The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), has released the 2019 Medicare Handbook, which continues to be misleading in its...
Diane Archer
Amarin makes unsupported claims about its heart disease medicine
As we all know, some pharmaceutical companies will go very far to sell their products. Shefali Luthra reports for Kaiser Health News that Amarin has been making unsupported claims about the benefits...
The price we pay for insulin
Insulin was discovered 100 years ago. Still, pharmaceutical companies marketing the drug are making enormous profits from it today by patenting new formulations and ways to deliver it. The price we...
Will Pharma’s campaign contributions to House Democrats...
For the last ten years, the pharmaceutical industry has donated most of its Congressional campaign support to Republican candidates. But, knowing that the Democrats were likely to control the House...
How your doctor can help you age in place
We all know the expression, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” It is as true in the health care realm as everywhere else. Even I, a health care advocate, who thought I was on...
Why enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan?
Millions of people with Medicare choose a Medicare Advantage plan, a commercial health plan that contracts with the government to deliver Medicare benefits, over traditional Medicare. Why enroll in...
Shouldn’t traditional Medicare have an out-of-pocket cap?
Why shouldn’t traditional Medicare have an out-of-pocket cap? It would eliminate the need for people in traditional Medicare to have supplemental coverage and it would put traditional Medicare...
What Trump will do about Part B drug prices
A new report by ASPE (Assistant Secretary for Evaluation and Planning), a research arm of the US Department of Health and Human Services, confirms that US drug prices for some of the...
Majority of Americans oppose GOP plan to slash Medicare...
A new NPR PBS Newshour Marist poll shows that a solid majority of Americans (60 percent), including Republicans, oppose the GOP plan to slash Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. To address the...
Inappropriate Medicare Advantage care denials appear widespread
A recent report from the HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) raises serious concerns about inappropriate Medicare Advantage denials of care as well as wrongful payment denials. It shows that...