Medicare Part D

The Bush administration released new numbers on Medicare Part D sign-ups on Thursday. Medicare officials said that 30 million people have signed up for the benefit through April, meeting organizers' original goal. At the current pace of enrollment, 90 percent of eligible seniors will have prescription drug coverage by the May 15 deadline.

Are the new numbers reliable? "Not exactly," the Wall Street Journal harrumphed as it deconstructed the data. They include 3.5 million …

Democrats are calling for the government to extend the registration deadline for Medicare Part D beyond May 15 in light of enrollment problems the benefit has faced in the early going. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) signed a letter to Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) asking him to help move legislation to the Senate floor that would extend the deadline for all participants.

CMS spokesman Peter Ashkenaz said the administration plans to stick to its guns on the deadline. ''Enrollment is …

In a reversal intended to address criticism that some Medicare Part D participants are falling through the cracks, CMS will allow pharmaceutical companies to restart charity programs that provide low-income patients with subsidized and low-cost prescription drugs. Many companies had temporarily suspended programs after government attorneys argued that they could theoretically lead to abuses if drug companies used them to steer patients toward their own products. The result was a wave of …

Ordinarily a day when a major company reports quarterly earnings that blow away expectations is a happy day indeed. Wall Street generally sits up and takes notice. Analysts rethink their positions. Individual investors consider placing new bets. Unfortunately for the management at UnitedHealth Group, things are not working out quite that way today. Net income is up 21 percent over a year ago this quarter on the PacifiCare acquisition and the company's sizzling Medicare Part D business …

After months of arguing that it would not extend the enrollment deadline for Medicare Part D, the Bush administration appears to be on the verge of doing exactly that. On Friday, officials said they want to allow some low-income participants to continue signing up after the May 15 deadline passes. Predictably, that news has led to calls from critics for the deadline to be extended for everybody. But the administration is arguing that doing so would be illegal. In today's Wall Street …

There's been a significant push toward getting seniors to sign up for Medicare Part D in recent weeks, with President Bush stumping for the program. The reason is that after May 15, the price starts going up. Despite appeals from Democrats, and popular support for a delay running at 70 percent, it's unlikely that the deadline will be postponed. So far despite Administration claims …

The New York Times wonders if 2006 might turn out to be a long overdue bad year for insurers in the wake of the recent problems at UnitedHealth Group. Shares of health insurers are down 8.6 percent since January first according to Standard & Poors. On the other hand, that's led some on Wall Street to wonder if companies like United and WellPoint are actually bargains at the moment. Some observers are wondering if the investor uncertainty may have a lot to do with the chaotic …

A poll conducted by The Washington Post and ABC News finds that three-quarters of respondents who signed up for the benefit said the paperwork was "easy to complete" and nearly two-thirds said the program "saved them money." The poll didn't interview people who had not signed up. The Washington Post also incorrectly reported that 29 million people had signed up for Medicare Part D. That number includes all Medicare recipients who have drug coverage from any …

As the focus of the insurance market begins to shift from employers to individual consumers, insurers are changing the way they have traditionally interacted with customers. Humana is an example of a company that has been forced to "start worrying about what consumers think," according to The Wall Street Journal. But that hasn't necessarily been bad for business. Au contraire, after actually looking at how consumers interact with health plans and the information they …

> Spiration, which is working on an intra-bronchial valve system for use in patients with lung disease, has raised $13.4 million through an investment from Olympus Medical Systems. Article

> The Wall Street Journal's Dr. Benjamin Brewer says Medicare Part D is playing havoc with his practice and his patient's lives. …