Politico reported something strange. Dentists are against providing Medicare recipients dental care! The Biden Administrations wants to expand Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing care. However, conservative Democrats want to limit the expansion to only the poorest Americans. But Medicare is not just for poor people. We have never limited benefits based on means
Patient Outcomes McKnight’s had a good article on a recent proposal by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). This will replace the current value-based purchasing program with a more equitable, value-incentive model. MedPAC delivered its annual report to Congress. The report includes a recommendation to eliminate the current SNF VBP with an alternative incentive model that
Expanding Medicare Republicans fought the creation of Medicare in the 1960s. They still oppose any government participation in health care industry. The problem for them is that Medicare is very popular. Most Medicare recipients are satisfied. And now Joe Biden wants to expand Medicare to more Americans. Biden’s simple and clear strategy is lowering the
Unsafe Discharges Skilled Nursing News reported that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) will investigate wrongful evictions and unsafe discharges. OIG’s formal work plan includes a probe into unplanned discharges. “A facility-initiated transfer or discharge of a resident from a nursing home can be an unsafe and
As part of Obamacare, the federal government increased payroll taxes to help pay for the Medicare Trust Fund. That fund is used to reimburse hospitals when seniors come in and need treatment. Trump’s bill does away with those new taxes. As a result, the Medicare Trust Fund would go broke about four years earlier than
As discussed before, the real drivers of healthcare costs are not lawsuits, which studies by Johns Hopkins Medicine found are less than 1% of healthcare costs. The big costs are a result of fraud. Kindred Healthcare, a large for profit chain of nursing homes, will pay $125 million to settle allegations that it billed Medicare for