Posts filed under ‘Uncategorized’
Why Continue Observation Status?
The December 2, 2015 Wall Street Journal story “Medicare Rules Reshape Hospital Admissions” described how hospital stays classified under “observation status” can lead to big bills for patients without their knowledge.
The Center for Medicare Advocacy has worked for many years to eliminate, or at least reduce, the harm that observation status causes people who rely on Medicare. We have developed self-help materials,http://www.medicareadvocacy.org/self-help-packet-for-medicare-observation-status/, assisted beneficiaries and families, brought together a coalition of national organizations to support federal legislation that would fix the problem, and filed lawsuits.
“Outpatient” hospital observation status is limiting access to necessary nursing home care, skewing public health data regarding hospital admissions and readmissions, increasing Part B costs and cost-sharing, and creating lengthy delays in the Medicare appeals system. With all this harm, one must ask: Why does the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services insist on continuing this dreadful policy?
Why We Can’t Support the Senate SGR Bill
The Senate is poised to vote on the SGR repeal (“Doc Fix”). The Center for Medicare Advocacy has reluctantly concluded that we cannot support this bill. It will not only continue to move Medicare towards private plans and make Medicare more expensive for all, it will also jeopardize access to therapy for people with on-going conditions.
As attorneys for the national class in Jimmo v. Sebelius, we are particularly concerned about the amendment to repeal the therapy caps. We strongly support a repeal. But the repeal amendment we have seen replaces the cap with a prior authorization – a gatekeeper system that could limit access for patients, particularly those in need of on-going therapy.
Regrettably, for all these reasons, we can not support the Senate SGR bill. We hope for opportunities to improve it in the future.
50 Years Ago Pres. Johnson Proposed the Medicare Program
2015 is a year of anniversaries important for all families: 50 years of Medicare. 50 years of Medicaid. 80 years of Social Security.
To honor the Medicare and Medicaid anniversaries, Senator Wyden introduced a Sense of the Senate Resolution today that should pass unanimously. It celebrates Medicare (and Medicaid) by resolving to protect a real Medicare program for future generations. Importantly, the Resolution states:
“… Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that—
(1) all efforts to improve Medicare and Medicaid must support and build upon President Johnson’s vision ‘‘to assure the availability of and accessibility to the best healthcare to all Americans, regardless of age or geography or economic status’’;
(2) Medicare’s guaranteed benefit is a lifeline to millions of Americans and must remain intact for this and future generations;
(3) Medicare should not be transformed into a voucher program, leaving seniors and people with disabilities vulnerable to higher out-of-pocket costs;”
Sen. Wyden’s three Medicare commitments deserve support from every lawmaker who really cares about Medicare and fair access to health coverage for all older and disabled people. That was Medicare’s promise in 1965. It’s up to us, and today’s lawmakers, to ensure it remains Medicare’s promise in 2015. We hope all members of Congress will start by committing to Sen. Wyden’s Medicare resolutions.
Medicare Public Funds: Increasing Profits for Private Insurance Cos.
”The private Medicare program has been a boon for insurers the past several years, offering sizable volumes and steady profit margins. … “ It will expand in the future as Baby Boomers join Medicare Advantage plans. (Modern Health Care 12/18/2014)
Why is this allowed to continue? How can we justify cutting Medicare coverage for older and disabled people while providing ever-increasing profit margins for private insurance companies?
Wake up people!
Gabby Giffords Reminds Us Why Long Term Physical Therapy and Health Care Is So Important
From the New York Times, January 8, 2014
“…This past year, I have achieved something big that I’ve not spoken of until now. Countless hours of physical therapy — and the talents of the medical community — have brought me new movement in my right arm. It’s fractional progress, and it took a long time, but my arm moves when I tell it to. Three years ago, I did not imagine my arm would move again. For so many days, it did not. I did exercise after exercise, day after day, until it did. I’m committed to my rehab and I’m committed to my country, and my resolution, standing with the vast majority of Americans who know we can and must be safer, is to cede no ground to those who would convince us the path is too steep, or we too weak. “
How can we not stay the course? We will continue to advocate for those who need a voice – for the long term.
Fair Prices for Prescriptions = Fair Pay for Physicians!
Year after year congress has passed a short-term physician payment package instead of permanently fixing the unfair payment formula for doctors who treat Medicare patients.
Today, in Congress, there’s a real solution for this ongoing problem. Senator Rockefeller’s Medicare Drug Savings Act of 2013, which will allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices for low-income beneficiaries, will save Medicare $140 billion over 10 years – almost the exact amount needed to permanently fix the physician payment formula and fairly pay doctors who treat Medicare patients.
