Medicare

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'Death Panels' Return: Obama Enacts End-of-Life Planning

Obama to add end-of-life planning to Medicare

(Newser) - Sarah Palin's "death panels" are back. The brouhaha surrounding end-of-life counseling forced Democrats to cut it from health care reform, but now President Obama is quietly adding the same policy to Medicare by rewriting regulations, reports the New York Times . Under the new policy, beginning Jan. 1 the government...

Deficit Chiefs Unveil Plan, With New Tax Holiday

Plan would raise retirement age, cut tax exemptions

(Newser) - Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles formally unveiled their 59-page plan to cut the deficit yesterday, and it’s much the same as the draft proposal floated a few weeks back. The pair, who co-chair President Obama’s deficit reduction commission, want to raise the Social Security retirement age, cut Medicare,...

US Dialysis System a Costly Horror
US Dialysis System a
Costly Horror
investigation
Nov 9, 2010 1:01 PM CST

US Dialysis System a Costly Horror

America spends more than anyone, yet sees more patients die

(Newser) - America’s Medicare dialysis program, once seen as a triumph for the masses, has become a “hulking monster,” writes Robin Fields in an exhaustive ProPublica investigation. Since 1972, treatment has been provided, through Medicare, for virtually anyone with kidney failure, regardless of age or income. Today, the US...

Paul: I'll Cut Fed Workers, Wages 10%

Rest of 'balanced budget' cuts would come from 'across the board'

(Newser) - Newly minted US Senator-elect Rand Paul scrambled yesterday when pressed to come up with federal cost cuts—but finally said he'll aim to slice the number of federal workers and their wages by 10%. Pit bull reporter Christine Amanpour repeatedly needled Paul on ABC's This Week to move beyond "...

Dear GOP, Health Care Law Will Save Money
Dear GOP, Health Care Law Will Save Money
peter orszag
Nov 4, 2010 2:00 PM CDT

Dear GOP, Health Care Law Will Save Money

Peter Orszag: Best way to cut costs is to keep the law in place

(Newser) - The midterms have brought Republican lawmakers to power on Capitol Hill who are determined to cut government spending. These legislators are also dead-set against allowing the health care reform act to take effect, but that's a shame because it contains some of the most effective cost-cutting measures out there, writes...

Feds: Firm Used Dementia Patients in $200M Scam

Health center charged with Medicare fraud

(Newser) - Federal authorities charged the nation's largest community mental health center today, alleging the Miami-based company billed Medicare $200 million in a scam that preyed on patients with severe dementia and altered their clinical files so the company could charge for more services. Prosecutors alleged that American Therapeutic Corp. paid the...

Gangsters Busted in Biggest-Ever Medicare Fraud

Armenian gang used phony doctors, clinic to scam $163 million

(Newser) - Investigators say they have smashed an Armenian crime ring responsible for "the largest Medicare fraud scheme ever perpetrated by a single criminal enterprise." A multi-state probe dubbed "Diagnosis Dollars" has resulted in the indictment of 73 members and associates of the ring, including 52 arrested in raids...

Anti-AARP Group Launching
 Anti-AARP Group Launching  
Sep 13, 2010 7:22 AM CDT

Anti-AARP Group Launching

Alliance for Retirement Prosperity is against 'ObamaCare'

(Newser) - The American Association of Retired Persons ... sounds so non-threatening, right? Yet an anti-AARP group is coming out swinging against the nonprofit. Led by a longtime Republican adviser and head of the Social Security Institute, the Alliance for Retirement Prosperity will launch Wednesday with the goals of repealing the Obama administration's...

Medicare Paid Out $28K in Penis Pumps, Many for Girls

Phony claims didn't even change names

(Newser) - It's no wonder Medicare loses billions to fraud: fooling the health care program is really, really easy. Just ask Emilio Lopez and Orlando Estevez, two Florida businessmen accused of bilking Medicare for $28,600 in penis pumps to combat impotence, even though the supposed patients included women. Yes, Medicare regulators...

