Only about 10 percent of all legal cases are reversed according to Ruggero Aldisert, a federal appeals judge. Even worse, an appeal over social security disability benefits wins in only 2 percent to 3 percent of cases. So you might think it likely that Medicare appeals would also have low rates for reversal but not…
Under the 2010 Affordable Care Act many preventive screenings and treatments are covered even for those individuals with high deductible insurance plans. High deductible plans were created to encourage consumers to make better educated decisions about their health care expenses but consumers get confused. According to research by Kaiser Health News, many consumers with high…
The average life expectancy of an American woman is 80.8 years, while American men live only 75.6 years on average. In fact, pretty much wherever you live in the world, no matter how short your life expectancy is, if you’re a woman, you’re going to live on average at least a couple months longer than…
The Leapfrog group released its latest safety scorecard for 2,619 American hospitals and most have seen an improvement since the initial scorecard the group published in June. The group calculates the score using publicly available data about 11 outcome measures and 15 process measures including the frequency of blood line infections, falls, bedsores and consistency…
There are two kinds of liens. TEFRA (Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act) liens or pre-death liens occur when the recipient is permanently institutionalized. Post-death liens are placed against the estate of a deceased Medicaid recipient. TEFRA liens give the states the option to use a lien to prevent the recipient from giving away assets…
The Medicare Payment Advisory Committee, a federal watchdog agency, raised concerns about improper billing for therapy by skilled nursing facilities (SNF). Based on a survey by the Office of Attorney General, SNFs overcharged by $1.5 billion for therapy services that were either not needed or not provided. The study goes on to say that about…
In 1988, Congress enacted provisions to prevent long-term care expenses from depleting a couple’s life time savings and leaving a spouse still able to live at home with little to no resources for his/her own living expenses. That provision has since become known as spousal impoverishment. Under the provisions a certain amount of the couple’s…
Will Obamacare make it easier to raise Medicare’s retirement age to be on par with Social Security’s retirement age? That’s what Forbes contributor Avik Roy suggests. It’s an option Senator Joe Lieberman recommended this summer and something that 56 percent of Americans are okay with according to a Wall Street Journal poll. If the retirement…
In 2010, the Seattle Times published a report that gets mentioned on this site, in the Aging Options Resource Guide and by Rajiv Nagaich fairly often. That report, “Seniors for Sale,” concerned the treatment that elderly individuals received in Seattle/Tacoma area Adult Family Homes. The conclusion of that report was that individuals needed to do…
Have you gotten a vaccination recently? It turns out that the doctor should have prescribed that you get plenty of sleep as part of the treatment. A study published in the journal Sleep suggests that the effectiveness of vaccines increases or decreases with levels of sleep. Regardless of how much sleep you get, vaccines help…
We send out email newsletters and announcements monthly about planning for Health, Housing, Finance, and Legal needs for retirement. Would you like to sign up?