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October 11, 2006
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Medicare News and Information
June 2008
RISING MEDICARE PREMIUMS WILL HIT RETIREES HARD
Medicare premiums might soon start crushing retiree spending power.
Read Article...WALL STREET SCRUTINIZES MEDICARE PAYMENT PROPOSAL
Medicare payment changes would impact dialysis centers, oxygen suppliers and other sectors
Read Article...Double dose, half cost
"I have my doctor write prescriptions for pills at twice the dose and prescribe half a pill"
Read Article...MEDICARE DRUG COVERAGE IS COSTING MOST SENIORS MORE
Those in the 10 largest plans -- which account for nearly three-fourths of seniors signed up for drug coverage -- are paying an average of $26.39 a month, or 16% more than last year, according to the analysis by Avalere Health, an information company serving the healthcare industry.
Read Article...Past Articles
For Recipients of Medicare, the Hard Sell
The Bush administration, responding to earlier reports of deceptive marketing, has tried to crack down on such practices. Federal officials told insurers to monitor their agents more closely, several companies have been fined, and the government sends “secret shoppers” to some advertised sales events to check the accuracy of agents’ statements.
Read Article...Medicaid Flaws Threatening Access To Prescription Drugs
Patients believe that access to their prescription medications for government health care programs should not be compromised by unfair reimbursement practices and policies to their community pharmacy providers, according to a new survey from the polling company.
Read Article...Medicare Bill Is A Disappointment To Seniors
This legislation offers only a band-aid fix to the doctor's fee cut and clearly puts insurers' profits ahead of Medicare's solvency and seniors' needs.
Read Article...Medicare pains
Talk to anyone who is involved with the government's prescription drug plan, and most of what you hear is bad news.
Read Article...Prescription for Medicare Part D
Attention seniors -- and those who love them. Medicare Part D -- the prescription drug program -- is back again. From Nov. 15 through Dec. 31, there is a new "open enrollment" period for 2008 Part D coverage.
Read Article...Online Tool Allows People To Better Compare Medicare Prescription Drug Plans
The tool, which appears on the Medicare.gov Web site, allows users to enter the list of medications that Medicare beneficiaries currently take to determine the amount that each prescription drug plan charges for premiums, copayments and deductibles. In addition, the tool allows users to compare Medicare prescription drug plans based on customer service and other areas. The tool also allows users to compare Medicare Advantage plans based on overall quality, disease management, access to physicians and other areas.
Read Article...Part D beneficiaries need more coverage
According to the report, 26 percent of the responding Part D beneficiaries spent at least $100 each month for prescription drugs.
Read Article...End the doughnut hole
None of their purchases with the new NACo card made during their doughnut hole will count towards getting them out of the hole. The doughnut hole is a gap in Part D coverage when people go from paying a co-payment for their prescriptions to paying for the entire cost.
Read Article...Consumers Deceived By Medicare Private Health Plans Are Free To Leave Plans
CMS Has Yet to Notify Americans with Medicare of New Disenrollment Right
Read Article...New prescription drug coverage in the federal Medicare insurance plan for the elderly
The so-called Medicare Part D program boosted sales of cholesterol-lowering statins by 7 percent, and ulcer- and heartburn-treating proton pump inhibitors by 5 percent, the report by pharmaceutical industry consultancy IMS Health said.
Read Article...Feds launching new push for patients to take their pills
Some tips to help patients take their medicines correctly, from the not-for-profit National Council on Patient Information and Education
Read Article...Report Card Shows Seniors Pay More Under Part D Than Under Other Drug Plans
The study found that 8 percent of seniors in the government's Medicare plans spent $300 or more out-of-pocket for drugs, compared with 5 percent for both those covered by the Veterans Affairs Department, which negotiates prices for drugs it covers, and those covered by workplace insurance.
Read Article...Social Security Checks Will Stop Increasing As Medicare Premiums Rise
In recent years, for the first time, Medicare premiums have grown large enough to completely consume the amount of COLA received by people with the lowest benefits. The study found that when this happens, over time, the net cash benefit -- the amount a person receives after deduction for the Part B premium -- ceases to grow, but remains "fixed," despite a small annual COLA.
Read Article...Compelling Evidence
This past April, the Medicare Rights Center launched the Medicare Private Health Plan Monitoring Project to learn about the experiences of people with Medicare enrolled in these plans.
Read Article...Newspapers Address Medicare Advantage, Prescription Drug Plans
Several newspapers recently published articles addressing Medicare. They covered topics reguarding funding,medicare advantage, and subsidies.
Read Article...Consumer Protections Sorely Lacking for Older and Disabled Americans Enrolled in Medicare Private Drug Plans, Consumer Group Testifies
Legislation Needed To Ensure that Both CMS and Private Drug Plans Fulfill Congress' Intent to Provide Meaningful Protections for People in Plans
Read Article...AMA Television Ad Calls On Congress To Stop Medicare Doctor Cuts
The American Medical Association (AMA) is now airing television ads calling on Congress to stop Medicare physician payment cuts to seniors. The ad, titled the Faces of Health Care, depicts seniors who will be hurt by looming Medicare cuts and the physicians who care for them.
