beneficiaries

On Tuesday President Bush signed a bill requiring the four federal agencies in charge of healthcare--HHS, the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Office of Personnel Management--to share data amongst agencies and with beneficiaries. At a recent discussion on the subject, President Bush stated, "The fact is, if you have excellent information about quality, about service and about price, people make good decisions," according to The Washington Post. The …

It's battling studies time. In one corner is the Center for Studying Health System Change, which is reporting that decreasing Medicaid reimbursement rates are causing providers to turn away more and more Medicaid patients. According to the Center, in the mid-1990s, 19.5 percent of doctors weren't accepting Medicaid patients; that number has climbed to 21 percent in the last several years. Physicians and health officials have previously expressed concern that doctors might be more …

The AMA's National House Call campaign made a stop in Philadelphia yesterday, bringing attention to how the proposed Medicare cut will impact doctors serving poor and elderly patients. According to an AMA survey, 45 percent of the association's members said the cuts will force them to limit the number of Medicare patients they treat. "Physicians want to serve America's seniors. Unfortunately, drastic Medicare cuts will force physicians to make difficult practice changes," the AMA said in …

Congress is unlikely to cut physician reimbursement rates as mandated by a 1997 program designed to decrease Medicare spending. The 1997 program set up annual spending goals for physician reimbursement. If those goals exceeded economic growth, that was supposed to trigger reimbursement cuts because Medicare funding can't keep doctor's repayments in line with rapidly inflating healthcare costs. But lawmakers fear that decreasing doctors' pay will drive beneficiaries from the program and …

In Working Knowledge, an online publication of the Harvard Business School, faculty member and consumer-driven healthcare crusader Regina Herzlinger makes a case for consumer-driven Medicaid, using a proposed plan from South Carolina as a model. She argues that a consumer-driven Medicaid plan would improve service to beneficiaries who may otherwise face long waits and indifferent treatment thanks to low Medicaid reimbursement rates. Article

CMS administrator Mark McClellan tells the Los Angeles Times that Medicare will launch a new initiative stressing preventative care in 2007. "If you take a big step back and look at Medicare spending, 90%-plus of what we are spending is going for the complications of chronic disease," McClellan told the paper. The agency recently added a free "Welcome to Medicare" physical available to all new arrivals in the program. The program has seen limited success so far: only 2 percent of …

After winning a degree of independence from strict federal rules, states are making "aggressive" changes to their Medicaid programs this year, The Washington Post reports, reshaping them so they "more closely resemble private insurance." A number are raising fees and making other changes designed to encourage beneficiaries to "take responsibility" for their care.

In West Virginia, recipients will be required to sign "member agreements" promising to keep doctors …

UnitedHealth Group and Humana are leading the field in Medicare Part D enrollment, according to new numbers out today. More than 90 companies are offering about 3,000 plans across the country, CMS reports. UnitedHealth, which has has benefited from an alliance with AARP and the acquisition of PacifiCare's Medicare business, is the clear leader with 27 percent of the market. Humana is trailing not far behind with 18 percent.

- read this …

The Kaiser Family Foundation released details of a tracking poll that found that most seniors enrolled in Medicare drug plans are satisfied with their coverage. Eight out of 10 reported no difficulties having prescriptions filled. A companion report "Voices of Beneficiaries: Early Experiences with the Medicare Drug Benefit" provides personal perspectives on the benefit. The new prescription drug benefit continues to receive extensive media coverage, as the May 15 enrollment deadline approaches.

- see the report summary from The Kaiser Family Foundation

Thousands of seniors who have signed up for Medicare Part D plans apparently are unaware of the donut hole--the gap in coverage in many plans between the initial coverage limit and the threshold when the government starts paying for everything. They'll start noticing fairly soon, BusinessWeek argues, as they discover that they are temporarily on their own and faced with thousands of dollars in bills. That may lead to even more confusion and anger directed at Washington on the part …