Health Reform Saves Medicare $8B by 2011: White House

Overhaul could save $575B over the next decade

(Newser) - The new health overhaul law is starting to produce savings for Medicare and will eventually add more than a decade of solvency to the program's trust fund, the Obama administration said in an upbeat report released today. Medicare will save about $8 billion by the end of next year, and...

More Doctors Turning Away Medicare Patients

Complain that rates, which were just cut, are too low

(Newser) - Medicare rates were cut 21% on Friday—even as more doctors say they’re limiting the number of Medicare patients they’ll see and just 6 months before millions of Baby Boomers flood the program. The American Medical Association tells the USA Today that 17% of doctors surveyed limit the...

GOP Gunning for Obama Health Nominee

Blocking appointment is one way to re-open health care debate

(Newser) - Republicans have their knives out for Donald Berwick, President Obama's nominee to run Medicare and Medicaid. Berwick, a pediatrician and Harvard prof who runs a nonprofit aimed at cutting hospital errors, as well as costs, is a fan of Britain's single-payer health National Health Service, they note; he once declared...

Obama's Signature Changes Some Rules Now

States can't alter guidelines on Medicaid, kids' insurance

(Newser) - It will take years for the entirety of the health care reform to be enacted, but some provisions went into effect the moment President Obama signed it into law today. One of the most wide-ranging prevents states from cutting Medicaid and children’s health insurance coverage—or tightening rules to...

Health Reform Foes Are on Wrong Side of History

Access to health care should increase, not fade

(Newser) - The history of health care in America has been one of steadily improving health and lifespans as access to quality health-care has increased, writes Nicholas Kristof. The 1940s saw the greatest recorded increase in American lifespans as military mobilization improved access, he notes. This trend is now reversing, however, because...

Obama Unveils $950B Health Care Bill

Merged proposal mostly follows Senate outline

(Newser) - Barack Obama today revealed the health care proposal he’ll be taking into bipartisan meetings this week, a $950 billion bill that hews closer to the Senate’s model than the House’s. The plan seeks to resolve some of the contentious issues between the two bills, cutting, for example,...

Health Care Costs Hit All-Time High

And the government will soon be paying 50% of them

(Newser) - Health care spending hit a record 17.3% of GDP last year, up from 16.2% in 2008, according to new figures from the government’s nonpartisan Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Today’s report also predicts that by next year, the government may be paying 50% or more...

Dems Consider Medicare Tax on Investment Income

Expansion would pay for health-care reform

(Newser) - Democratic leaders have cooked up a potential new way of paying for the health care bill: applying the Medicare payroll tax to investment income. The idea would please labor leaders, who oppose the tax on so-called “Cadillac” insurance plans, bolster Medicare’s finances, and place the burden mainly on...

Health Costs Would Rise 1% Under Senate Bill

But modest increase would cover 34 million more, gov't study finds

(Newser) - Americans would see only a modest rise in health costs under the Senate's plan to extend coverage to 34 million people, government economic experts say in a new report. The study found that health spending, which accounts for about one-sixth of the economy, would increase by less than 1% than...

Sinking Health Bill Packed With Hidden Costs

Dems scramble to pass bill before true price emerges

(Newser) - The Democrats are in a race against time to get a health care bill passed before the public realizes the scale of the hidden burdens involved, writes Michael Gerson. The money to provide comprehensive coverage to everyone has to come from somewhere, and young people, seniors and union workers who...

White House to Reid: Get Lieberman on Board

Senate leader unwilling to cut Medicare buy-in just for Joe

(Newser) - The Obama administration is urging Harry Reid to do what he has to to secure the support of Joe Lieberman. Lieberman has gummed up the Democrats' plans for the health care reform bill by announcing his firm opposition to the expansion of Medicare to Americans 55 to 64, and Reid...

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