Aging
Los Angeles County Audit Finds Backlog Of Nursing Home Complaints
This KHN story was produced in collaboration with the Updated on April 6. A lack of central oversight of nursing home investigations in Los Angeles County has contributed to a backlog of hundreds of complaints, according to an audit released late Friday. The Los Angeles County Auditor-Controller determined that there were 3,044 open investigations as of March […]
Decoding The High-Stakes Debate Over Medicare Advantage Cuts
This KHN story was produced in collaboration with Health insurers often try to influence Washington through quiet persuasion in plush offices. To fight potential government cuts for private Medicare plans, however, they’ve hit the streets. The Obama administration has proposed reducing what insurers collect for Medicare Advantage plans — HMOs and PPOs, mainly — that […]
Obama Administration Retreats On Private Medicare Rate Cuts
Under intense, bipartisan political pressure, the Obama administration backed down for the second year in a row on proposed payment cuts for insurance companies that offer private plans to Medicare members. After estimating in February that the cuts required by the Affordable Care Act as well as other adjustments would reduce what it pays insurers […]
Medicare Records Provide Tantalizing New Details Of Payments To Doctors
Medicare’s release Wednesday of millions of records of payments made to the nation’s doctors comes as the government is looking to find more cost-efficient ways to pay physicians, particularly specialists. The federal government published data tracing the $77 billion that Medicare paid to physicians, drug testing companies and other medical practitioners throughout 2012, and what […]
Alzheimer’s Disease Support Model Could Save Minn. Millions
As states eye strategies to control the costs of caring for Alzheimer’s patients, a New York model is drawing interest, and findings from a study of Minnesota’s effort to replicate it shows it could lead to significant savings and improved services. The New York University Caregiver Intervention (NYUCI) program offers caregivers six sessions of individual […]
L.A. County Nursing Home Inspections Chief Reassigned
This KHN story was produced in collaboration with the The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health supervisor in charge of nursing home inspections has been moved to another job days after the release of a highly critical audit of his division. Ernest Poolean, who has been a county employee since 1968 and became the […]
Waiting And Waiting On The Nursing Home Inspector
This KHN story was produced in collaboration with the Mary Chiu was shocked by the bed sores on her 85-year-old mother. One on her backside was so deep it exposed the bone; others formed on her left leg, heel and big toe. Half a dozen times, Sui Mee Chiu had to receive hospital treatment for […]
Medicare Seeks To Stop Overpayments For Hospice Patients’ Drugs
This KHN story was produced in collaboration with New Medicare guidance taking effect today aims to stop the federal government from paying millions of dollars to hospice organizations and drug insurance plans for the same prescriptions for seniors. But the changes may make it more difficult for dying patients to get some medications, senior advocates […]
Hospitals Boost Patient Safety, But More Work Is Needed
Two major safety shortcomings in America’s hospitals—the frequency with which patients get hurt during their stays and the large number who are readmitted—have decreased as government penalties and other programs targeting them kick in. The Obama administration credited the new quality initiatives created by the federal health law. But some of the improvements in patient […]
Medicare Struggling With Hepatitis-C Cure Costs
This KHN story was produced in collaboration with UPDATE, 5/15/14: Medicare Reverses Denial Of Costly Treatment For Hepatitis C Patient Walter Bianco has had hepatitis-C for 40 years, and his time is running out. “The liver is at the stage next to becoming cirrhotic,” the 65-year-old Arizona contractor says. Cirrhosis is severe scarring, whether from […]