Medicare

In rejecting PSA screening for prostate cancer, an influential federal panel has chipped a cornerstone of preventive medicine, declaring that it's not always best to catch cancer as early as possible. "At best, PSA screening may help only 1 man in 1,000 avoid death from prostate cancer," the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said Monday. "Most prostate cancers found by PSA screening are slow growing, not life threatening, and will not cause a man any harm during his lifetime.

A MONTGOMERY County man who bilked Medicare in an ambulance-transport scheme was sentenced Thursday to time served and ordered to repay the government health-insurance program for seniors more than $1.3 million. Boris Rostovsky, 44, formerly of Bryn Athyn, pleaded guilty in August to health-care fraud. He had been in custody since his arrest in February 2011. Federal prosecutors said that in May and June 2010, Rostovsky schemed to bilk Medicare by directing his employees to transport patients via his private ambulance company, Grey Eagle, Inc. The patients were not eligible for transport by ambulance because they could walk or sit in a wheelchair, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Morgan said in court papers.

Medicare, which according to a new assessment will go bankrupt by 2024, is in dire need of reform. But there are right ways and wrong ways to go about it. The right reform would save money while giving seniors better access to care. Between 1991 and 2009, Medicare grew at an annual rate of 8 percent. In 2010, it cost the country an eye-popping $450 billion. We can't afford this for long. In the next 75 years, Medicare will face unfunded liabilities approaching $36 trillion. This is especially daunting because Americans are protective of the program.

President Bush yesterday signed into law the most sweeping changes to Medicare since its creation nearly four decades ago, including a new prescription-drug benefit for older Americans. The landmark law also will inject competition into the government health-care program for the first time, by letting private companies compete with traditional Medicare. Bush said the changes would bring Medicare into the 21st century. Critics predicted they would destroy the health-care safety net that serves 40 million older Americans.

Rich Welsh (Guest Opinion, July 30) appears to have been taken in by the Republican congressional leadership's disinformation to distract citizens from Rep. John Fox's votes for the Newt Gingrich budget that made deep cuts in Medicare. In reality, it is the Republican leaders and their right-wing allies who are "playing dirty on Medicare" in an attempt to undermine the AFL-CIO's efforts to educate the American public. They have even stooped to threatening libel suits against TV and radio stations that run AFL-CIO ads documenting votes for drastic cuts in Medicare by members of Congress, including Jon Fox. Welsh parrots the GOP's line that House Speaker Newt Gingrich wasn't referring to Medicare when he said, "We think it's going to wither on the vine.

More and more seniors are opting to remain in the workforce nowadays, even after their Social Security kicks in, leaving questions about Medicare benefits for another day. When another day arrives, chances are a retiree needs help in deciding where to go for supplemental health coverage, whether to sign up with an HMO or any one of the more than 40 insurance providers registered in Pennsylvania. Where does one find this kind of free help? In Delaware County it's an agency called Horizons Unlimited, which administers a state-funded Medicare health insurance counseling program known as APPRISE.

Edward Howard thought he was prepared for old age. The former government worker had managed to save $130,000 for retirement. He owned his ranch house in a suburb of Washington. And he had monthly income of nearly $2,300 from a pension and Social Security. Because he was 65, Howard automatically qualified for Medicare, the federal health-insurance program for the elderly. But just to be on the safe side, he bought four health-insurance policies. "I thought I had all the bases covered," Howard, a 72-year-old amputee, said in a recent interview.

Republicans greeted President Clinton's proposal to expand Medicare to include the "near elderly" with all the grace Socks showed Buddy. Fangs bared and back arched. California Republican Bill Thomas, chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on health, said, "If the era of big government is over, why is the president proposing all these government expansions?" Texas Republican Sen. Phil Gramm called the plan "99 percent politics and 1 percent public policy. " And Ohio Republican John R. Kasich, head of the House Budget Committee, said there was no way Congress would approve.

LAST WEEK, I had to pay cash for my prescription because either Blue Cross' or our government's computers weren't updated to the changes in Medicare. Added to that aggravation is the unabashed greed the pharmaceutical industry expects us to support. My prescription plan has an annual cap. Because of that, I know the retail cost was $173 last year. This time, I had to pay $200. That increase, I suspect, is due solely to the federal government's paying either the whole freight or the difference in private coverage.

