Medicare

Medicare’s Mixed Legacy

New York Times (Free subscription) | yesterday

The government can lower medical costs, but may limit innovation.

Q&A with Medicare about e-prescribing incentives

Joseph Kim, MD, MPH (Free subscription) | 8 hours ago

Medicare can be so confusing. I'm not even talking about Part D and the donut hole (yummy, I love donuts). The e-prescribing incentives can get a bit confusing, especially if you were used to the e-prescribing quality measure that was included in the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) before Jan 1, 2009. To provide some clarity on this topic, let me do a bit of a "Q&A" with...

Understanding the Medicare e-Prescribing Incentive Program

Joseph Kim, MD, MPH (Free subscription) | 07/04/2009

Do you understand the Medicare e-Prescribing Incentive Program? Don't get this confused with the incentives outlined in ARRA about HITECH. Sorry, let me clarify: The Medicare e-Prescribing Incentive Program is not the same as the recent incentives outlined in the Health Information Technology (HITECH) provisions within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The Medicare e-Prescribing Incentive...

the bombs bursting in air

Pereiraville (Free subscription) | 1 hour ago

gave proof through the night, that our neighbors are a little insane. Last night, after a flaming firework struck one of the people lighting them, I wondered if Medicare supplement insurance covers darwin award type injuries. Luckily, the guy that was hit by the flaming firework was uninjured (at least it appeared thus [...]

NRCC Tries Some July 4th Fireworks--Ends Up With A Dud

Daily Kos (Free subscription) | 9 hours ago

One important thing happened in the battle for the Balance of Power in Congress this week, and it did not have a damned thing to do with either Sarah Palin or Mark Sanford. The NRCC unleashed a media assault this week, and in so doing tipped their hands both on their target list and their issues agenda as we head into 2010. Last week, by a 219-212 vote, the House passed the American Clean Energy and...

• NRCC Tries Some July 4th Fireworks–Ends Up With A Dud - Palin Campaign 2008

Www.OSIR.org.in - Health news briefs - NorthJersey.com

www.OSIR.org.in (Free subscription) | 4 hours ago

You don’t have to be Michael Jackson to have this problem: The odds of surviving cardiac arrest after getting CPR in a hospital are slim and have not improved in more than a decade, a big Medicare study concludes. Only about 18 percent of such Source: www.northjersey.com Also In Global Health News: HIV & [...]

Local newspaper attacks largest and most loyal readership demographic

Las Vegas Gleaner (Free subscription) | 11 hours ago

The Las Vegas Review-Journal, which is a newspaper, has written an editorial calling for the abolition of Medicare, the program that provides health insurance coverage to elderly Americans. This is yet another example of how the newspaper industry continues to...

Obama Discusses Health Care Reform at Forum

Radon Mitigation Pittsburgh (Free subscription) | 5 hours ago

The president makes a pitch on health care reform. Press Release Service- Wired PR News President Barack Obama spoke about health care reform on Wednesday at a community college forum. As reported by the Associated Press (AP), Obama hugged cancer patient Debby Smith, who has problems maintaining employment and obtaining health insurance due to her illness, and promised immediate help for her, as he...

Krugman Says Al Franken's Big Secret Is: He's A Policy Wonk

Crooks and Liars (Free subscription) | 5 hours ago

I just loved this little tidbit from Paul Krugman this morning: David Broder has a column this morning calling for bipartisanship . I know, you’re shocked. But what struck me was this bit about Al Franken: Franken, the loud-mouthed former comedian, will be the 60th member of the Senate Democratic caucus … Two points. First, implicit in this characterization of Franken is the notion of...

Do Physicians Have An Ethical Obligation To Provide Charity Care?

The Happy Hospitalist (Free subscription) | 14 hours ago

In interesting discussion in the AMA. It appears they feel physicians have an ethical obligation to provide care, regardless of the patient's ability to pay. So long as it is fiscally sustainable for physicians, the policy says, doctors should accept uninsured patients and maintain relationships with patients who lose health coverage. Doctors should help patients access public programs and charitable...

President Obama Floundering Under Health Care Burden

dBTechno (Free subscription) | 15 hours ago

Boston (DbTechNo) - With more than 47 million Americans living without health insurance, President Obama has a lot of work to do to fix the country’s ailing health care system. How Obama actually plans to right the ship when it comes to America’s health care model is anybody’s guess, faced with a growing Medicare deficit and [...]

Buying Your First Diabetic Meter

The Disease & Illness Blog (Free subscription) | 19 hours ago

By Diane Synderhelm Choosing the right diabetic meter is a very tough choice. There are hundreds of brands available, and finding the right one may prove difficult when they all are advertising their names. Well, diabetics NEED to monitor their glucose levels so finding the right diabetic meter as soon as possible is important. Luckily, most people are approved by medicare part B, so you can get huge...

The newest Research Associate at Acumen, LLC

Healthcare Economist (Free subscription) | 19 hours ago

Tomorrow, I begin my first day of work at Acumen, LLC. Founded by Stanford Economist Thomas MaCurdy, Acumen specializes in program evaluation for Medicare and Medicaid. Here are some more details from the Acumen website: Acumen, LLC was established by scholars from Stanford University in 1996 to improve the information provided to policymakers who design and revise welfare, health, [...]

Challenging the "Consensus"

Right Mind (Free subscription) | yesterday

From today's Spokesman Review . Congress has narrowly passed an energy bill of 1,500 pages. The purpose of which is to ration carbon emissions. This will make products and services that utilize petroleum and coal more expensive. This is being done to combat global warming, which is assumed to be caused by carbon “greenhouse gases.” This rationing of carbon is coincidentally like the rationing...

Re: Quixote Lives: Reducing Healthcare Costs

Cara Community - Comments (Free subscription) | yesterday

In reply to Cara's Commentary & Community Chat, Thursday, Jul 2, 2009 : Ron, This debate is so significant, I'm surprised nobody has responded. Personally, I was delighted to see someone from inside the profession raise the subject. I'd like to add a couple of items to your list. 1) When I was shopping around for a Medicare supplement, one quote was from Blue X who were proud to tell me that 70...

CMS cuts, raises payments – pain and gain

obi jo | 07/03/2009

http://realhealthreform.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/cms-cuts-raises-payments-pain-and-gain/ Clearly, this administration aims to tackle all issues at once. A noble, but daunting task. The proposed changes in reimbursement are not surprising nor necessarily unexpected. In fact, CMS has been adjusting payment rates to gradually minimize the differences between physicians for similar services (similar codes

Medicare Advantage? For whom?

obi jo | 07/02/2009

http://realhealthreform.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/medicare-advantage-for-whom/ Here’s the rub. Medicare Advantage pays more to providers than traditional Medicare because they take risk in providing care to enrollees. They also often provide benefits beyond what traditional Medicare would provide. However . . . they do so by having more money directed to them for funding. As noted below, to the tune

medicare supplement

anita012 | 06/08/2009

http://hubpages.com/hub/medicare-supplement Every senior has some worries after a certain age. Frequent illness, epidemics, and surgeries may happen at this age. Even though it was a big worry for the old age people some years back now with the...