"Baby boomers likely to stay where they are in retirement, poll says" October 27, 2011|By Derek Kravitz, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Many baby boomers say they are likely to stay put in retirement amid a shaky economy. Those who hope to buy a new place are looking for a smaller home somewhere with a better climate that is more affordable and close to family, a new poll finds....
Overall, about 6 in 10 baby boomers say their workplace retirement plans, personal investments, or real estate lost value during the economic downturn. Of this group, 53 percent say they will have to delay retirement because their nest eggs shrank.
But big Wall Street banks are doing just fine, thank you.
Financial specialists say those losses, including home prices that have dropped by a third nationwide over the past four years, have left boomers anxious about moving and selling their homes.
“There’s a mistrust of the real estate market that we didn’t have before,’’ said Barbara Corcoran, a New York real estate consultant. “There’s a concern about whether people will get money out of their house. They envision the home as a problem, not an asset, and this unshakable belief in homes as a tool for retirement has been shaken to the core.’’
Not a good feeling about what is supposed to be your sanctuary from the world.
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"Boomers’ anxiety over retirement is growing" November 11, 2011|Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A majority of baby boomers say they have taken a financial hit in the past three years, and most now doubt that they will be financially secure after they retire, according to a new poll.
So much for kicking back at the lake house, long afternoons of golf, or pretty much anything this generation had dreamed about in retirement....
Of course, the elitists the insulting paper serves will be doing just that as you continue to slave away.
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Good luck finding a physician:
"US faces geriatrics specialist shortage; Gap worsening as boomers age" November 06, 2011|By Matt Sedensky, Associated Press
PALATKA, Fla. - Though not every senior needs one, geriatricians’ training often makes them the best equipped to respond when an older patient has multiple medical problems. But with few doctors drawn to the field and some fleeing it, the disparity between the number of geriatricians and the population it serves is destined to grow even starker....
Geriatricians rank among the lowest-paid medical specialties, with a median salary of $183,523 last year, according to the Medical Group Management Association, which tracks physicians’ pay. That sounds like a lot, but many other specialties pay two or three times more, while the average doctor graduates with $160,000 in student loan debt....
They hook you any way they can.
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At least you'll always have Medicare:
"Medicare copays to rise for brand-name drugs" November 17, 2011|By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - With three weeks left for seniors to change their Medicare prescription plan for 2012, a study brings distressing news: Copays for brand-name drugs are going up - sharply in some cases.
But you are going to love Obama's health plan.
Copays for preferred brand-name drugs will increase by 40 percent on average next year, and nonpreferred brands will average nearly 30 percent more, according to the study by Avalere Health. Copays are the portion of the cost of each prescription that the customer pays the pharmacy.
Avalere, a data analysis company that serves industry and government, said its findings show that Medicare prescription plans are steadily shifting costs to chronically ill patients who need more expensive kinds of medications. At the same time, the plans are trying to keep costs in check for the majority whose conditions can be managed with less-expensive generics.
It just shows you how little this government really cares for its citizens. Wars and Wall Street never want.
The changing scene underscores how important it is for seniors to check their prescription coverage before open enrollment ends Dec. 7.
This pisses me off because the last thing old people need is instability. Just get 'em what they need with as little hassle as possible.
Medicare announced this summer that premiums for prescription plans would remain unchanged next year, an average of about $30 a month. But the government’s numbers didn’t delve into detail on copays. The Avalere study shows that the plan with the lowest monthly premium may not always be the best deal.
“Seniors need to look beyond the premium to understand their drug benefit,’’ said Avalere chief executive Dan Mendelson. “The more the cost burden gets shifted onto the patient who needs the medication, the more important it is for seniors to understand that next level.’’
Medicare officials took issue with the study, saying broad averages of prices charged by drug plans don’t determine what an individual beneficiary will end up paying.
“Everyone’s drug needs are going to be individual,’’ said Medicare deputy administrator Jonathan Blum. “You can’t make a general conclusion until you look at the particular plan they are in and the particular drugs they are taking.’’
Blum pointed out that President Obama’s health care overhaul law is saving money for beneficiaries with high drug costs, providing a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs for those who fall into Medicare’s “doughnut hole’’ coverage gap.
The administration is highly sensitive to criticism of its stewardship of Medicare. After Obama’s health care law cut the program to finance coverage for the uninsured, many seniors responded by voting for Republicans in the 2010 congressional elections....
And they are going to do it again.
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Related(?):
"Berwick was a controversial figure among Republicans mainly because of his praise for Britain’s single-payer system"
Yeah, whatever you get you can't have that, Americans -- and I believe we all know why.
