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89 Charged in Medicare Fraud Busts in 8 Cities

Posted on 05/15/2013 by | General News | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal Health | PoliticsBy Kelli Kennedy and Pete Yost, The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 100 people, including 14 doctors and nurses, were charged for their roles in separate Medicare scams that collectively billed the taxpayer-funded program for roughly $223 million in bogus charges in a massive bust spanning eight cities, federal authorities said Tuesday. It was the latest in a string of similar announcements by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder as federal authorities crack …

Applying for Obama Health Care Plan Not Easy

Posted on 03/13/2013 by | General News | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal HealthBy Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Applying for benefits under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul could be as daunting as doing your taxes. The government’s draft application runs 15 pages for a three-person family. An outline of the online version has 21 steps, some with additional questions. Seven months before the Oct. 1 start of enrollment season for millions of uninsured Americans, the idea that getting health insurance could be as easy as shopping online …

Medicare Paid $5.1 Billion for Substandard Nursing Home Care

Posted on 03/1/2013 by | General News | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal HealthBy Garance Burke of The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Medicare paid billions in taxpayer dollars to nursing homes nationwide that were not meeting basic requirements to look after their residents, government investigators have found. The report, released Thursday by the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general, said Medicare paid about $5.1 billion for patients to stay in skilled nursing facilities that failed to meet federal quality of care rules in 2009, in some cases resulting in …

Free Colonoscopy Coverage Means Polyps, Too

Posted on 02/25/2013 by | Personal Health and Well-being | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal HealthA routine colonoscopy was supposed to be free under the new health care law, but then insurers began charging if doctors found and removed a polyp during the procedure. That’s a no-no, announced the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last week, in an effort to clear up confusion about this and other medical tests that should be considered free preventive care, the Associated Press reported. In the notice posted on the HHS website, the agency explained that “polyp …

New Report Shows the Savings in the Closing Doughtnut Hole

Posted on 02/8/2013 by | AARP Blog Author | Comments

Personal HealthGood news everyone! There’s a new report that shows lots of people saving good cash on prescription drugs because of the Affordable Care Act. The Health and Human Services department reports that seniors have saved around $5.7 billion since January of 2011. This is largely due to the closing of the doughnut hole. While everyone who qualifies saves money, it really benefited those with chronic conditions. HHS has projected that savings per Medicare beneficiary will be about $5,000 through the …

New Tools to Help You Get Blood Pressure under Control

Posted on 09/13/2012 by | AARP Blog Author | Comments

Personal HealthThe following is a guest post by Janet Wright, MD, FACC, Executive Director of Million Hearts™, a national initiative of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Nearly one-third of all American adults have high blood pressure and more than half of them don’t have it under control, according to a new Vital Signs report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If you have high blood pressure (also called hypertension) you are at risk for a heart …

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