NursingLink

MIAMI — For three years, the federal agency in charge of preventing Medicare fraud repeatedly ignored internal watchdog warnings about swindlers stealing millions of dollars by scamming several programs, documents show. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services received roughly 30 warnings from inspectors over three years — mostly under the Bush administration — but didn't respond to half of them, ...

Because of its size and cost, Medicaid has been called the "workhorse" of the U.S. health system. Now it's front and center in the debate on overhauling the U.S health system and expanding coverage to the uninsured. With 60 million enrollees, Medicaid dwarfs other insurance programs, including its cousin, Medicare, which covers 44 million elderly and disabled people. Do you ...

WASHINGTON - The health insurance industry is warning that a comprehensive Senate bill would increase the cost of a typical policy by hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars a year after lawmakers eased up on the requirement that all Americans get coverage. The stinging attack came on the eve of a pivotal Senate vote and was a clear message to President ...

Despite the public outcry over President Obama's government-run healthcare plan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is insistent on pushing through a government health insurance program that works like Medicare.

Just 21 months into my mother's cancer treatment, she had reached her medical insurance policy's cap for chemotherapy -- $100,000. As if dealing with cancer were not enough, she now had to deal with the reality that our health care system had left her financially exposed. Lost in our daily debates on health care reform is the devastating impact our current ...

For Mary McCurnin and husband Ron Bednar, money trouble has followed health trouble. In 2003, the couple declared bankruptcy after their insurance covered only 10 percent of treatment costs for her breast cancer and his intestinal bleeding. In 2004, McCurnin's breast cancer returned, and Bednar underwent open heart surgery. Now, after repeatedly refinancing their house to pay medical bills and living ...

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration announced a new Medicare pilot program Wednesday to strengthen primary care services for patients and cut costly emergency room visits - by offering financial incentives to doctors. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the three-year pilot program would begin early next year and is modeled after a program being tested in Vermont. Under the ...

After years of research, scientists in California say they have isolated two antibodies that prevent human immunodeficiency virus from becoming full-blown AIDS. The discovery could lead to a vaccine against AIDS, scientists at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla said. Researchers collected blood samples from more than 1,800 people in Thailand, Australia and Africa who had been infected with HIV for ...

Nikole Montez delivered her first baby 18 weeks early. Her son weighed just 14 ounces and had a heartbeat, which soon stopped. When the Aberdeen woman became pregnant again a year later, her insurer, Molina Healthcare, the state's largest Medicaid contractor, identified her as a candidate for a novel therapy: synthetic hormone shots to prevent a recurrent -- and sometimes hugely ...

Republicans are targeting older Americans worried about President Barack Obama's health overhaul plans with a "seniors' health care bill of rights." The six principles outlined Monday by the Republican National Committee include protecting Medicare, prohibiting rationing of health care based on age and making sure government doesn't get between seniors and their doctors. The Obama administration has insisted repeatedly that it ...

Margaret Bryant would rather die than live in a nursing home. For more than a decade, the 67-year old spitfire has lived in her own quarters in an apartment center for senior citizens on Arlington Avenue. She is independent but not alone. Four times a week for three hours at a time, a home health aide comes to assist her -- ...

While Medicare is almost always a better payer than Medicaid, one notable exception is the health information technology funding contained in the Recovery Act. For physicians applying for incentive money to purchase electronic health record (EHR) systems, “Medicaid is a little better than Medicare because there's more upfront money,” Dr. William Jessee, president and CEO of the Medical Group Management Association ...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Wednesday he wants at least $200 billion cut from Medicare and Medicaid spending over the next decade to help pay for overhauling the nation's health care system and providing coverage to 50 million uninsured Americans. The reductions in the programs would come on top of the $300 billion in cuts already proposed in his budget. ...

Healthcare is "a necessity that cannot wait," U.S. President Obama said, while announcing healthcare providers have pledged to ease cost hikes by $2 trillion. Spiraling healthcare cost is not only a growing crisis for the American people, but forcing small businesses to drop employee coverage and "putting the federal budget on a disastrous path" because of increased Medicare and Medicaid costs, ...

Proposed cuts to Medicaid funding at Florida hospitals would result in thousands of health-care job losses throughout the state, according to a new study. A University of Florida study released Thursday by the Florida Hospital Association found that each $1 in Medicaid spending cuts would result in about $4 of losses to the state's economy. A $100 million reduction in Medicaid ...

NEW YORK — One in five Medicare patients end up back in the hospital within a month of discharge, a large study found, and that practice costs billions of dollars a year. The findings suggest patients aren't told enough about how to take care of themselves and stay healthy before they go home, the researchers said. A few simple things - ...

Fraud and abuse helped boost Medicare spending on home health services 44% over five years as some providers exaggerated patients' medical conditions and others billed for unnecessary services or care they did not provide, a Government Accountability Office report out Friday says

I wish I could find an official article reflecting the current loopholes that medicare is using to deny payments for procedures in the hospital, this blog put out by the MD publishing it is quite good.   My main difference of opinion is the issue on decubitus ulcers.  She stated the loophole to deny reimbursement for a hips ortho procedure would be ...

WASHINGTON — The government's massive health insurance programs for the elderly and poor would grow more slowly under President Barack Obama's proposed budget. Obama wants to squeeze Medicaid and Medicare spending — including slimmer payments to private insurance plans — to help create a 10-year, $634 billion fund billed as a "down payment" on health care reform. Obama's budget proposal released ...

CHICAGO (AP) — An ambitious effort to cut costs and keep aging, sick Medicare patients out of the hospital mostly didn't work, a government-contracted study found. The disappointing results show how tough it is to manage older patients with chronic diseases, who often take multiple prescriptions, see many different doctors and sometimes get conflicting medical advice. The study showed just how ...