And let's hope you don't need any drugs:
"Obama tackles shortages of drugs; FDA must watch for warning signs" November 01, 2011|By Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - There’s already a crisis in the eyes of many frustrated doctors and hospitals who are scrambling for supplies of medicines ranging from common chemotherapies, to anesthetics used in surgery, to the electrolytes that are crucial to IV feeding in intensive care. Fifteen deaths have been blamed on shortages. Patients have had treatments delayed, surgeries canceled, or had to use second-choice medications.
Hospitals are reporting price-gouging - such as a drug that usually costs $26 being offered for $1,200.
Sometimes, “you have to look the patient in the eye and say, ‘I can’t treat you,’ ’’ said Dr. James Speyer, medical director of the clinical cancer center at New York University Langone Medical Center....
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And about that Medicare payment:
"Medicare fraud aided by appeal process" October 17, 2011|By Kelli Kennedy, Associated Press
MIAMI - Regulators fighting an estimated $60 billion to $90 billion a year in Medicare fraud frequently suspend Medicare providers, then quickly reinstate them after appeals hearings that government employees don’t even attend, according to a review of federal records.
Related: Feds Miss Medicare Fraud
Federal prosecutors say the speedy reinstatements - though helpful to legitimate suppliers who get snagged on technicalities or minor violations - amount to a missed chance to cut off the flow of taxpayer dollars to bogus companies that in many cases wind up under indictment. Some store owners have collected tens of thousands of dollars even after conviction, prosecutors said.
Now I'm starting to have second thoughts about national health care.
Making matters worse, Medicare officials have failed to collect a single cent from the security bonds that were instituted two years ago specifically to discourage crooked providers from vanishing at the first sign of trouble from regulators. Millions of dollars sit unrecovered; officials blame the delay on personnel changes.
The gaps in the system grow out of poor communication between one set of contractors paid to inspect Medicare providers and alert officials to suspicious activity; a separate set of contractors that handles payments; and the agency that runs Medicare.
Often, neither the government nor its private contractors attend the initial hearings when suspended companies appeal, allowing them to win practically by default. Officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services declined to say why - be it staffing concerns or other issues - they aren’t part of the process, even though it is overseen by contractors the agency hires.
For years, Medicare has paid claims first and reviewed them later - a process that worked when providers were mostly hospitals because quick payments meant few lapses in service. But the “pay and chase’’ method has become a boon for criminals, allowing them weeks of lag time to bill for fraudulent claims, receive payment, and skip town before authorities catch on.
Medicare fraud has grown so lucrative and so easy that drug dealers and organized crime rings have entered the field because it affords greater payoffs and carries shorter prison sentences than drug trafficking or robbery....
At least you know where the tax loot is going.
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Related:
"The letter comes as fraud in the taxpayer-funded program has become an epidemic in recent years, with providers billing Medicare billions for suspicious products and services including prosthetic limbs for patients with all their limbs, penis pumps for female patients, or wheelchairs for dead patients....
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"Medicare antifraud efforts get low marks" by Kelli Kennedy Associated Press / November 15, 2011
Contractors paid tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to detect fraudulent Medicare claims are using inaccurate and inconsistent data that makes it extremely difficult to catch bogus bills submitted by crooks, according to an inspector general’s report released Monday.
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"Problems Persist With Medicare Fraud Contractors" by Kelli Kennedy, Associated Press
MIAMI (AP) — Contractors paid tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to detect fraudulent Medicare claims are using inaccurate and inconsistent data that makes it extremely difficult to catch bogus bills submitted by crooks, according to an inspector general’s report released Monday.
Medicare’s contractor system has morphed into a complicated labyrinth, with one set of contractors paying claims and another combing through those claims in an effort to stop an estimated $60 billion a year in fraud. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services inspector general’s report — obtained by The Associated Press before its official release — found repeated problems among the fraud contractors over a decade and systemic failures by federal health officials to adequately supervise them.
And yet they are going to be in charge of national health care?
Health officials are supposed to look at key criteria to find out whether contractors are effectively doing their job — for instance, how many investigations the contractors initiate. But investigators found that health officials sometimes ignored whether contractors were opening any investigations at all.
The contractors are supposed to detect fraud by checking for spikes in basic data, such as what type of service was given, how much of it was given and how much it cost. But contractors were reporting their progress in different ways, and some of the information they turned over to federal health officials about their performance was inaccurate.
The same issues were identified 10 years ago by inspector general investigators, and dozens of reports in the past decade also have found problems....
And yet nothing is ever fixed, huh?
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