Read Article...Seniors cope with drug plan 'donut hole'
Effective this year, the law eliminated Medicare's Part D prescription drug plans offering coverage during the gap period, dubbed the "donut hole."
Read Article...Medicare Advantage Plan Payments Are Exacerbating Problems
According to Orszag, efforts to limit federal health care spending "over the long term will be very difficult without addressing the underlying forces that are also causing private costs for health care to rise."
Read Article...Rep. Stark Proposes Changes To Improve Comparison Of Medicare Prescription Drug Plans
Thursday said that he might push for measures this summer that would increase oversight of Medicare prescription drug plans, CQ HealthBeat reports. Provisions of the measure could include giving state insurance regulators the authority to oversee insurers that market the plans and requiring public disclosure of enforcement action taken against drug plans that violate Medicare regulations
Read Article...Generic Drugs Can Help In Avoiding 'Doughnut Hole'
Nearly one in four people who fell into the ''doughnut hole'' -- the nearly $4,000 gap built into Part D drug coverage -- last year could have avoided it if they had used available generic drugs instead of brand-name medications!
Read Article...Medicare malady: Congress needs to find the cure
Effective Jan. 1, Medicare payments to physicians will be slashed by 10 percent, the first in a series of cuts that will reduce payments by 40 percent through 2016.
Read Article...Our Sick Health Care System
Sicko, a new Michael Moore movie documenting how insurance companies' focus on quarterly earnings leads them to deny care for their members.
Read Article...MEDICARE ADVANTAGE DISENROLLMENT: DON'T GET TRAPPED
Because Congress decided to pay Medicare Advantage (MA) plans more, on average, than is paid under traditional Medicare, the number of MA plans available to Medicare beneficiaries has increased significantly.
Read Article...In Health Care, Cost Isn’t Proof of High Quality
Stark evidence that high medical payments do not necessarily buy high-quality patient care is presented in a hospital study set for release today.
Read Article...Preventing Waste and Abuse in Medicare
Medicare cost taxpayers over $408 billion in 2006. People with Medicare paid over $42.9 billion in Part B premiums.
Read Article...Medicare Payment Delays Cause Community Pharmacies To Close
Medicare prescription drug plans can take as long as 45 days to reimburse pharmacies for medications dispensed.
Read Article...Utah Doctors Worried About a Crisis in the Medicare System
The future looks bleak as far as these doctors are concerned. It's a warning that could affect more than 300,000 Utah senior citizens, disabled and military families.
Read Article...Guest opinion: VA is evidence lower prescription prices are possible
Has any family head noticed lately that her Medicare pharmacy bills have not gone down in the hundred days since the Democrats' first hundred hours?
Read Article...Costs Grow for Common Medicare Drugs
After some initial success containing drug prices, private insurers in the new Medicare prescription drug program may be losing their leverage over drug manufacturers as they try to hold down medicine costs for seniors and the federal government, House investigators have found.
Read Article...Medicare's Doughnut Hole Gets Even Bigger in 2007, Reports Medical Rights Center
By now most people have heard that the Part D benefit has a large gap in coverage that often hits people by surprise when they go to the pharmacy and discover they have to pay 100 percent of the cost of their drugs.
Less well known is that the coverage gap is even wider this year(2007).
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Premiums Will Increase By 87% In 2007 for 'Meaningful Coverage' In Doughnut Hole
Medicare prescription drug plans that offer "meaningful" coverage during the so-called "doughnut hole" coverage gap will increase by 87.4% to $103.20, compared with $55.08 in 2006, according to a report released Wednesday.
Read Article...Medicare Drug Plan Gap Harder to Fill in 2007
The report, released on Wednesday, concludes that in 13 states no drug plans will offer “meaningful coverage”
Read Article...The Expanding Doughnut Hole
Less well known is that the coverage gap is even wider next year (2007). The Bush administration has bragged to the press that the average Part D premium is going down, but it failed to mention that all other out-of-pocket spending is going up.
Read Article...Survey Shows 42% of Part D Respondents are already in the Gap
By September 22nd many of the estimated 6 million seniors who will hit the Part D coverage gap known as the "donut hole" will be without coverage
Read Article...Falling into the Doughnut Hole: How Congress and the Drug Industry Created a Trap for American Seniors and People with Disabilities
When Congress created the Part D prescription drug program in 2003, they designed the program to benefit the pharmaceutical industries and their other special interest campaign contributors, rather than for American seniors and disabled people. The resultant drug benefit is needlessly complicated, confusing and costly, forbids Medicare from negotiating lower prices like the Veterans Administration does, and doesnt allow enrollees the choice of a guaranteed benefit directly from Medicare.
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