Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Medicare Beneficiaries With Wanderlust Are Encouraged To Make Sure Their Coverage Travels, Too
Retired, vaccinated and ready to hit the road? Don鈥檛 forget to check whether your Medicare plan will travel with you. While coverage when you鈥檙e away from home depends partly on where you鈥檙e headed, it also hinges on the specifics of your coverage. Whether the care you receive is routine or emergency also can play a part. (O'Brien, 4/1)
A rise in the number of cancer diagnoses seen among those turning 65 indicates patients may be delaying medical care until they are insured through Medicare, according to research published March 29 in Cancer. Using a national database, researchers from Stanford (Calif.) School of Medicine analyzed hundreds of thousands of lung, breast, colon and prostate cancer diagnoses between 2004-16 among patients aged 61-69. (Carbajal, 4/1)
In other Medicare news 鈥
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, at its meeting on Thursday, approved several Medicare policy recommendations that will appear in its June report to Congress. The congressional advisory panel will recommend that CMS simplify its approach to alternative payment models. Commissioners approved an updated version of the recommendation presented by MedPAC's staff at last month's meeting. (Brady, 4/1)
A federal audit has concluded that Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center of Las Vegas improperly billed Medicare for more than $23.6 million in services and called on it to refund the money. Sunrise Hospital will appeal the decision by the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, triggering a process that could take 鈥渟everal years,鈥 CEO Todd Sklamberg said Thursday. (Dylan, 4/1)
Meanwhile, on the topic of nursing homes and covid infection rates 鈥
Risk factors for COVID-19 infection in US nursing homes were related to county and facility rather than resident characteristics, while risk of hospitalization and death was linked to both facility and resident factors in a nationwide study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston studied coronavirus infections, hospitalizations, and deaths among 482,323 residents at 15,038 nursing homes from Apr 1 to Sep 30, 2020. The virus infected 28.4% of residents, of whom 21.3% were hospitalized, and 19.2% died within 30 days. (4/1)
