A tiny provision tucked into a spending bill for Iraq requires that prescriptions for Medicaid patients be written on "tamper-resistant" pads. But most doctors do not use such pads
Providers of medical equipment in two hotbeds of Medicare fraud -- Los Angeles and South Florida -- will have to reapply to do business with the government and undergo inspections, officials said Monday
The projected dates for when the Social Security and Medicare trust funds will be exhausted have been pushed back one year, according to the programs' trustees in their 2007 annual report released Monday. But the trustees also issued a "funding warning" for Medicare.
Talk is cheap. Just ask some of the Democratic presidential candidates jockeying for position on the 2008 campaign trail. They're reserving some of their most venomous verbiage for the nation's drugmakers. Yet, despite all the demonizing, the drug lobbying in Washington remains surprisingly strong - even under the new Democrat-controlled Congress.
You're rushing to drop the kids at school, fumbling with coats and lunch boxes, when you get the call. Mom's had a fall, and she's in the E.R. Your dad is panicked and asking you to come home, now.
President Bush's $2.9 trillion spending plan calls for billions more to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and cuts in other government programs -- including Medicare and Medicaid -- as part of the president's goal of eliminating the deficit in five years.
IT WAS A ROUGH YEAR FOR INDEPENDENT PHARMACISTS, and experts predict that 2007 will be even worse. The cause? New insurance regulations, which will probably force many local pharmacies to either sh...
It was a rough year for independent pharmacists, and experts predict that 2007 will be even worse. The cause? New insurance regulations, which will probably force many local pharmacies to either shut down or be acquired.
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke Thursday turned up the volume on the debate over Social Security reform - an issue that was declared dead last year but has been injected with new life in recent weeks.
The House passed a Medicare bill Friday that could drive down drug prices and revenues for the nation's big drug companies, but that's assuming the bill gets past President Bush's threatened veto.
When Medicare began offering Part D prescription drug coverage for the first time this year, seniors had six months to sort through the chaos - and it was chaos - to pick a plan.
See the What It Takes to be Rich special report.
Daniel Fish, a New York City lawyer who specializes in helping elderly clients, keeps a small collection of blank birthday cards in his desk drawer. The number 100 is on the front of each one. (Hallmark says it sells 85,000 such cards a year.)
IF YOU OR SOMEONE IN YOUR FAMILY IS ELIGIBLE FOR the new Medicare drug plan, chances are you spent hours trying to find the plan that offered the most coverage with the least out-of-pocket cost for...
QUESTION: I'm about six months shy of 62 and expect to be laid off soon. I'll have enough savings to hold me over until I begin collecting Social Security, and after that I'll have Social Security plus about $320,000 in an IRA rollover. Of course, I'll also have to pay for medical insurance until I hit 65, when I can enroll in Medicare.
What parents need to gather:
A growing number of families have been relying on Medicaid to help pay for an older loved one's long-term care. Now new federal rules will make it much tougher to qualify.
Despite the Memorial Day holiday, there was no rest for obesity researchers in the major medical journals.
The clock is ticking off the seconds to a midnight Monday deadline for an estimated 5 million eligible Americans to enroll in Medicare's prescription drug benefit program or face penalties when they sign up later.
Today is the deadline to sign up for the Medicare Drug Plan.
Operators are standing by to help the estimated 5 million eligible Americans who have not enrolled in Medicare's prescription drug benefit program, the Health and Human Services secretary said Sunday.
The deadline to enroll in a Medicare plan is just a week away...May 15. In today's Five Tips, we'll help you figure out everything you need to know - before next week.
The trustees of Social Security and Medicare now estimate that the Social Security trust fund will be exhausted in 2040 while the Medicare trust fund will be depleted in 2018, slightly sooner than previously forecast.
Nobody likes a deadline, but Medicare-eligible Americans--and those who love them--are approaching a big one. On May 15, the open-enrollment period for the new Medicare prescription drug plan (know...
Seems like everyone wants your private information these days. In today's Five Tips, we'll tell you who really needs to have it and how you can take control of your own data.
A group of Texas pharmacists are lobbying the White House over Medicare's prescription drug program, saying they are not getting paid enough money, according to a report Monday.
Barring huge tax hikes or huge cuts in promised spending, the U.S. appears headed toward budgetary meltdown a few decades down the road. So what should today's politicians do about it?
President Bush addressed a wide range of issues in his annual State of the Union speech Tuesday evening. Click on a topic below for what he said on key subjects.
By most accounts, Medicare's new Part D prescription drug plan is an absolute mess. Big Pharma thinks so too.
hanges in your existing insurance. They'll be flooding you with marketing materials about new coverage options. And as if the postal deluge weren't enough, you're likely to be bombarded with information and pitches on television, on the radio and in print over the next few months too. ...
r retiree benefits packages, managed-care plans proliferate and some Medigap policies are phased out. Here's what you need to know to make the best health-plan choices. ...
