Story Archives of 'Medicare'

The Nursing Home industry is sponsoring a series of ads in New Hampshire.

They are part of a national campaign.

The industry accuses the state's Congressional delegation of jeopardizing the health of nursing home patients by cutting medicare funds.

But the targets of those ads provide a different story.

New Hampshire Public Radio's Mark Bevis reports.

New Hampshire’s senior population is expected to more than double by 2020.

And companies are rushing in to the state to meet demands for in-home personal care by graying baby boomers.

But these companies cater to private-pay clients. The services are harder to come by for lower-income seniors.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that more than 2 million patients pick up infections at U.S. hospitals every year.

And about 90,000 are killed by them.

Costs for those Hospital Acquired Infections are an estimated $5 billion.

The reason those numbers are estimates is because most hospitals nationwide don’t report them.

Hospitals have been reluctant to publicize their infection rates, and most have never been required to.

And in some cases they are not even tracking the information.

But as of July 1st, a new state law will mandate that New Hampshire Hospitals provide this data to the state for public disclosure.

But so far the law remains un-funded.

NHPR’s Dianne Finch reports.

When the prescription drug benefit to Medicare was rolled out earlier this year, there was a lot of confusion over how much it would cost, what plans would be available and how much of an impact the so called "donut hole" would have. Since then, many private companies have stepped forward to offer plans, the cost has been lower than expected and a majority of seniors seem to be happy with the Medicare Part-D program. With the signup deadline looming at the end of this month, we'll take a look at how well New Hampshire seniors are dealing with the changes to the prescription drug benefit, what federal officials have been doing at the national level to help them better understand the new program and what the overall reaction has been to Medicare Part-D now that the program has been up and running for almost a year.

Laura's guests are Tom Maher, Regional Director for Medicare Today, Regional Director for the Healthcare Leadership Council and Dr. Charlotte Yeh, Region One Administrator for the Massachusetts Health Quality Partners and Regional Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in Region I, a Boston-based agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that administers Medicare and Medicaid.

You could say the “D” now stands for “deadline”…..as the last day to sign up for this federal drug plan is Monday. But New Hampshire ranks last among New England states in Part D registration….thousands are still un-enrolled, due to a wide array of reasons – one of them being confusion as the deadline approaches. We’ll ask those last minute questions about Part D. Laura's guests are Dr. Mark McClellan, Chief Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Dr. McClellan has been on an 11-month Medicare mobile tour, visiting 360 unique cities across the country educating and signing up seniors for Medicare drug plans. Also Tom Mahar, Regional Director of Medicare Today, an organization that educates seniors on their Medicare drug plan options throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic States.

Note: On Monday, May 15th Medicare Today along with several other Medicare related groups will put on an enrollment event in Concord at the Marriott Courtyard from 9am until 3pm. For more information call ServiceLink at 1-800-634-9412 or HICEAS at 1-800-852-3388.