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Rep. Paul Ryan, R- Wis., took the courageous step of going first with a bold plan -- his Roadmap -- to fundamentally restructure the tax and entitlement policies that threaten to push the federal budget past the breaking point. Now others, even some from the other side of the aisle, are joining him in sponsoring similar plans.
A study of four major insurers' payments to hospitals finds great differences among different parts of the country. San Francisco is the most expensive city among the eight areas in the study.
At the end of November, the most recent "doc fix" will expires. Without congressional action, physicians who see Medicare patients will face an across-the-board 23% reduction in their fees. If nothing happens by January, physicians would face an additional 7 percent reduction.
A blue-ribbon bipartisan panel of experts, chaired by former budget director Alice Rivlin and former Sen. Pete Domenici, recommends major changes to the way the government pays for health care.
The Obama administration will spend up to $1.3 billion to extend special payments -- meant to reward top-performing insurers -- to those that score only average ratings.
The new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation launched Tuesday a series of initiatives aimed at improving care while reducing its cost.
Dr. Donald Berwick, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is well-liked and known as a passionate advocate for improving the health care system. Some Republicans accuse him of favoring health care rationing - a charge Democrats dismiss as nonsense.
Tomorrow, Dr. Donald Berwick, the adminstrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is scheduled to testify before the Senate Committee on Finance. Here is an advance copy of his prepared statement.
We need more proposals like those being made by the President's deficit reduction commission, and the Medicare reform proposal authored by Republican House members Ryan, Cantor, and McCarthy. Irrespective of whether they are the best proposals, their authors started from a place where they told the truth.
An untold number of dialysis patients are injured or die as a result of needle dislodgements, but Medicare rules don't require clinics to report such adverse incidents to outside authorities.
The Republicans and their allies spent a lot of time - and a lot of money - attacking the new health law and promising to undo it. And they did so with such a fury that almost nobody seemed to notice they were making a pair of arguments that were fundamentally incompatible.
Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan's ideas
Open season begins Nov. 15 and beneficiaries need to check their options to make sure they are signed up for the plan that best meets their needs.
No matter what the outcome of the midterm elections, the American Medical Association is hard at work on a new proposal to fix the Medicare physician payment system. The AMA wants to stave off cuts of up to 30 percent, slated to begin taking effect Dec. 1. AMA chief Cecil B. Wilson talks with Kaiser Health News to talk about the looming cuts, why it's increasingly difficult for doctors to see Medicare patients in America and how the AMA will soon try to lobby lawmakers for a permanent fix to the system.
After five years, 10 Medicare pilot projects showed mixed results. Leading group physician practices were measured on quality, patient satisfaction, and cost savings. They all scored well on quality, but only half made the cut on savings.
Nationwide, new physician-owned hospitals are scrambling to open by the end of the year. Beginning Jan. 1, the health law bans them from taking part in Medicare, making it hard for the facilities to survive.
As emotions run high over the new health law, older voters' concerns about Medicare cuts could be a deciding factor in some particularly close congressional races.
Officials at CMS say they're streamlining Medicare Part D - including eliminating some plans they call duplicative. But as the open enrollment period nears, some Republicans are criticizing the move as "frightening."
Hospitals play an enormous role in the health care system; they're a crucial part of the public health safety net and an important community resource. But they are expensive. Hospital costs make up the largest portion of the health spending in this country.
Come with me to the land of happy health reform. It is a place where Republicans and Democrats find common ground, a place where physicians, hospitals and health insurers sit together as partners, a place where criticism is respectful, not rancorous. It is the world of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs).
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