Five myths about Medicare
By John Rother, Published: February 24
1. Medicare is inefficient and fails to control costs.
The trustees of Medicare last year projected that the program’s share of gross domestic product would increase from the current 3.7 percent to about 5 percent in 2030 and nearly 6 percent by 2050. But since Medicare’s inception in 1965, its spending growth, on a per-person basis, has stayed consistent with or lower than the increase in private health insurance premiums.
The Congressional Budget Office recently predicted that per capita Medicare spending will grow 1 percent faster than the rate of inflation over the next decade. The CBO attributes the slower projected trend in Medicare spending to the enactment of President Obama’s health-care overhaul, which reduced high payments to Medicare HMOs, and to the anticipated influx of younger, healthier baby boomers, which will lower the average cost per beneficiary. Medicare enrollment is projected to accelerate over the next 25 years, from 47.5 million today to 80 million in 2030.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-medicare/2012/02/02/gIQAnXxtXR_print.html
As the legislative debate heated up, along with the governor’s temper, the chief executive took a different tack.
“Maine Medicaid programs have grown at an unsustainable rate,” he said, “and spending is out of control. I ask you, where is the outrage?”
http://www.sunjournal.com/news/our-view/2012/02/26/mainecare-there-s-plenty-outrage-go-around/1158785
latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-medicare-fraud-20120228,0,6359381.story
Federal law enforcement officials announced what they called the largest healthcare fraud case in the nation’s history, indicting a Dallas area physician for allegedly bilking Medicare for nearly $375 million in billings for nonexistent home healthcare services.
Top Justice Department officials, working for several years to stem a rampant rise in healthcare fraud around the country, also revealed Tuesday that 78 home health agencies that were working with the physician, Dr. Jacques Roy, will be suspended from the Medicare program for up to 18 months.
MaineCare: There’s plenty of outrage to go around
Published on Sunday, Feb 26, 2012 at 12:12 am | Last updated on Monday, Feb 27, 2012 at 11:11 am 53 Comments
When Gov. Paul LePage first proposed cutting $221 million from the state’s Medicaid rolls, he said we had been generous to a fault. We had, over the years, added benefits that we could no longer afford.As the legislative debate heated up, along with the governor’s temper, the chief executive took a different tack.
“Maine Medicaid programs have grown at an unsustainable rate,” he said, “and spending is out of control. I ask you, where is the outrage?”
http://www.sunjournal.com/news/our-view/2012/02/26/mainecare-there-s-plenty-outrage-go-around/1158785
If You Feel O.K., Maybe You Are O.K.
By H. GILBERT WELCH
Hanover, N.H.
EARLY diagnosis has become one of the most fundamental precepts of modern medicine. It goes something like this: The best way to keep people healthy is to find out if they have (pick one) heart disease, autism, glaucoma, diabetes, vascular problems, osteoporosis or, of course, cancer — early. And the way to find these conditions early is through screening.
It is a precept that resonates with the intuition of the general public: obviously it’s better to catch and deal with problems as soon as possible. A study published with much fanfare in The New England Journal of Medicine last week contained what researchers called the best evidence yet that colonoscopies reduce deaths from colon cancer.
Recently, however, there have been rumblings within the medical profession that suggest that the enthusiasm for early diagnosis may be waning. Most prominent are recommendations against prostate cancer screening for healthy men and for reducing the frequency of breast and cervical cancer screening. Some experts even cautioned against the recent colonoscopy results, pointing out that the study participants were probably much healthier than the general population, which would make them less likely to die of colon cancer. In addition there is a concern about too much detection and treatment of early diabetes, a growing appreciation that autism has been too broadly defined and skepticism toward new guidelines for universal cholesterol screening of children.
No Extra Benefits Are Seen in Stents for Coronary Artery Disease
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
The common practice of inserting a stent to repair a narrowed artery has no benefit over standard medical care in treating stable coronary artery disease, according to a new review of randomized controlled trials published on Monday.
Stable coronary artery disease is the type of heart ailment that causes angina, or chest pain, after physical exercise or emotional stress but generally not at other times. The review did not include studies of the emergency use of stents for heart attacks.
New Maryland Economic Impact Study by Gerald Friedman, Ph.D.
February 22, 2012
The following is the executive summary of the economic impact study of the Maryland Health Security Act. You can download the full study here.
