Health Alliance Plan (HAP) has received the highest star ratings in Michigan for all three Medicare Advantage products from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The five-star rating system is used by CMS to monitor plans to ensure that they meet Medicare's standards for...
A collaborative approach to patient care with a far greater utilisation of the medication expertise of pharmacists has been advocated by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia in its submission to the Government on Medicare Locals. Effective and enduring partnerships will underpin the...
The AMA this week lodged a submission in response to the Government's Medicare Locals Discussion Paper. AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said today that the AMA believes that Medicare Locals may be able to add value to the primary health system, but they would never become the foundation. Dr...
SeniorBlue®, a Medicare health maintenance organization product of Capital BlueCross' wholly owned subsidiary, Keystone Health Plan Central, is ranked No. 22 in the nation and No. 2 in Pennsylvania, according to the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Medicare Health Insurance Plan...
Uroplasty, Inc. (Nasdaq: UPI), a medical device company that develops, manufactures and markets innovative proprietary products to treat voiding dysfunctions, announced that Palmetto GBA for California, Nevada and Hawaii, a regional Medicare carrier, now covers posterior tibial nerve stimulation...
Medco Health Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: MHS) today announced that its 2011 Medco Medicare Prescription Plan® earned the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) highest overall quality and performance rating 5 Stars for its national Prescription Drug Plan (PDP). CMS rates the relative...
Kaiser Permanente has announced its 2011 plans for individual Medicare-eligible beneficiaries, reflecting its commitment to continuing participation in Medicare in all its existing service areas in nine states and the District of Columbia. The announcement follows the recent release of the...
Several high-profile investigations probe health care issues. ProPublica reports on the costs and risks associated with dialysis: "In 1972, after a month of deliberation, Congress launched the nation's most ambitious experiment in universal health care: a change to the Social Security...
How Medicare Killed the Family Doctor The Wall Street Journal Medicare introduced a whole new dynamic in the delivery of health care. Gone were the days when physicians were paid based on the value of their services. With payment coming directly from Medicare and the federal government, patients...
There was a sharp drop in the number of unnecessary prostate cancer hormonal treatments after Medical policy changes reduced reimbursements. However, hormonal therapy for prostate cancer patients who clearly benefited from such therapy continued unaffected, researchers wrote in an article...
The Courts And The Mandate The New York TimesInstead of getting hung up on labels adopted in the heat of political battle, they should focus instead on Supreme Court precedents that found that taxes designed to influence behavior, like taxes to deter the sale of particularly dangerous firearms...
The Wall Street Journal mined a database with extensive information about tax payments that suggests fraud and discovered a New York City doctor who most likely took more than $2 million from Medicare. But the paper could not name her because of strict confidentiality requirements on physician...
Medicare Needs A Solution, Not Another Fix The (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union And in this political climate, the $210 billion price tag [to fix the physician payment system] will probably prevent a permanent solution this year. However, a longer term, interim fix and a primary care payment...
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services expanded Medicare coverage of evidence-based tobacco cessation counseling, removing a barrier to treatment for all tobacco users covered by Medicare. Before today's decision, Medicare had covered tobacco counseling only for individuals diagnosed...
Upcoming Medicare cuts to hospitals will have a bigger negative impact on nonprofit facilities than their for-profit counterparts, The Dallas Morning News reports. "In a note to investors, Moody's said the 0.4 percent Medicare reduction in inpatient hospital rates for fiscal year 2011 will...
The Associated Press: The annual trustees report on Medicare and Social Security found that Medicare's hospital trust fund will last 12 years longer because of the health overhaul - until 2029 - but only if the government achieves significant savings in health care. Meanwhile, the recession has...
Veteran television star Andy Griffith appeared in a new commercial for Medicare that promotes health law changes the administration says should help seniors, such as free wellness visits and lower drug costs, U.S. News & World Report writes. "The commercial, launched on the 45th anniversary of...
The Louisville, Ky., health insurer both "increased its Medicare Advantage membership," "benefited from patients' recent lower demand for health-care services" and also "sought to get out in front of an anticipated effect of the federal health-care overhaul, taking a charge related to new...