A new report this week about future increases in Medicare spending set off wildly misleading headlines about the program’s future and what is might mean for efforts to expand it, as many prominent Democrats are proposing. As you wade through all this, there may be much less to the new forecast than meets the eye. Keep in mind three points: [...]
The Trump Administration has proposed a major change in the way drugs are priced for Medicare beneficiaries. The new rules would upend the current complex and opaque pricing system for pharmaceuticals, lower prices for users of some costly drugs (though not others), and raise Medicare Part D premiums for everyone. Whether you win or lose under the new system would [...]
Believe it or not, there is a chance President Trump and congressional Democrats can reach an agreement this year to limit the growth in Medicare drug prices. It certainly won’t be easy, given the toxic relationship the president and Democrats have built up in just the past few weeks. But both sides have good reasons to make a deal, and [...]
No issue generates more anger and confusion among Medicare recipients than observation status—that hospital stay that really isn’t a hospital stay. Over the holidays, I got an earful from three people who had been treated at a hospital by hospital staff yet not admitted to the hospital. A typical case goes like this: A person comes to a hospital emergency [...]
After the new Congress is sworn in next January it may address several issues that directly affect the well-being of older adults as well as younger people with disabilities. The House, which will be controlled by Democrats, and the Senate, still run by Republicans, will have very different perspectives on these issues but both chambers are likely to confront the [...]
The Democrats won control of the House, largely on the back of health policy. And many members of the caucus have gone on record in favor of what’s come to be known as “Medicare for all.” The idea is hugely popular, backed by 58 percent of Americans in some polls and up to 70 percent in others. But what does [...]
With great fanfare, and just two weeks before the congressional elections, President Trump announced a new initiative aimed at reducing Medicare drug prices. It is an issue he has been promising to address since his presidential campaign. But a close look shows that the package announced yesterday is quite modest. The plan, which the Department of Health & Human Services [...]
It is Medicare open season. And, let’s face it, nobody has any idea what to do. The other night, I got a call from a friend who works in the long-term care advocacy world. She will soon turn 65 and is confronting the reality of enrolling in Medicare. She has been doing diligent research and creating detailed spreadsheets. And she [...]
You probably have heard the statistic: One-quarter of Medicare spending is for patients in the last year of life. It is cited as a major reason for excessive medical spending in the US and leads to a widely-accepted conclusion: If only we would stop “wasting” dollars on futile care for those who soon will die anyway, we could significantly slow [...]
Earlier this year, Congress and the Trump Administration for the first time allowed Medicare Advantage plans to offer their members non-medical supportive services such as transportation and home meals. As insurers begin to roll out their plans for Medicare’s 2019 open season enrollment, we are starting to see what these new benefits are going to look like. Relatively few plans [...]