News and Features Related to Medicare

1. FDA to Get Access to Medicare Part D Data
   

   May 22, 2008 -- The FDA will soon start monitoring massive amounts of Medicare’s medical records in an effort to more closely monitor drug safety under new rules set by the Bush administration, federal officials said Thursday. The new rules will give FDA researchers access to data from Medicare’s Pa

   Read Full Article
2. Need a Good Hospital? Gov’t Can Help
   

   May 21, 2008 -- Newspapers across the country are carrying ads today promoting a government-run web site comparing the quality of U.S. hospitals. The ads, which cost taxpayers $1.9 million, are meant to steer readers toward the "Hospital Compare" site run by the Department of Health and Human Servic

   Read Full Article
3. Shop Around if You Pay for Pills
   

   May 5, 2008 -- If you shell out cash for prescription drugs, you may want to shop around for the best price. That's according to a new survey from Consumer Reports. Researchers from the magazine made more than 500 telephone calls to 163 pharmacies in the U.S. to compare prices on four popular prescr

   Read Full Article
4. Cancer Price Tag in Billions for Elders
   

   April 29, 2008 -- Medicare costs for cancer are expected to reach $21 billion dollars for five years of care. That's according to the latest data from the National Cancer Institute. Researchers found that when it comes to paying for cancer care, the price tag may depend on the cancer type, the phase

   Read Full Article
5. Medicare Patients Cut Back on Prescriptions
   

   April 22, 2008 -- Nearly one-fifth of ill Medicare patients cut back on their medications to save money, despite being covered by the program's Part D drug plan, a study shows. The report shows that in 2006, 20% of Medicare Part D beneficiaries -- in fair or poor health -- skipped medications, cut p

   Read Full Article
6. Crisis Ahead for Elderly Health Care?
   

   April 14, 2008 -- Experts warned Monday that the United States faces a massive health care shortage that threatens to leave millions of seniors without proper health care within the next three decades. A report issued by the Institute of Medicine says that medical and nursing schools are training fa

   Read Full Article
7. Gov't Launches Hospital Comparisons Site
   

   March 28, 2008 -- Federal health officials released the latest version of a web site Friday that lets the public compare about 2,500 hospitals on some measures of quality. The site pulls together some information that Medicare has made available to the public since 2005. Officials say the effort wou

   Read Full Article
8. Experts Predict Medicare Fund Shortage
   

   March 25, 2008 -- Medicare's trust fund will spend more than it receives from taxes this year, a report warned Wednesday. The event marks the beginning of what Bush administration officials predict is the start of a slide toward possible bankruptcy for Medicare's Part A Trust Fund, which pays hospit

   Read Full Article
9. Brand-Name Prescription Drug Costs Up
   

   March 5, 2008 -- The cost of brand-name prescription drugs rose again in 2007, according to the advocacy group AARP. But the prescription drug industry says AARP's numbers miss the mark. The AARP Public Policy Institute's latest Rx Watchdog Report tracks the prices that manufacturers charge wholesal

   Read Full Article
10. Health Spending to Double by 2017
    

    Feb. 26, 2008 -- Health care spending will take up a fifth of the U.S. economy in the next decade, according to government economic projections released today. Government economists predict that the nation's total health care bill will nearly double from $2.2 trillion this year to $4.3 trillion by 2

    Read Full Article