medicare beneficiaries news from FierceHealthcare
NewsHealthcare CEOs want raised Medicare eligibility age to curb costs
As part of a four-prong plan to save $410 billion during the next 10 years, a group of healthcare CEOs is asking the Congressional supercommitte to raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67. Read more...
CMS insists data sharing vital to ACO quality improvement efforts
Despite patient privacy concerns, a key component for accountable care organizations achieving quality improvement likely will be data sharing, Jon Blum, deputy administrator and director of CMS, Read more...
Home health after hospitalization can cut costs, readmissions
The use of home health care for chronically ill patients after they leave the hospital can reduce Medicare spending and readmissions, concludes a new study by Avalere Health, LLC. Discharging Read more...
Specialists question ACO integration, show reluctance to join
Organizations representing oncologists and other specialty physicians are expressing some concerns about how accountable care organizations will be regulated, reports AIS Health. Officials with U.S. Read more...
Republicans backing away from Medicare proposal
The Republican House delegation, emboldened just a few weeks ago by an ambitious plan to remake Medicare into a voucher system, now appears to be backing away from such a proposal, report the Read more...
Poll shows little senior support for Medicare vouchers
A new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows scant support among seniors for a Republican proposal to restructure the Medicare system. Only 30 percent of those seniors polled say they approve of Read more...
Patient Advocate Foundation reports surge of financially strapped patients
The Patient Advocate Foundation, one of the nation's largest organizations providing counseling and guidance to consumers confronting healthcare issues, reported a nearly 50 percent increase in the Read more...
CMS moves toward rescinding clinical approval rule
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is taking steps toward rescinding a regulation that requires a physician or other qualified clinical practitioner's signature to requisition a Read more...
Medicare costs must be reined in to tame deficit
If lawmakers want to reduce the $1.3 trillion federal budget deficit, they will have to go after Medicare, according to many news reports. So far, the chairmen of President Obama's debt-reduction Read more...
Retirees need more than $100K to cover health costs
Despite health reform, retirees will need hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings to cover medical expenses when they retire, according to a report by the Employee Benefit Research Institute Read more...
| Press ReleasesUnitedHealthcare Completes XLHealth AcquisitionMINNETONKA, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) company, has completed its acquisition of XLHealth Corporation, (XLHealth) a sponsor of Medicare Advantage Read more >> Medicare Advantage premiums down 7 percent on average, enrollment up 10 percentWASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Medicare Advantage premiums have fallen by 7 percent on average and enrollment has risen by about 10 percent since this time last year, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Read more >> Medicare Advantage Firm Gorman Health Group Names Nathan Goldstein As New Chief Executive OfficerWASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Gorman Health Group, one of the nation's leading professional services firms and software providers in government-sponsored health care, today announced that Read more >> Researchers at Harvard University Report the Adoption of UpToDate® by Hospitals is Directly Associated with Shortening PatEasily-Implemented Clinical Knowledge System is Associated with Saving 11,500 Lives over a Three-Year Period WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- New research published today in the Journal of Hospital Read more >> Aetna, Health Quality Partners See Lower Costs, Fewer Hospital Admissions with Care Management Program for Medicare AdvantBLUE BELL, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Aetna (NYSE: AET) Medicare Advantage members in Pennsylvania who enrolled in a Health Quality Partners (HQP) care management program had 20 percent fewer inpatient Read more >> |
