Sense

$5K for a procedure in one hospital costs $223K in another

(Newser) - The charges on US hospital bills often seem entirely random and inconsistent, and now we know why: they probably are. The government has released data today on what 3,300 different hospitals charge for the 100 most common procedures. The results show massive variation, reports the Washington Post . One DC...

GOP Leaders Like Obama's Social Security Cuts

Hearings to begin in House subcommittees this week

(Newser) - Democrats aren't happy with the part of President Obama's budget proposal that involves cutting Social Security benefits , but Republican leaders just love it, the Washington Post reports. John Boehner is trying to muffle any GOP criticism of the budget proposal, which is mainly coming from Republican lawmakers...

Obama Budget to Offer GOP a Spoonful of Sugar

Medicare, Social Security cuts 'demonstrate willingness to compromise': NYT

(Newser) - Obama's personal salary isn't the only figure the president plans on cutting this year. A new budget set to be released next week proposes cuts to Medicare and Social Security. It's a deficit-reducing olive branch to the GOP, and the administration says it will lead to...

Obama: Gay Marriage Bans 'Probably' Unconstitutional

President says debt sustainable for next 10 years

(Newser) - It looks like President Obama's views on gay marriage are continuing to " evolve ." When he first expressed his support for gay marriage last May, Obama also said he thought it was a state issue (a position he's since reaffirmed ). Now, however, the president is saying...

Simpson, Bowles Back With Sequel to Deficit Plan

They want to slash another $2.4T, far exceeding Obama's goals

(Newser) - If you liked the first Simpson-Bowles plan, good news! Washington's favorite bipartisan hypothetical budget slashers have come up with a sequel of sorts, proposing $2.4 trillion in new (and probably politically impossible) deficit cuts over the next decade, Politico reports. How would they get there?
  • They'd slash
...

Anti-Fraud Record: Per Dollar Spent, $8 Recovered

HSS boasts recovering $4.2B last year in health-care fraud effort

(Newser) - And the health-care fraud records just keep coming : The government last year recovered a record $4.2 billion that was stolen or illegally obtained from federal health-care programs, reports USA Today . That brings the since-2010 equation to this: $7.90 has been recouped via fines and legal judgments for each...

Menendez Waded Into Top Donor's Fraud Case

Senator's relationship with Salomon Melgen comes under scrutiny

(Newser) - Sen. Robert Menendez twice tried to intervene on behalf of pal and major campaign donor Dr. Salomon Melgen in the optometrist's ongoing battle with Medicare over alleged fraud, the Washington Post and New York Times report. Melgen is accused of overbilling Uncle Sam to the tune of $8.9...

Boehner: I'll Tax the Rich —if Obama Budges Too

House speaker concedes on taxes for the first time

(Newser) - John Boehner inched toward President Obama's position in fiscal cliff talks by offering to increase taxes on the richest Americans—his first concession on marginal tax rates. That would affect at least those earning $1 million or more, sources tell Politico . In return Boehner wants to curb the growth...

Our Class War Rages On
 Our Class War Rages On 
Paul Krugman
Nov 30, 2012 1:54 PM CST

Our Class War Rages On

Super-rich are just being more stealthy about it after election: Paul Krugman

(Newser) - The election is over, but that doesn't mean the class war between the super-rich and the not-rich is at an end. Having lost at the ballot box, now the plutocracy is trying to use "stealth" to get its way, using the cover of bipartisan, "sensible responses to...

US 'Vulnerable' to Fraud on Electronic Medical Records

Medicare is faulted for lax oversight

(Newser) - The shift to electronic medical records continues to have trouble. The New York Times reports that the federal government is doling out big money to doctors and hospitals for making the switch without properly ensuring that their new systems are up to snuff. As a result, federal investigators warn in...

Raising Social Security Age Is &#39;Cruel&#39; Idea

 Raising Social Security Age 
 Is 'Cruel' Idea 
paul krugman
Nov 16, 2012 12:13 PM CST

Raising Social Security Age Is 'Cruel' Idea

Paul Krugman says advocates miss key point on rising life expectancy

(Newser) - One idea that gets floated by both parties in the conversation about reforming Social Security and Medicare is to raise the eligibility age for both. After all, life expectancy is rising, so it's only logical, right? Wrong, writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times . In fact, "it'...

Big Medicare Change Widens Coverage
Big Medicare Change Widens Coverage
Oct 23, 2012 9:55 AM CDT

Big Medicare Change Widens Coverage

Nursing patients now won't need to show potential to improve

(Newser) - In order to receive coverage for therapies like skilled nursing, many Medicare beneficiaries have for decades had to show potential for improvement in their condition. But the Obama administration's settlement of a lawsuit is poised to change all that, the New York Times reports. The result is a big...

Hardest Hit by Ryan Medicare Plan: Florida

6 of 10 beneficiaries will owe more under plan: nonpartisan report

(Newser) - Paul Ryan's coupon-based Medicare plan would result in higher costs for six in 10 beneficiaries for the same service they're getting now—and Floridians would suffer the greatest financial toll, a yearlong, nonpartisan study finds. The Kaiser Family Foundation says that Medicare beneficiaries in Florida would pay, on...

Reform Ties Hospital Payments to Patient Satisfaction

But the customer isn't always right, hospitals complain

(Newser) - In a shift that is causing a lot of grumbling among health care professionals, payments to hospitals treating Medicare patients are being tied to patient happiness for the first time, the Wall Street Journal reports. The program, part of a larger pay-for-performance system built into ObamaCare, will help determine how...

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