After Pandemic Ravaged Nursing Homes, New State Laws Protect Residents

KFF Health News Original

This year, 23 states passed more than 70 pandemic-related provisions affecting nursing homes, including measures setting minimum staffing levels, expanding visitation protections and limiting owners’ profit margins.

Zooming Into the Statehouse: Nursing Home Residents Use New Digital Skills to Push for Changes

KFF Health News Original

Connecticut residents who learned how to communicate with family and friends through digital technology when their nursing homes closed to visitors last year used that skill to testify remotely during legislative hearings on bills affecting them.

Under New Cost-Cutting Medicare Rule, Same Surgery, Same Place, Different Bill

KFF Health News Original

A Trump administration Medicare rule will push some hospital patients into a Catch-22: The government says several hundred procedures no longer need to be done in a hospital, but it did not approve them to be performed elsewhere. So patients will still need to use a hospital while not officially admitted — and may be charged more out-of-pocket for the care.

Federal Judge Rules Medicare Patients Can Challenge ‘Observation Care’ Status

KFF Health News Original

Hundreds of thousands of people will be able to appeal hospitals’ decisions to classify them as “observation care” patients instead of inpatients, under a ruling last week in a class action suit.

Website Errors Raise Calls For Medicare To Be Flexible With Seniors’ Enrollment

KFF Health News Original

Members of Congress and others complain Medicare’s revamped Plan Finder had problems. Federal officials say they can help consumers who got bad information change their plans next year. But details about how switching will work are yet to come.

As Medicare Enrollment Nears, Popular Price Comparison Tool Is Missing

KFF Health News Original

For more than a decade, customers used the online plan finder to compare dozens of policies. Yet after a redesign of the website, the search results no longer list which plan offers a customer the best value. Federal officials say it will be fixed before enrollment begins next week.

Class-Action Lawsuit Seeks To Let Medicare Patients Appeal Gap in Nursing Home Coverage

KFF Health News Original

Medicare beneficiaries under observation care in the hospital can face higher costs for treatment and are not covered for nursing home care when discharged. A federal trial in Hartford, Conn., will determine whether the government’s ban on appeals involving observation care coverage is fair.

Social Security Error Jeopardizes Medicare Coverage For 250,000 Seniors

KFF Health News Original

The problem affects private drug policies and Medicare Advantage plans that provide both medical and drug coverage and substitute for traditional government-run Medicare. It could leave plan members without coverage.

Trumpeted New Medicare Advantage Benefits Will Be Hard For Seniors To Find

KFF Health News Original

Federal officials are hailing the introduction of services such as transportation to medical appointments, home-delivered meals and installation of wheelchair ramps as a way to keep beneficiaries healthy and avoid costly hospitalizations. But not many plans are offering the services in 2019.

No More Secrets: Congress Bans Pharmacist ‘Gag Orders’ On Drug Prices

KFF Health News Original

Congress approved two bills last month that prohibit provisions keeping pharmacists from telling patients when they can save money by paying the cash price instead of the price negotiated by their insurance plan.

New Medicare Advantage Tool To Lower Drug Prices Puts Crimp In Patients’ Choices

KFF Health News Original

Federal officials are allowing the private insurance plans to use “step therapy” for drugs administered by doctors. In step therapy, patients must first use cheaper drugs to see if they work before receiving more expensive options.

Planes de Medicare Advantage pronto servirán hasta para hacer las compras

KFF Health News Original

Los Centros para Servicios de Medicare y Medicaid ampliaron la forma en que definen los beneficios “relacionados directamente con la salud”, que las aseguradoras pueden incluir en sus pólizas.