Latest Medicare News
Supreme Court rules for nursing home patient's family, declines to limit civil rights lawsuits
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled for the family of a nursing home resident with dementia that had sued over his care, declining to use the case to broadly limit the right to sue government workers. The man's family went to court alleging that he was given drugs...
Merck sues federal government, calling plan to negotiate Medicare drug prices extortion
Merck is suing the federal government over a plan to negotiate Medicare drug prices, calling the program a sham equivalent to extortion. The drugmaker is seeking to halt the program, which was laid out in the Inflation Reduction Act and is expected to save taxpayers billions of...
How the end of the COVID health emergency affects your Medicare
The COVID-19 public health emergency that started in January 2020 ended on May 11. When that happened, several Medicare rules and waivers that went into effect during the pandemic came to an end — and it may catch Medicare patients by surprise. Many of the changes were made to...
Former New Hampshire doctor pleads guilty in $1.9 million Medicare fraud scheme
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A former New Hampshire doctor has pleaded guilty to authorizing orders for medically unnecessary knee, wrist and back braces that were used by companies to submit more than $1.9 million in false Medicare claims. Steven Powell, 53, of Alpharetta, Georgia,...
Medicaid plans to audit the prices of costliest drugs
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Tuesday it is planning to conduct a yearly audit to verify the prices drug makers charge on a handful of the costliest prescriptions covered by Medicaid. Under the proposal, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would...
Mississippi podiatrist gets 2-year sentence in health fraud scheme
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi podiatrist was sentenced Monday to two years in federal prison for his role in defrauding Medicare and the military insurer Tricare by prescribing and dispensing medically unnecessary foot bath medications. Federal prosecutors said Dr. Marion...
Can you afford to age in place?
Most older adults ages 50 to 80 say it’s important to stay in their homes for as long as they can, according to the 2022 National Poll on Healthy Aging from the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation at the University of Michigan. But only 1 in 3 said their home “definitely” has the...
Feds: Hospitals that denied emergency abortion broke the law
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two hospitals that refused to provide an emergency abortion to a pregnant woman who was experiencing premature labor put her life in jeopardy and violated federal law, a first-of-its-kind investigation by the federal government has found. The findings, revealed...
Feds wrote $128M in duplicate checks to docs, report finds
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government wrote duplicate checks to doctors who provided care for veterans, costing taxpayers as much as $128 million in extra payments, according to a new watchdog report out this week. In nearly 300,000 cases, private doctors were paid twice —...
Humana hikes 2023 forecast after strong first quarter
Growing enrollment and declining hospital use by COVID-19 patients helped push the health insurer Humana past first-quarter expectations. The Medicare Advantage coverage provider also hiked its 2023 forecast well beyond Wall Street forecasts Wednesday. Its shares rose in early...
