1,700 Hospitals Win Quality Bonuses From Medicare, But Most Will Never Collect
Penalties for readmissions and patient injuries erase bonuses hospitals earn for meeting stiff quality criteria. Fewer than 800 will end up with higher payments.
Aging
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Rural Doctor Launches Startup To Ease Pain Of Dying Patients
Getting basic health care to rural areas has always been difficult, and delivering specialized care is even harder. One doctor is raising money to get palliative care to patients in rural California.
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How California Can Improve Oversight of Home Caregivers
In California, hundreds of thousands of low-income elderly and disabled people receive daily care in their homes from their children, spouses, relatives and others. And, through a program called In-Home Supportive Services,聽the state pays many of those caregivers about $10 an hour to do the job.
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When Home And Health Are Just Out Of Reach
Health insurance doesn't pay for housing, but sometimes that is what a patient needs most. A Medicaid experiment, called Money Follows The Person, helps some elderly and disabled people move out of institutions into their own homes.
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Seniors’ Wait For A Medicare Appeal Is Cut In Half
Federal officials handle most of the requests in 2014 from beneficiaries seeking a hearing before a judge and cut into the heavy backlog. But cases from hospitals, doctors and other providers are still on hold.
By Susan Jaffe -
Medicare To Offer Help To Some Seniors When Advantage Plans Drop Doctors
In 2015, some seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans will be allowed to switch if they lose their doctors.
By Susan Jaffe -
Fantastic Voyage: Tiny Sensors May Soon Monitor Seniors’ Medicines From Inside
New nano-meds, miniscule robots embedded in a pill, send signals to an external monitor to record each new medication as it slides through the digestive tract. This will be especially useful for older people, who may not be able to keep track of a panoply of medicines.
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New ACO Rules Would Delay Penalties An Extra Three Years
The government鈥檚 proposed rule addresses many concerns of accountable care organizations.
By Jordan Rau -
Medicare Tightens Non-Emergency Use Of Ambulances To Combat Fraud
Advocates say many poor seniors who need dialysis and cancer treatments will have few transportation options.
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Some Experts Dispute Claims Of Looming Doctor Shortage
Nurse practitioners and physician assistants can fill some primary care gaps, but specialists say an aging population will need more intensive care.
By Julie Rovner -
Seniors’ Obesity-Counseling Benefit Goes Largely Unused
Experts say low reimbursements and restrictions on providers have hampered the Medicare program.
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Study: American Seniors Face Health Care Gaps, Despite Medicare
The Commonwealth Fund finds cost barriers and limits on care for Medicare beneficiaries consistently places the U.S. low on the list of an 11-nation ranking of how older people fare in industrialized nations.
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California鈥檚 Managed Care Project For Poor Seniors Faces Backlash
Nearly half of those eligible for a combined Medi-Cal and Medicare program are opting out.
By Anna Gorman -
What To Know About Medicare’s Enrollment Period
Though not a part of the health law鈥檚 open enrollment period, Medicare鈥檚 enrollment period runs during some of the same time period. Changes to Medicare advantage and the so-called Medicare prescription drug 鈥渄oughnut hole鈥 are taking center stage.
By Mary Agnes Carey and Julie Rovner -
Medicare Proposes Coverage Of Low-Dose CT Scans To Detect Lung Cancer
Beneficiaries who have a 30-year, pack-a-day smoking history would be eligible for this screening test.
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L.A. County Health Department Allegedly Falsified Nursing Home Probe Records
Two staffers accuse the county of altering the dates when complaints were received amid rising concern over the pace of investigations.
By Anna Gorman -
ALS Patients Win Fight Over Medicare Reimbursement For Speech Devices
Medicare announced Thursday it would continue covering devices that patients themselves can upgrade.
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Toward 鈥楢 Beautiful Death鈥
An interview with Consumer Reports鈥 Nancy Metcalf, author of a new guide to end-of-life planning.
By Jenny Gold -
More Scrutiny Coming For Medicare Advantage, Obamacare
Federal officials are planning a wide range of audits into billing and government spending on managed health care in the new fiscal year, ranging from private Medicare Advantage groups that treat millions of elderly to health plans rapidly expanding under the Affordable Care Act.
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California Audit Finds Backlog Of 11,000 Nursing Home Investigations
California鈥檚 public health department has failed to adequately manage investigations of nursing homes statewide, resulting in a backlog of more than 11,000 complaints, according to an audit released Thursday.
By Anna Gorman