The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is taking steps to protect consumers from scams or misleading ads for Medicare Advantage plans that target older adults. A proposed rule would ban ads that...
Medicare, many third-party insurers to cover coronavirus testing
By
Amy Novotney
Mar 10, 2020
Medicare and several leading insurers have committed to helping mitigate the costs associated with testing for and treating the novel coronavirus that has been spreading nationwide. In addition, officials...
Social Security, Medicare solvency improves slightly, but ‘significant financing issues’...
By
Lois A. Bowers
May 07, 2024
The Treasury Department — with the departments of Health and Human Services and Labor, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Social Security Administration — released the annual Social...
The needs of middle-class Americans over 55 often go unmet: SCEPA
By
Kathleen Steele Gaivin
Dec 06, 2023
Many adults aged 55 and older who have difficulty with daily and instrumental activities aren’t getting the help they need, research associate Jessica Forden of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy...
CMS finalizes 9% cut to physical and occupational therapy pay for SNF patients
By
James M. Berklan
Dec 03, 2020
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services formally announced Tuesday afternoon that it has finalized its calendar 2021 physician pay rule, which cuts physical and occupational therapy payments for nursing...
Medicare beneficiaries can appeal gap in nursing home coverage, court rules
By
Kathleen Steele Gaivin
Jan 31, 2022
Thursday ruling from a three-judge appellate federal court in Connecticut paves the way for hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries to appeal non-coverage of nursing home care after hospital stays.
HHS: Public health emergency likely to last rest of year
By
Lois A. Bowers
Jan 26, 2021
The federal public health emergency related to the coronavirus pandemic likely will extend through 2021, Acting Health and Human Services Secretary Norris Cochran said Friday in a letter to governors.
Sharing ownership data good for enforcers, families, researchers, HHS secretary says
By
Kathleen Steele Gaivin
Apr 21, 2023
Medicare-certified home health agencies and hospice programs will be subject to additional scrutiny with Thursday’s announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services of the release of ownership...
Bipartisan legislation would expand access to advance care planning in Medicare
By
Kathleen Steele Gaivin
Sep 19, 2022
The Improving Access to Advance Care Planning Act pending in Congress would, if passed and signed into law, expand access to advance care planning services in Medicare.
Debates arise over who should foot the bill for nursing home worker testing
By
Amy Novotney
Jun 10, 2020
Regular COVID-19 testing of nursing home staff, who are the most likely to introduce the virus to a facility and spread it to residents, has been sanctioned by experts as one of the most important ways...