DragNet Technologies Helps Health Care Providers

For the past 10 years, Medicare and Medicaid physicians have seen their profit margins shrink from 25% to just under 6%. Much of this change has been attributed to increasing complexity in recording and coding systems. Mentioned here, DragNet Technologies has

"announced the availability of their downloadable medical billing code lists directed toward the needs of healthcare providers all across the United States, especially in the Home Health arena." The article further mentions that "DragNet's goal is to arm healthcare providers in our country with the necessary information to get paid - and get paid quickly - for the services they have provided to Medicare and Medicaid patients"

Hopefully this will help Medicare and Medicaid physicians, and create a trickle down effect to help patients. With increased ease, more physicians maybe inclined to participate in these programs.

Cost of Health Care

In a recent report from the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services, they announced that Medicaid spending will grow at a rate of 7.9% over a 10 year period, with the cost estimated at $674 billion in 2017. It was also noted that the growth rate of the economy at 4.8%, and of health expenditures at 6.7% is lower. By 2013 it is expected that this cost will compromise 8.4% of federal budget in comparison to last years cost of 7%. It was noted in this article that

"Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said the analysis was a reminder that Medicaid spending is on an unsustainable path that might threaten the health of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens."

Doughnut Hole is Not So Sweet

As recently reported here, in a study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 26% of Medicare beneficiaries who filed using the prescription drug benefit "reached the coverage gap in 2007." Of these individuals, 15% were taking medication for chronic diseases, and quite taking meds during the gap. As Carloyn Clancy from Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality, warns:

"High drug costs are a barrier, but this is the first time we're seeing it documented so plainly. This raises concerns about the consequences for people with serious chronic conditions. There is a growing recognition that the doughnut hole is impairing people's access to medications."

As is further mentioned in the article, this will be an issue that the next administration will have to address. As seen in the post from this past Friday, it seems that the candidates are already aware of the problems, and have plans to address this troubling statistic.

New Obama Campaign Warns Seniors About Medicare Reductions

I came across this post on The Huffington Post in which it discusses Senator’s Obama’s recent ad campaign that show several shots of distressed seniors in order to drive the message that McCain wants to tax health care benefits and cut Medicare.

The campaign puts the figure at $882 million for Medicare alone. The post also mentions that the McCain campaign did not make a statement about which elements of the program would be cut. Watch the video below:

Top Rated Hospitals have 70% fewer deaths

As this article reports, patients that are treated in top rated hospitals have a 70% higher chance of surviving, than if they were to stay at hospitals with the lowest rankings. According to the study "HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America", 237,420 deaths of Medicare patients could have been avoided. The four most common reasons for death, in over have the patients included: sepsis, pneumonia, heart failure, and respiratory failure. The study was conducted using 41 million Medicare hospitalization records between the years of 2005-2007.

Should Medicare Pay for Hospital-Acquired Infections?

The Healthcare Economist poses the question “Should Medicare pay for these hospital-induced health care costs?” in this latest post.

The problem if Medicare implements a policy in which they do not pay for nosocomial infections is that doctors would report nearly all infections as community-acquired rather than hospital-acqiured. This in term would adversely affect the reporting of infections.

What are your thoughts? Should Medicare ultimately pay for hospital-acquired infections?

Extra Payments Made to Medicare Advantage Plans Total $8.5 Billion

The Healthcare Intelligence Network reports that in 2008 extra payments made to Medicare Advantage Plans will total over $8.5 billion. There are payments reductions scheduled for 2010, but if the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 went into effect in 2008, MA plans still would have paid 10.6 percent more than expected fee-for-service costs.

The majority of the extra payments were made because of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 which has expanded the role of private plans in Medicare in an effort to reduce the growth of spending in Medicare.