As the health care debate raged onwards in 2009, the number of uninsured American adults rose by 3 million from 2008. Overall, approximately 46.3 million people in this country do not have health insurance covered. In Texas, over one out of every four people was uninsured in 2009, compared to the 15.4 percent...
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A coalition of House Democrats is gearing up to propose legislation which revives the public option President Obama had originally hoped to carry through this year’s healthcare overhaul. The legislation House Democrats plan to introduce today would establish a government-administered insurance option available to consumers as part of The Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges....
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Every year, both seniors and the government lose quality health care and billions of dollars to corrupt providers. Medicare fraud isn’t new, but as the new health care reforms have passed, fraud has been in the spotlight. Medicare fraud affects everyone, from the government to seniors to taxpayers.
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On May 13, 2009 the trustees of Medicare and Social Security released a report detailing the impending insolvency of our nation’s two biggest entitlement programs: Medicare in 2017 and Social Security in 2037. Projections have pushed these bankruptcy dates up from the previous report’s estimates of 2019 for Medicare and 2041 for Social Security....
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Although the Advantage ratings purportedly help seniors weed out the best possible plans, the ratings system is flawed and most seniors rely on a combination of plan costs and benefits to determine which plan they want. The impending Medicare reforms will be rewarding top-ranked Advantage plans with bonuses, despite the obvious flaws within the...
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Medicare fraud is among the most common types of health care fraud. The Obama administration has requested a funding increase in an effort to cut down the Medicare fraud. These efforts have been successful in the Miami area, which has the highest rates of both Medicare fraud and prosecutions.
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The recent Senate bill entitled "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" is intended to bring insurance to many uninsured Americans and to help the Medicare program avoid insolvency, which is projected to happen in 6 years. Unfortunately, the bill will probably have just the opposite effect.
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In light of the recent letters sent out to their Medicare Advantage beneficiaries, insurance company Humana now faces the possibility of heavy fines and may even be kicked out of the Medicare Advantage market by federal healthcare agency, CMS. This seems like a pretty harsh penalty for a one page letter informing seniors that...
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The White House has recently been circulating draft legislation that would create an executive agency for the purpose of overseeing Medicare reimbursement rates and policy changes. Under the proposal, there would be a paid five-member Independent Medicare Advisory Council whose members would serve five-year terms. They would be nominated by the president and subject...
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Many hospitals are quite happy with the news that the Obama administration has now agreed to decrease its proposed hospital cuts by about $70 billion. Originally the White house was planning to cut Medicaid and Medicare payments to hospitals around the US by about $224 billion over 10 years to aid healthcare reform. However,...
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