Maryland is on an unsustainable economic path; health care costs are absorbing a growing share of personal income. Between 1991 and 2011, health care spending in Maryland increased by $35 billion, nearly 10-times the rate of population growth and almost twice the rate of growth in per-capita income. Should health care spending continue to increase at this rate, spending will pass $100 billion in a little over a decade. Little of this increased spending can be attributed to improvements in health care; instead, the fastest growth has been in administration and billing operations while many remain without adequate health insurance or access to needed care.
Knee Replacement May Be a Lifesaver for Some
By TARA PARKER-POPEStuart Bradford
By the time 64-year-old Laura Milson decided to undergo total knee replacement after 12 years of suffering from arthritis, even a short walk to the office printer was a struggle.
After her surgery last August at the Rothman Institute at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Ms. Milson spent a week in rehabilitation and says she hasn’t stopped walking since. “My son says to me, ‘You have to slow down,’ and I say, ‘No, I have to catch up!,’ ” she said. “It’s a whole different life.”
For Ms. Milson, who lives in Shrewsbury, Pa., replacing the joint in her right knee came with a surprising bonus: a 20-pound weight loss in two months. “I joked with my doctor, ‘I think you put a diet chip in my knee,’ ” she said. “The weight just sort of came off.”
Now she has joined Weight Watchers to drop a few extra pounds and is training for a three-day breast cancer walk in October.
For years surgeons have boasted of the pain relief and improved quality of life that often follow knee replacement. But now new research suggests that for some patients, knee replacement surgery can actually save their lives.
Federal law enforcement officials announced what they called the largest healthcare fraud case in the nation’s history, indicting a Dallas area physician for allegedly bilking Medicare for nearly $375 million in billings for nonexistent home healthcare services.
Top Justice Department officials, working for several years to stem a rampant rise in healthcare fraud around the country, also revealed Tuesday that 78 home health agencies that were working with the physician, Dr. Jacques Roy, will be suspended from the Medicare program for up to 18 months.
Health Care Myths and Realties
Seeking the truth about high-deductible plans.
Recent news releases from two very different organizations paint entirely separate pictures of what can happen to people once they sign up for a high-deductible health plan.
One release from Cigna, the giant for-profit insurance firm I used to work for, would lead us to believe that human resource managers who haven’t moved all of their company’s employees into a high-deductible plan should be canned for fiscal ineptness.
The other, from GiveForward, a Web site where people can create personal fundraising pages, tells of the real-world consequences when people in high-deductible plans become seriously ill or get hurt.
Safety Alerts Cite Cholesterol Drugs’ Side Effects
By GARDINER HARRIS
Federal health officials on Tuesday added new safety alerts to the prescribing information for statins, the cholesterol-reducing medications that are among the most widely prescribed drugs in the world, citing rare risks of memory loss, diabetes and muscle pain.
It is the first time that the Food and Drug Administration has officially linked statin use with cognitive problems like forgetfulness and confusion, although some patients have reported such problems for years. Among the drugs affected are huge sellers like Lipitor, Zocor, Crestor and Vytorin.
But federal officials and some medical experts said the new alerts should not scare people away from statins. “The value of statins in preventing heart disease has been clearly established,” said Dr. Amy G. Egan, deputy director for safety in the F.D.A.’s division of metabolism and endocrinology products. “Their benefit is indisputable, but they need to be taken with care and knowledge of their side effects.”
State supreme court rejects Anthem appeal of rate increase
Posted Feb. 28, 2012, at 2:04 p.m.
PORTLAND, Maine — State regulators were justified last May in denying a planned rate hike by Anthem Health Plans of Maine, the state’s highest court ruled Tuesday.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court sided unanimously with former Bureau of Insurance Superintendent Mila Kofman’s decision to slash by nearly half a rate increase affecting about 11,000 Mainers covered by Anthem’s individual health insurance policies. The rates took effect July 1, 2011, and run through June 30.
Anthem’s appeal marked the third time in three years that the firm, the only insurance company offering individual policies in the state, has appealed Kofman’s rate decisions. Justices have ruled in her and the state’s favor each time.
On Tuesday, the court ruled Kofman reasonably determined that Anthem’s proposed rate increase of 9.2 percent was “excessive.” Kofman set the average increase at 5.2 percent and limited the firm to a 1 percent profit margin.
Anthem originally sought a 9.7 percent increase before amending its request down.
No comments:
Post a Comment