Latest Medicare health plans News
The Latest: Alaska Gov: Biden’s vaccine order 'un-American'
JUNEAU, Alaska — Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said President Joe Biden’s effort to require millions of U.S. workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is “ill conceived, divisive, and un-American.” “At a time in which we are called to work together, forced medical...
4 ways to manage retirement health care costs
Health care in retirement is a big-ticket item. Experts estimate that an average 65-year-old retired couple in 2021 would need about $300,000 in after-tax savings earmarked for health care costs in their post-work life, even with Medicare, according to Fidelity. The...
Vermont health program reduced hospital stays, saved money
The first two years of a Vermont program set up to keep patients healthier while reducing costs saved money on Medicare patients and kept more people out of the hospital, an evaluation of the program has found. The report commissioned by the Centers for Medicaid and...
COVID recession pushed Social Security insolvency up a year
WASHINGTON (AP) — The sharp shock of the coronavirus recession pushed Social Security a year closer to insolvency but left Medicare’s exhaustion date unchanged, the government reported Tuesday in a counterintuitive assessment that deepens the uncertainty around the nation's bedrock...
Sutter Health paying $90M in Medicare fraud settlement
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A major California-based medical provider has agreed to pay a total of $90 million to settle allegations of Medicare fraud, officials said Monday. Sacramento-based Sutter Health, northern California's largest hospital system, got inflated...
Hospitals, needing beds, decry Medicare Advantage practices
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Stressed with too little staff and too many patients in an unrelenting COVID-19 resurgence, some hospitals in Louisiana are pressing insurance companies to ease up on requirements that can slow the transfer of recuperating patients to other facilities. ...
As COVID rises, a vexing hunt for nursing home vaccine stats
WASHINGTON (AP) — With COVID-19 on the rise again and many nursing home staffers unvaccinated, families still lack easy access to crucial Medicare immunization data that will help them pick the right facility for their loved one. Medicare has a “Care Compare”...
Feds: Tennessee lab owner charged in health fraud scheme
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee health lab owner has been charged with orchestrating a fake Medicare billing scheme, a federal prosecutor announced. Fadel Alshalabi, 53, of Waxhaw, North Carolina, was charged in a criminal complaint with aiding and abetting and...
EXPLAINER: Dental, vision and hearing benefits for Medicare
WASHINGTON (AP) — Many working-age people assume that Medicare covers just about every kind of health care that an older person may need. It doesn't. Some of the biggest gaps involve dental, vision and hearing services. Medicare does not cover...
Watchdog: Nursing home deaths up 32% in 2020 amid pandemic
WASHINGTON (AP) — Deaths among Medicare patients in nursing homes soared by 32% last year, with two devastating spikes eight months apart, a government watchdog reported Tuesday in the most comprehensive look yet at the ravages of COVID-19 among its most vulnerable victims. ...
