Provisions beginning in 2011 give Medicare seniors in the Part D coverage gap a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs and 7 percent on generics, rising until the gap closes in 2020, and cover free preventive services such as annual wellness visits and screening tests.
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Healthcare
Hospitals, screening guidelines and healthcare policy.
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Healthcare
Hospice care good for nursing home residents with advanced dementia
Researchers followed 323 nursing home residents with advanced dementia and their proxies for up to 18 months. The 26 percent referred to hospice more often received opioids for pain and treatment for breathlessness, and their proxies reported fewer unmet needs in the last week of life.
Healthcare
Some healthcare reform provisions effective Jan 1, 2011
Three provisions took effect: insurers must spend 80 percent of individual and small-group premiums, or 85 percent from large groups, on care; Medicare enrollees get a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs in the doughnut hole; and seniors get free preventive screenings.
Healthcare
Free Preventive Care Available for Seniors Starting Jan 1, 2011
The healthcare reform law gives Medicare seniors annual wellness visits, personalized prevention plans and a list of screenings at no charge. New plans starting on or after Sept 23, 2010 must cover the listed services with no copay when a network provider delivers them.
Healthcare
Medicare Taxes not Enough for Baby Boomers' Medical Care
An AP-GfK survey found 60 percent of Americans expect Medicare payroll taxes to cover their medical care in retirement. Urban Institute economists estimate a baby-boomer couple will have paid about $114,000 in Medicare taxes but need $355,000 of care, which one calls unsustainable.
Healthcare
Nurses help patients with depression, diabetes or heart disease
In a randomized trial of 224 patients with depression plus diabetes or heart disease, those whose care a nurse coordinated with their physicians were less depressed and had better blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure at one year. The two-year program cost $1,224 per patient.
Healthcare
State Cancer Programs in Action
CDC's Division of Cancer Prevention and Control runs four national programs with states, territories and tribal groups. Its breast and cervical screening program has served low-income uninsured women since 1991; South Carolina's Best Chance Network has screened more than 87,000.
Healthcare
Employers, families pay higher health insurance premiums for less benefits
A Commonwealth Fund report finds premiums for employer health coverage rose 41 percent across states from 2003 to 2009, while per-person deductibles climbed 77 percent. At pre-reform rates, average family premiums were projected to rise 79 percent, past $23,000.
Healthcare
Seasonal Influenza and 2009 H1N1 Influenza Vaccination Coverage Among Pregnant Women
CDC analysis of Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System data from 10 states found 50.7 percent of pregnant women received the 2009-10 seasonal flu vaccine and 46.6 percent the H1N1 vaccine, with those whose providers offered or recommended it far more likely to be vaccinated.
Healthcare
Access to Health Care
CDC Vital Signs reports about 50 million adults aged 18 to 64, roughly one in four, went without health insurance for at least part of the past 12 months, and about 30 million for a year or longer. The number has grown about 1.1 million a year, half of them middle-income.
Healthcare
Obama Administration: Please don't cut Medicare payments
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Nov. 8 that the administration wants to halt a scheduled 23 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors, warning it could push physicians out of the program. Lawmakers have repeatedly delayed the cut.
Healthcare
Seven Ways Medical Conflicts of Interest are Disguised
Examples of how drug-industry ties stay hidden: the American Psychiatric Association left its own president's conflicts out of a 240-page meeting guide, a pediatric depression researcher withheld AstraZeneca lectures as 'not relevant,' and a Harvard statin investigator apologized to JAMA.
Healthcare
59 million Americans lack health insurance - CDC report
CDC's analysis of National Health Interview Survey data estimated 59.1 million people went without health insurance for at least part of the year by early 2010, up from 58.7 million in 2009 and 56.4 million in 2008. Of the 2009 total, 82.8 percent were aged 18 to 64.
Healthcare
After Mercury Removal -- What is the Best Material to Replace Your Filling With?
Dentist Lina Garcia lays out the case against mercury amalgam fillings, noting that a single filling can release as much as 15 micrograms of mercury a day and that Denmark, Norway and Sweden have essentially banned amalgams while the ADA still approves them.
Healthcare
HIV Transmission Through Transfusion --- Missouri and Colorado, 2008
CDC reports the first US case of transfusion-transmitted HIV since 2002. A Missouri donor tested positive in November 2008 after a June donation on which he reported no risk factors and tested negative; a kidney transplant patient who received those components was found to be infected.
Healthcare
Health Care Reform: Balance is Key
State insurance commissioners meeting in Florida are defining what counts as medical care versus administrative cost under the health reform law, which makes insurers spend 85 cents of each premium dollar on care for large group plans and 80 cents for individual and smaller plans.
Healthcare
Be aware of radiation-induced breast cancer risk
Dr. Edward Hendrick reported in Radiology that two newly approved breast screening methods, gamma imaging and positron emission mammography, carry a much higher breast cancer risk per screening than current mammography, with added risk to other radiosensitive organs.
Healthcare
Seniors Now Can Search for Health Insurance They Need
The federal healthcare.gov site now runs a search tool that asks your state, household situation, Medicare status, medical conditions and ability to pay, then lists matching options — private plans for individuals, families and small businesses, or public programs such as Medicaid.
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