A recent report from the HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) raises serious concerns about inappropriate Medicare Advantage denials of care as well as wrongful payment denials. It shows that Medicare Advantage plans, commercial health plans that contract with Medicare to deliver Medicare benefits, overturn their own denial decisions 75 percent of the time. Unfortunately, most […]
Since 2006, national health expenditure (NHE) growth has been slow relative to historic growth rates. Annual spending growth between 2006 and 2017 averaged 5.2 percent for Medicare, 6 percent for Medicaid, and 4.4 percent for private health insurance. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) project much faster growth in Medicare and Medicaid spending […]
Family members of long-term care (LTC) residents at the end of life often feel unprepared for the death of a loved one. Family unpreparedness can lead to increased health costs and an increased risk of poor health outcomes such as complicated or prolonged grief, mood disturbances, sleep disorders, and poor quality of life. The purpose […]
Thanks to preventive medicine, older Americans have healthier hearts. Which also means, incidentally, that federal budgets are healthier, too. At the turn of the millennium, health spending growth was spiraling out of control. Economists projected that the already ginormous health-care sector would soon gobble up monster portions of the federal budget and the entire economy. […]
Medicaid provides health coverage that helps low-income seniors, children, and people with disabilities get needed health care. It provides parents and other adults economic security through health coverage that protects them from medical debt and allows them to stay healthy and work. It is jointly run by the federal and state governments. These fact sheets provide […]