The new Medicare plan to cover prescription drugs will not provide much of a sales lift for drug makers after it goes into effect Jan. 1, even though volume will increase, according to IMS Health projections and analysts.
Tomorrow seniors can begin signing up for Medicare's drug benefit plan. Whether you're eligible for benefits or your parents are, you may be looking for direction because the choices are overwhelming.
Move No. 1: Take advantage of new Medicare plan.
Medicare's new prescription drug benefit is not the only change ahead for seniors. Over the next few months, you'll also be faced with new choices in basic health insurance as employers alter their...
If you are age 65 or older, brace yourself for a lot of mail. From your former employers. And insurers. From Uncle Sam. And still more insurers. They will be showering you with information about ch...
Q. How does the new drug benefit work?
Q. What about your other coverage?
Q. What happens if my situation changes?
Q. With so many different options, how do I choose the right plan?
Q. How do I know if the benefit is right for me?
Q. How much will I have to pay?
If you are age 65 or older, brace yourself for a lot of mail. From your former employers. And insurers. From Uncle Sam. And still more insurers.
Between now and November 15, Americans over 65 will be bombarded with a promotional blitz by insurance companies wanting to spur participation in the new Medicare prescription drug benefit.
The image of sullen-faced elderly men and women, their clothing patched and ragged, leaning forward on their canes as they shuffle in a soup line, seems Dickensian--impossibly long ago and far away...
You've been maxing out your 401(k) since you began working. You piled into stocks through the raging bull market of the '80s and '90s. Your house has quintupled in value. And now you're feeling pre...
The House voted overwhelmingly Friday to ban Medicare and Medicaid from paying for erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra.
Q My father died in March 2004. I am the executor of his estate. I thought everything was settled, but by December we started getting medical bills from Kaiser that had already been paid because th...
Q. My father died in March 2004, and I am the executor of his estate. I thought everything was settled, but by December we started getting medical bills from Kaiser that had already been paid because they now say that my father never had Medicare Part B. I know for a fact that my father did have both parts of Medicare. The collection calls are overwhelming. The bills are approaching $60,000. What can I do?
Health care providers can charge the government for emergency care provided to illegal aliens beginning Tuesday.
Lost in the fray of the public debate over Terri Schiavo, steroids and Social Security, a political revolution may be quietly taking hold this year, far away from the halls of Capitol Hill.
Common sense is in short supply when it comes to improving America's health-care system. But there's one emerging area, called disease management, that promises a dose of just that. Its precepts ar...
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The Social Security trustees, in their 2005 report released Wednesday, offered an earlier date for trust fund exhaustion and revised upward estimates of the shortfalls facing the system over the next 75 years.
Untangling a Health-Care Mess
Q. My husband is over 65 but continues to work full time. We get our primary health insurance from his employer and use Medicare Part A for secondary coverage.
Social Security beneficiaries will see an average of nearly $25 a month more next year under a cost-of-living adjustment announced Tuesday, but almost half of that increase will be taken up by higher Medicare premiums.
There is an important question that, if asked of either presidential candidate during the upcoming debates, is guaranteed to elicit an evasive nonanswer. It goes something like this: "All the fisca...
About 11 minutes after the long-awaited Medicare prescription-drug cards made their debut in May, seniors started crying foul, as they were flooded with confusing and bogus offers. Even cold-callin...
Alzheimer's affects 4.5 million Americans and its financial costs are just as far-reaching as the emotional affects.
Seniors, brace yourselves. Tuesday marked the launch of the new discount-drug-card program, the first of many changes seniors will face under the new Medicare act.
Are the budget deficits, the national debt and the financial problems of the Social Security system smoke and mirrors -- that is, something our "all talk and no action" politicians just like to squabble about? Or are they something we really need to worry about?
Washington is aflutter over charges that the White House may have covered up the true cost of the prescription drug bill. But whoever may have told Medicare's actuary not to share what with whom, t...
Americans eligible for Medicare may soon get discounts on their prescription drugs, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The trust fund that supports hospital benefits for the nation's elderly, under the federal Medicare program, will become insolvent in 2019, seven years earlier than had been predicted, according to the annual report of trustees of the Social Security and Medicare programs.
The Department of Health and Human Services has launched an internal investigation to see whether a senior government staffer was pressured to withhold information from Congress about the true cost of the Medicare prescription drug bill.
The Medicare prescription-drug law passed late last year is having a healthy effect on the outlook for corporate finances, Tuesday's Wall Street Journal reported.
The prescription-drug bill vigorously pushed by President Bush aroused a great deal of attention and controversy when it was being debated by Congress, and then after its passage.
President Bush on Friday announced he will nominate FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan to head the agency that oversees the Medicare and Medicaid programs, including the implementation of the new prescription drug benefit, administration sources told CNN.
The House Ethics Committee announced Wednesday it started an investigation almost two months ago into allegations Rep. Nick Smith was offered a bribe to vote for the Medicare prescription drug bill.
