Talk of warding off scheduled cuts for Medicare's physician payment rates took a pessimistic turn after lawmakers said a post-Thanksgiving lame-duck session is likely to be brief. On top of that, any effort to add that proposal to a package of tax "extenders" might be risky at best. The tax extender legislation has been described as relatively benign and is ensured of passage on its own. For that very reason, some see it as a vehicle for physician payment legislation. Read more »
Congress should pass legislation permitting the IRS to help identify Medicare beneficiaries who might be eligible for the comprehensive drug benefit provided to low-income seniors. That's the recommendation of a new report by the Office of HHS Inspector General (IG) Daniel R. Levinson, which voiced doubt about the effectiveness of a mailing to 19 million beneficiaries this year to try to find and enroll those beneficiaries. Read more »
Brand names and low premiums, not coverage in the dreaded "doughnut hole," were the big draws in the "robust" market that developed for Medicare drug coverage in its first year. That was the finding of a new study that claimed to be the most detailed look yet at enrollment in the drug benefit created under of the Medicare overhaul law. Some critics say Medicare has not done enough to make beneficiaries aware of the gap. And many of the plans offered to beneficiaries do not have gap coverage. Read more »
It's a myth that Medicare pays the added care costs associated with infections acquired in the hospital, according to research findings released at a news conference last week. The findings demonstrate that thousands of lives and billions of dollars could be saved each year through mandatory public reporting by individual hospitals of their infection rates, the researchers said. Read more »
The federal government could learn a lesson or two from recent state initiatives that extend health care to the uninsured, but sustainable funding is still necessary to move these types of experiments forward, policy experts said at a discussion last week. At the forum, hosted by the Alliance for Health Reform and The Commonwealth Fund, health care experts from Massachusetts, Utah, and Vermont described recent initiatives taken in their states to extend coverage to uninsured residents. Read more »
The expected chairman of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee told lobbyists that he is ready to begin oversight hearings into the Medicare drug benefit starting as early as February. In a meeting at the lobbying firm Patton Boggs LLP, Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) also said that Democrats are mulling over three options for changing the drug benefit, according to sources familiar with the meeting. Read more »