The American Cancer Society has endorsed legislation (HR 5437) sponsored by Rep. Clay E. Shaw Jr., R-Fla., that would extend preventive care services for Medicare beneficiaries and eliminate coinsurance for certain cancer screenings. The bill, introduced May 19, would extend the period beneficiaries can attend a "Welcome to Medicare" physical examination from six months to one year. Coverage for initial physical examinations was added to Medicare in January 2005 as part of the Medicare overhaul law (PL 108-173). The visits currently are offered as a "use it or lose it" benefit for the first six months after enrollment. Read more »
As the Medicare program puts the finishing touches on recommendations to Congress about the future role and funding levels for "quality improvement organizations," Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, and the organizations themselves are jockeying to mold Capitol Hill perceptions of the programs. QIOs, on the one hand, are seeking to remind lawmakers of their reputation as the mainstays of the nation's two-decade-old quality improvement movement in health care. Grassley, on the other, aims to spotlight recent executive salary, travel, and entertainment expenses in the industry that in his view raise doubts about its stewardship of Medicare dollars. Read more »
Nearly 150 House Democrats have asked Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mark B. McClellan to take additional steps to enroll millions of low-income seniors and people with disabilities in the Medicare drug benefit. "The administration must make an extra effort to notify seniors entitled to extra help," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, a member of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee. Read more »
Among the proposed budget cuts at the National Institutes of Health that has aroused the most concern at the Senate Appropriations Labor-HHS Subcommittee is one that would shelve a huge national study of children's health. "It was going to be the largest long-term study of children's health ever conducted in the United States," Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, noted at a May 19 subcommittee hearing on the NIH budget. "We've already spent about $50 million" and four to five years planning the project, he said. Read more »
Beneficiaries who choose to remain in the traditional fee-for-service side of Medicare are offered much higher monthly premiums on average for drug coverage than those picking managed care plans, a new study says. The average monthly premium offered by "PDPs"—the type of drug plans offered to enrollees in traditional Medicare—is $37, compared with $19 offered by local HMOs in Medicare. Regional PPOs meanwhile are offering monthly premiums for drug coverage averaging $22, according to the study posted on the Web site of the policy journal Health Affairs. Read more »
Young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 represent the largest and fastest-growing segment of Americans without health insurance, according to a Commonwealth Fund report. The study finds that nearly 14 million people in that age group are uninsured, an increase of 2.5 million from 2000, and they are uninsured at twice the rate of adults ages 30 to 64. "There are both health and financial consequences when young adults who are just starting out in the workforce or entering college lose their health insurance," the study's lead author, Commonwealth Fund Senior Program Officer Sara Collins, said in a statement. Read more »