Join us. Tell Congress you support finally fixing the formula by which Medicare pays physicians (it’s called “SGR”), but that the cost of doing so cannot be shouldered by older and disabled people.
In particular, Congress should not:
- Cap coverage for necessary care,
- Increase premiums, copays, and other costs for Medicare beneficiaries,
- Allow help for low-income people on Medicare to expire.
The timing couldn’t be more perfect. Senator Rockefeller’s Medicare Drug Savings Act is the solution. Congress can permanently fix the physician formula and pay for it by allowing Medicare to obtain the best possible price on prescription drugs for low-income individuals.
It’s a Win-Win Situation
Write your Senators and Representatives today:
- Remind them of your support for Senator Rockefeller’s bill, and
- Tell them to use the prescription drug savings to fairly pay physicians who treat Medicare beneficiaries!
CMS Continues to Insist Hospital INpatients are OutPatients
When it wrote the Medicare law, Congress called Medicare Part A “Hospital Insurance” and Part B “Supplemental Medical Insurance.” Part A is intended to pay for inpatient hospital care. It is a charade to consider people who stay IN the hospital for more than 24 hours “outpatients,” and pay for their care under Part B. This not only conflicts with the Medicare law and Congressional intent, it also harms the older and disabled people – and their families – who depend upon Medicare and for whom the law was written. They lose their right to Part A hospital coverage, are often left with hospital bills they would not have if they were properly admitted, and completely lose their ability to obtain Medicare coverage for post-hospital nursing home care. CMS’s insistence on continuing this policy places hospital payment mechanisms over the interests and rights of older and disabled people.
Stop Bleeding Medicare By Wasting Money on Private Plans
And we quote:
“Private insurers’ Medicare Advantage plans cost Medicare an extra $34.1 billion in 2012
Instead of being more efficient, private insurers have cost Medicare almost $300 billion more over the life of the program
A study published online today finds that the private insurance companies that participate in Medicare under the Medicare Advantage program and its predecessors have cost the publicly funded program for the elderly and disabled an extra $282.6 billion since 1985, most of it over the past eight years. In 2012 alone, private insurers were overpaid $34.1 billion.
That’s wasted money that should have been spent on improving patient care, shoring up Medicare’s trust fund or reducing the federal deficit, the researchers say.
The findings appear in an article published in the International Journal of Health Services by Drs. Ida Hellander, Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein titled “Medicare overpayments to private plans, 1985-2012: Shifting seniors to private plans has already cost Medicare US$282.6 billion.”
Hellander is policy director at Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), a nonprofit research and advocacy group. Woolhandler and Himmelstein are professors at the City University of New York School of Public Health, visiting professors at Harvard Medical School and co-founders of PNHP.”
Proposed Home Health Co-Pay is a Big Mistake
We have to say, Forbes has it right! The co-pay for Medicare home health care proposed in the President’s budget is a big mistake. It will not save money, will harm people with chronic conditions, and will increase avoidable hospitalizations. It isn’t even a good tool for fighting fraud – if that is the goal.
Far from getting too much care, our experience is that thousands of people with multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, paralysis, and other long-term conditions, struggle to get the home care they DO need. A little bit of nursing and/or therapy, along with hands-on health aide services, often means the difference between staying home and requiring a hospital stay or nursing home placement. For most Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions, home health care is more humane, more effective and less expensive.
If fraud is the concern, fight it. Don’t add co-pays or other barriers for those who really do need home care and qualify for Medicare coverage.
Benefit Cuts or Drug Discounts?
According to a 2012 Congressional Budget Office report, aligning Medicare drug payments with what Medicaid pays just for low-income beneficiaries would save $137.4 Billion over ten years. (CBO Estimates for President’s Budget for 2013, 3/16/2012).
While the President suggested this reform in his State of the Union address, discounting what Medicare pays for drugs has thus far not been taken seriously by decision-makers.
Instead, we have repeatedly been told that Medicare cannot be sustained and that benefit cuts are necessary. Yet all these Medicare benefit cuts combined would only equal $35.4 Billion in savings over ten years:
1. Increasing income-related Part B premiums;
2. Increasing income-related Part D premiums;
3. Increasing Part B deductible for new enrollees;
4. Adding a Part B premium surcharge for first-dollar Medigap coverage;
5. Adding home health co-pays for new enrollees.
If all of these benefit cuts, that would hurt older and disabled people, save only 25% of the savings that would be achieved by requiring drug companies to give the same discounts to Medicare as it gives to Medicaid, why don’t we choose drug discounts? How can benefit cuts be preferable if the goals are to reduce the deficit and save Medicare for future generations?
Lower Medicare payments for prescription drugs. Choose People and Medicare over PRxOFITS!
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