Government encouraging electronic prescriptions

As reported by The Columbus Dispatch, Medicare will pay health providers who switch to electronic prescriptions. They believe by having doctors switch to this form of prescription, they will eliminate errors in prescriptions caused by illegible handwriting. For those who switch, Medicare will increase payments in 2009 an 2010 by 2%, 1% in 2011 and 2012, and by .5% in 2013.

Dade County of Miami suspends some Medicare payments

According to the Miami Herald, the government is suspending payments to the top 10 home health care agencies suspected of Medicare fraud. Medicare is taking an offensive position to find fraudulent businesses, targeting suspicious claims, most having to do with treating diabetic patients at home. The suspension may last up to six months, and 6,500 patients will immediately be affected due to the the impact on skilled nursing visits. These patients will be transferred to other agencies. Read more about the investigation here.

Could Medicare bailout be worse than financial bailout?

William McKenzie at the Dallas Morning News thinks the current financial crisis will be a walk in the park compared to the next looming disaster - the downfall of Medicare. He believes many people are overlooking the oncoming bankruptcy of Medicare. However Michael Leavitt, the Secretary of Human and Health Services, is someone who is currently recognizing the problem.

The system currently faces two problems:

•There will be too few workers to pay for the benefits Medicare has promised today's workers. Right now, there are about four workers for every Medicare beneficiary. In 20 years, that ratio falls to about 2.5.

•Second, benefit costs will explode in inverse proportion to that dwindling work force. Mr. Leavitt projects that Medicare will rise from about 13 percent of federal spending today to about 23 percent in 20 years.

Do you agree or disagree with Mr. McKenzie? Is Medicare going to fall apart? What can be done to prevent this from happening?

Argus Leader encourages Medicare prescription holders to shop around for perscription coverage

In an article at Argus Leader, officials encourage Medicare users to shop around for prescription drug coverage. They foresee significant increases and changes in what Medicare part D will cover. For most of the popular drug plans, the most popular drugs could increase in price anywhere from 8% to 64%.

Other price increases include:
The monthly premium for the most popular Medicare Part D plan - the AARP Medicare Rx Preferred Plan - will increase 15 percent, from $32 to $37.

The next most popular plans come from Humana. The premium for the standard Humana plan will go up 60 percent, from $25 to $40, while the premium for the enhanced plan will go from $23 to $38.

Additional News for Medicare’s New Hospital Policy

Yesterday, we posted about Medicare’s implementation of its new policy in which it will not pay hospitals for any costs that are related to patients being injured due to medical errors while they are in a hospital’s care.

According to this article on NEWSInferno.com, Medicare posts a list of mistakes that it will not pay for on its website. Medicare will not pay for mistakes that include when patients

• Receive incompatible blood transfusions
• develop infections after certain surgeries
• must undergo a second operation to retrieve a sponge left behind from a first surgery
• experience serious bedsores, injuries from falls, and urinary tract infections caused by catheters

It is estimated that this policy will affect several hundred thousand hospital stays out of the 125 million people covered annually by Medicare.

Medicare to stop paying 'never' procedures

In a report today by UPI, they relate the news that Medicare will stop paying for procedures that happen because a patient is injured while undergoing procedures. Private label insurers have already done this, and it is expected to save Medicare $21 million a year.

Managed Care Provider Cigna adds More States to Medicare Advantage

CnnMoney.com reports that Cigna will add 15 more states to its individual Medicare Advantage plans next year in order to grow its senior business.

Some of the states Cigna will introduce plans to include California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts and Ohio. Of the 13 existing states, Cigna also plans to expand the number of counties to which it offers Medicare Advantage plans. Cigna only recently started offering Medicare Advantage coverage last year. It is looking to expand their services by also adding preventive dental care reimbursement to its Advantage plans for next year.