President Bush said Friday the news that his Medicare overhaul would cost significantly more than expected would require lawmakers to be careful with spending.
A congressman who played a leading role in drafting legislation that introduced a prescription drug benefit to Medicare is under fire for considering a job offer from the pharmaceutical industry -- which stands to benefit from the new law.
The House Ethics Committee chairman said Wednesday he has "little to go on" in investigating a Republican congressman's since-retracted claim that he was offered a bribe in exchange for his vote on the Medicare reform bill late last year.
Is the just-passed Medicare overhaul an important first step toward affordable drug coverage for seniors--or a gold-plated giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry? Depends on who you ask, of course...
President Bush has been pushing hard this summer to get a bill through Congress that would add a prescription-drug benefit to Medicare. If he's successful, the legislation will no doubt give a big ...
When Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson stumped for the Bush administration's Medicare-reform proposal in June, the folksy former governor took to the road on his beloved Harley....
Haven't a clue what the proposed Medicare prescription-drug benefit being debated on Capitol Hill may mean for you? Competing proposals have huge differences--and are raising more issues than answe...
The drive to reform Medicare and add a prescription-drug benefit is among the most popular initiatives to hit Washington in years. Polls show that more than 70% of Americans approve of the concept...
After 26 years with steel giant LTV, Betty Boyce was ready to have fun. From her retirement income, she budgeted $600 a month for winter skiing, summer golfing, three-day-a-week workouts and salsa ...
Medicare HMOs were created to let seniors fill the gaps in Medicare coverage without an expensive Medigap policy. That promise has fallen on hard times as rising costs and lower reimbursements have...
DEAR ELLYN: Our ad agency is approaching $100,000 in monthly billings, but most of our clients are mom-and-pop stores. I belong to local chambers and networking groups, and I take advantage of as m...
Half a million Medicare recipients are being dropped by their health maintenance organizations (HMOs) on Jan. 1, bringing the total number of beneficiaries let go in the past four years to more tha...
On Dec. 31, nearly 1 million Medicare beneficiaries will be dropped by health maintenance organizations (HMOs) across the country. Those who haven't joined another HMO by then will automatically be...
--Complete powers of attorney. You'll need two: a durable power of attorney to appoint a friend or relative to handle your financial affairs if you become incapacitated and a health-care power of a...
In what's becoming an annual rite of summer, Medicare health maintenance organizations (HMOs)--which have dropped one in nine Medicare beneficiaries from their rolls over the past two years--are ge...
Fresh off another grueling income tax season, you probably don't want to hear bad news about taxes. So we're sorry to report that this year more FICA tax--what you pay for Social Security and Medic...
At a time when the nation is paying more in federal taxes than ever before, you'd expect tax cuts to be atop our political priorities. The presidential candidates certainly assume that's the case. ...
Thanks to legislation signed into law late last year, the 10 million Americans who receive Social Security benefits for the disabled, both SSDI and SSI, should soon have an easier time returning to...
As of Jan. 1, seniors can look forward to even less coverage from their Medicare health maintenance organizations (HMOs). For the first time, all Medicare HMOs will charge co-payments on prescripti...
With everything else seeming to fall apart with each birthday, the one thing you may not think about much is your gums. You should. Most adult tooth loss is caused not by tooth decay but by gum inf...
PRIMARY RESEARCH
Some insurance plans are rip-offs--most single-disease policies, for example--and others are essential, such as homeowners coverage. Long-term-care insurance is more of a judgment call. "Ultimately...
Last year, 400,000 seniors were dropped by their Medicare health maintenance organization (HMO). By the middle of September, another batch will get the same news. Why wait for a letter? HMOs planni...
This fall, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) in 29 states and the District of Columbia, including Oxford Health Plans and Aetna U.S. Healthcare, started notifying Medicare patients that their...
If your HMO kicks you out and you find yourself back on traditional Medicare, you'll probably consider buying extra insurance. Roughly one-third of seniors get a so-called Medigap policy, most like...
As a result of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, Medicare recipients will soon be deluged with information about Medicare+Choice, a.k.a. Medicare C, a new set of options that will make its debut Jan...
The 350,000 members of Oregon's Medicaid plan sometimes complain about their lack of access to care. They can't get in to see specialists; even routine lower back pain isn't covered. But another tr...
Q. My grandfather wants me to have a $100,000 parcel of land that he owns. We know that the IRS allows him to give me only $10,000 a year tax-free, so I have two questions for you. Can he duck the ...
Q. My husband and I both work, and our combined earnings approach six figures. Our plan is to retire in three years. Here's our problem: Last year, my husband's company reduced his 401(k) contribut...
How you'll fare under the new Medicare regulations that go into effect in October will depend partly on how old you are now. Here's what to expect and how to best prepare for the changes:
The new "granny goes to jail" law has plenty of elderly people nervous. In January, it became a federal crime for seniors and their cooperating financial advisers to transfer enough assets to famil...
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