Medicare Part D

Automatic Prescription Refills: Helpful or Wasteful?

Posted on 06/18/2013 by | Washington Watch | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal Health | PoliticsPrescription drug programs that automatically ship out refills at regular intervals can help older Americans follow doctor’s orders, according to business organizations that are lobbying against a Medicare crackdown on the practice. Medicare, though, says that the automatic refill programs lead to waste when beneficiaries get prescriptions they don’t need and can’t return them. In February, the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) proposed new regulations that say, in part: “Shipment of unwanted medications is not only wasteful, but …

Does Your Doctor Prescribe Too Many Risky Drugs?

Posted on 05/13/2013 by | Personal Health and Well-being | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal HealthMedicare’s popular prescription drug program, Part D, covers more than 35 million people and a billion prescriptions annually, but Medicare has never monitored which doctors may be overprescribing medications that are risky for older adults — namely, drugs that are disorienting, addictive or harmful. The investigative journalism group ProPublica, together with the Washington Post, has now launched a database called Prescriber Checkup, which allows users to search doctors’ names and see which ones are frequently prescribing potentially dangerous drugs, such …

A State Where Government-Run Health Care Really Works

Posted on 03/8/2013 by | Health | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal HealthBy Sarah Varney, Staff Writer, Kaiser Health News APACHE JUNCTION, Ariz. – The hallways of the Apache Junction Health Center are still. Only half of the rooms are filled, and the men and women who live here seem surely in life’s final season. “These are folks that have chronic cognitive and physical disabilities that are not going to improve,” said George Jacobson, administrator of the nursing home. That this nursing home is sparsely filled with residents too disabled in mind or …

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 …

CVS Price Error For Medicare Drugs: You May Get A Refund

Posted on 09/5/2012 by | Personal Health and Well-being | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal HealthNearly 13,000 Medicare Part D beneficiaries will receive reimbursement checks from CVS Caremark, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Tuesday, as part of a $5 million settlement for overcharging on some drugs for seniors and the disabled. The checks are being sent to customers who overpaid for drugs used to treat epilepsy and breast cancer, among other illnesses, and who were forced into the so-called doughnut hole — in which no drug costs are reimbursed — as a result of …

The Takeaway: Medicare Part D; Breast Cancer and Race

Posted on 07/27/2011 by | The Takeaway | Comments

News RoundupsPart D is keeping you out of the hospital: Five years after the drug plan’s debut, seniors covered by Medicare Part D are healthier and taking better care of themselves.