If your hair is grey or would be grey if you didn’t color it, you are part of a club that includes nearly half of all people worldwide. Gray hair is generally unavoidable by the time you’re 50...
Diane Archer
Is Medicare’s Hospital at Home program here to stay?
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, Medicare has been paying hospitals to treat patients at home, instead of in hospital, under its Hospital at Home program. Medicare pays hospitals the same rate for the...
Insulin costs: Biden v. Trump
If you are looking for our next president to lower your health care costs, there are multiple reasons to support President Biden over Donald Trump. One is insulin. Though Trump would like you to...
Save money, avoid hospital-owned outpatient facilities
One of the ways hospitals are generating more revenue is through ownership of doctors’ practices, outpatient surgical clinics and diagnostic centers. Hospitals can charge far higher fees for...
Why social health is as important as physical and mental health
I’ve written a bunch about the value of a buddy or buddies to your overall health, as well as the health costs of social isolation. A new piece by Kasley Killam in The Guardian lays out why...
Medicare Advantage offers less care at greater cost
In a paper for JAMA Network, Adam Gaffney et al. suggest the time is ripe for cutting our losses in Medicare Advantage and strengthening traditional Medicare for two reasons. People in Medicare...
How to care for your aging skin
Your skin is the largest organ in your body. As you age, though you might not become thin-skinned, your skin will inevitably thin. How should you care for your agin skin this summer? Why your skin is...
Issues with network adequacy and prior authorization in Medicare...
MedPAC, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, just released a report focused in part on Medicare Advantage network adequacy and prior authorization issues. People enrolled in Medicare Advantage...
Medicare will recalculate Medicare Advantage star ratings
Now two court cases in which insurers prevailed are leading the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to raise star ratings for some Medicare Advantage plans, without data to show they’ve...
Humana and CVS will raise costs for Medicare Advantage enrollees...
Humana and CVS intend to raise premiums and reduce benefits on their MA plans in 2025, reports Rebecca Pifer for Health Care Dive. They want to increase their profits further, even though the...