Federal agencies that regulate drug pricing and healthcare insurance are concerned that an industry practice of using rebates to lower drug costs for insurers has led to increases in list prices and out-of-pockets costs for patients. To investigate whether patients…
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Humana Health Plan Overcharged Medicare by Nearly $200 Million
A Humana Inc. health plan for seniors in Florida improperly collected nearly $200 million in 2015 by overstating how sick some patients were, according to a new federal audit, which seeks to claw back the money. The US Department of…
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Researchers propose new solutions to fill gaps in Medicare coverage
"Near-poor" Americans-;people just above the federal poverty level but still well below the average U.S. income-;who rely on Medicare for health insurance face high medical bills and may forgo essential health care, according to new research led by health policy…
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Pandemic Slices Medicare Physician Spending in First Half of 2020: AMA
Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, physician spending in the fee-for-service Medicare program was $9.4 billion less than expected — a drop of 19% — in the…
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More than 1.1 million deaths among Medicare recipients due to high cost of drugs
More than 1.1 million Medicare patients could die over the next decade because they cannot afford to pay for their prescription medications, according to a new study released today by the West Health Policy Center, a nonprofit and nonpartisan policy…
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Health system clinicians perform better under medicare value-based reimbursement
A team of researchers led by Kenton Johnston, Ph.D., an associate professor of health management and policy at Saint Louis University’s College for Public Health and Social Justice, conducted a study investigating the association between health system affiliations of clinicians…
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Medicare coverage varies for transgender hormone therapies
A new study has shown substantial variability in access to guideline-recommended hormone therapies for older transgender individuals insured through Medicare. The variability in Medicare coverage and out-of-pocket costs for feminizing and masculinizing therapies are detailed in an article published in…
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