Category: Medicare
Need help selecting a Medicare plan?
Medicare Open Enrollment is your chance to compare 2020 plans and choose what’s best for you. A mobile-friendly Plan Finder can help you compare plans.
Many on Medicare with serious illnesses struggle to pay medical bills
“More than one-third of seriously ill Medicare beneficiaries said they had used up all or most of their savings to pay for their health care”
Medicare open enrollment for 2020 starts Oct. 15
The Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors (SHIBA) program, part of the Office of the Insurance Commissioner, can help with choices you may need to make.
Calls Grow For Medicare To Cover Anti-Rejection Drugs After Kidney Transplant
Medicare has covered transplant patients who had end-stage renal disease. But coverage ends after 36 months for those younger than 65.
Medicare Advantage Overbills Taxpayers By Billions
Health insurers that treat millions of seniors have overcharged Medicare by nearly $30 billion the past three years alone.
How to find a doctor using Medicare’s “Physician Compare” Tool – Video
Physician Compare helps you find and compare physicians and other clinicians enrolled in Medicare.
Can Robin Hood Plan Rescue Of Rural Hospitals?
The proposal would increase Medicare payments to mostly rural hospitals in the lowest 25th percentile and decrease the payments to hospitals in the highest 75th.
Hospitals Chafe Under New Payment Rule For Off-Campus Clinics
Medicare has opted to pay hospitals with outpatient facilities that are “off campus” a lower rate, equivalent to what it pays independent doctors for visits.
Consumers Rejected Drug Plan That Mirrors Trump Administration Proposal
Everyone, however, will see premiums go up. It’s unclear yet how much.
Big Pharma Gave Money To Patient Advocacy Groups Opposing Medicare Changes
By Sydney Lupkin and Elizabeth Lucas, Kaiser Health News, and Victoria Knight. Dozens of patient advocacy groups, like the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation and the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, recently appeared in national advertisements objecting to a…
Medicare Trims Payments To 800 Hospitals, Citing Patient Safety Incidents
By Jordan Rau, Kaiser Health News Eight hundred hospitals will be paid less by Medicare this year because of high rates of infections and patient injuries, federal records show. The number is the highest since the federal government five years…
New app shows what Medicare covers
The new app lets people with Original Medicare, caregivers and others quickly see if Medicare covers a specific medical item or service.
Most Americans favor Medicare-for-All, poll
Seventy-four percent of those polled, including nearly half of Republicans (47%), favor a national government plan like Medicare that is open to anyone.
Inslee proposes public option though health exchange
Consumers will have lower deductibles, improved access, evidenced-based services, and access to transparent, predictable cost-sharing, Inslee says
Health insurance worries plague Americans in years before Medicare
Forty-five percent say they have little or no confidence that they’ll be able to afford the cost of health coverage once they retire.