Medicare Advantage

For The First Time, Traditional Medicare Will Pay To Support Family Caregivers

The federal agency that operates Medicare, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is finally recognizing what families have known for, well, thousands of years:  Family members are the bedrock of the system of care for frail older adults and younger people with disabilities. And the agency is taking some important steps to help them. Some proposals will provide [...]

By |2023-08-23T11:35:50-04:00August 23rd, 2023|family caregivers, Medicare, Uncategorized|0 Comments

As The Covid Health Emergency Ends, Medicare Will Stop Paying for Many Skilled Nursing Stays

As the Covid-19 public health emergency ends, many older adults who need a post-hospital stay in a skilled nursing facility (SNF) will be in for an unpleasant surprise: Traditional Medicare may not pay. The change, one among dozens that affect older adults, restores rules from before the pandemic. But they are complicated and will shock many patients and their families, [...]

By |2023-05-11T10:22:26-04:00May 11th, 2023|nursing homes|0 Comments

More Medicare Advantage Plans Are Offering Extra Supports For Frail Seniors

Half of Medicare beneficiaries, about 30 million people, are enrolled in Medicare managed care plans such as Medicare Advantage (MA). And increasingly those plans are offering modest, but important, non-medical services to older adults living at home. These supplemental services are the only long-term care-type benefits most seniors will receive through Medicare. The assistance may include anything from meal and [...]

By |2023-02-28T10:41:53-05:00February 28th, 2023|Medicare|0 Comments

Should You Enroll In A Medicare Advantage Plan?

It Is Medicare open-enrollment season. And retirees are confronting the usual confusion about what to do. Perhaps the biggest question: Should I enroll in a Medicare Advantage managed care plan or in traditional, fee-for-service Medicare? Like almost everything in the world of insurance, the answer is: It depends. In 2022, almost half of all Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled in MA [...]

By |2022-11-01T10:25:47-04:00November 1st, 2022|Medicare|0 Comments

Medicare Advantage Plans Have Great Promise But They Are Not Delivering

Medicare Advantage (MA) managed care plans have the potential to vastly improve care for older adults in the US. A fully-integrated health model that combines primary and specialty care, physical therapy, hospital care and even some limited personal supports could improve the quality of life for patients and save the government a substantial amount of money. But increasingly, analysts say [...]

By |2022-06-15T10:18:56-04:00June 15th, 2022|Medicare|0 Comments

A Two-Year Reprieve For Medicare Insolvency Sounds Like Good News. But It Isn’t

The Medicare trustees’ new estimate that the program’s Part A Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust fund will remain solvent for an extra two years—to 2028—sounds like good news. But dig deeper into the 257-page report and the news is grim for the future of Medicare and its 64 million beneficiaries. Headlines from the trustees’ annual report always focus on the depletion [...]

By |2022-06-08T10:22:22-04:00June 8th, 2022|Medicare|0 Comments

Medicare Advantage Plans Get A Big Pay Hike, Offer More Services And Supports For Older Adults

Medicare Advantage managed care plans, which in 2021 covered 26 million enrollees, will get an average 8.5 percent increase in total Medicare payments next year. At the same time, MA plans are rapidly embracing a wide range of social services and supports for older adults living at home. Sometimes called long-term care lite, these benefits range from meal and food [...]

By |2022-04-05T16:26:55-04:00April 5th, 2022|Medicare|0 Comments

Adding Dental, Vision, And Hearing To Traditional Medicare Would Be Expensive, But Important

Congressional Democrats are expected to include a broad expansion of traditional Medicare benefits-- including dental, vision, and hearing—in a $3.5 trillion social spending bill they’ll consider later this year. The move would be the biggest expansion of Medicare since Congress added a drug benefit in 2003 and would go a long way toward improving the health and well-being of millions [...]

By |2021-07-22T10:47:23-04:00July 22nd, 2021|Medicare, Uncategorized|3 Comments

FDA’s Approval Of A New Alzheimer’s Drug Shows What’s Wrong With The Way We Care For Frail Older Adults

FDA’s decision last week to approve a new “Alzheimer’s disease treatment,” and the buzz that surrounds it, is a symptom of all that is wrong with the way we care for frail older adults in the US. Rather than providing the supports that people with chronic conditions desperately need, and that evidence shows works, we prefer to chase butterflies. In [...]

By |2021-06-15T11:54:04-04:00June 15th, 2021|long-term care, Uncategorized|0 Comments