Older Americans and their caregivers have until Dec. 7 to enroll, or change enrollment, in Medicare. It can be a daunting task, especially getting signed up for prescription benefits. Here's help. At the government's Medicare site, click on "compare drug and health plans" to begin a search for the providers in your area. You'll be asked which prescription drugs you take, how much, and how often. You'll even be asked which pharmacies you use. The process, invented by politicians and bureaucrats, is tedious and not engineered for easy use by our elders.

Last year, the federal budget took a hit of $60 billion due to Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse, according to the U.S. Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services. This month, federal officials charged more than 100 health-care providers with Medicare fraud as a result of unrelated scams in seven major cities. Federal raids uncovered $452 million worth of false Medicare claims for care that was never provided, making it the biggest single Medicare bust in history. A federal program called Senior Medicare Patrol is using senior-citizen volunteers to educate other seniors about Medicare fraud, including how to detect it and avoid becoming a target.

Universal Health Services Inc., of King of Prussia, and its subsidiary Psychiatric Solutions Inc. agreed to pay $3.45 million to settle allegations of Medicare fraud at a California psychiatric facility before UHS purchased it. The alleged fraud, involving the failure of BHC Sierra Vista Hospital Inc. to provide all the services required under a certain Medicare program, occurred between January 2003 and September 2009. UHS's purchased Psychiatric Solutions in November 2010. The Sacramento hospital denied wrongdoing.

MIAMI - Federal authorities charged 107 doctors, nurses, and social workers in seven cities with Medicare fraud Wednesday in a nationwide crackdown on unrelated scams that allegedly billed the taxpayer-funded program $452 million - the highest dollar amount in a single Medicare bust in U.S. history. It was the latest in a string of major arrests in the last two years as authorities have targeted fraud that is believed to cost the government $60 billion to $90 billion a year. Stopping Medicare's budget from hemorrhaging that money will be key to paying for President Obama's health-care overhaul.

A Montgomery County man who bilked Medicare in an ambulance transport scheme was sentenced Thursday to time served and ordered to repay the government health insurance program for seniors more than $1.3 million. Boris Rostovsky, 44, formerly of Bryn Athyn, pleaded guilty in August to health-care fraud. He had been in custody since his arrest in February 2011. Federal prosecutors said that in May and June 2010, Rostovsky schemed to bilk Medicare by directing his employees to transport patients via his private ambulance company, Grey Eagle Inc. The patients were not eligible for transport by ambulance because they could walk or sit in a wheelchair, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Morgan said in court papers.

A MONTGOMERY County man who bilked Medicare in an ambulance-transport scheme was sentenced Thursday to time served and ordered to repay the government health-insurance program for seniors more than $1.3 million. Boris Rostovsky, 44, formerly of Bryn Athyn, pleaded guilty in August to health-care fraud. He had been in custody since his arrest in February 2011. Federal prosecutors said that in May and June 2010, Rostovsky schemed to bilk Medicare by directing his employees to transport patients via his private ambulance company, Grey Eagle, Inc. The patients were not eligible for transport by ambulance because they could walk or sit in a wheelchair, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Morgan said in court papers.

Medicare, which according to a new assessment will go bankrupt by 2024, is in dire need of reform. But there are right ways and wrong ways to go about it. The right reform would save money while giving seniors better access to care. Between 1991 and 2009, Medicare grew at an annual rate of 8 percent. In 2010, it cost the country an eye-popping $450 billion. We can't afford this for long. In the next 75 years, Medicare will face unfunded liabilities approaching $36 trillion. This is especially daunting because Americans are protective of the program.

Two days after agreeing to pay the U.S. government $42.8 million to settle allegations that it overbilled Medicare for the treatment of patients who needed intense inpatient rehabilitation, Tenet Healthcare Corp, the Dallas-based owner of Hahnemann University Hospital and St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, both in Philadelphia, said it expected to receive $84 million as part of an industrywide Medicare settlement. The settlement in favor of Tenet and other hospital operators came out of a 13-year-old lawsuit over Medicare's calculation of a wage index for urban hospitals relative to those in rural areas.

Vote as if your life depends on it It's a shame you buried the story "House GOP to ask to cut top tax rate" (Tuesday) on page A16. As Republican leaders explicitly call for corporate tax cuts and lowering the top tax bracket - whereas many would suggest we need a higher one for the really well-to-do - they have revealed themselves for who they are yet again. Despite this vast deficit, they want to cut taxes for the highest-income earners. Oh, but wait, it will all be OK. They say (allegedly)

WASHINGTON - House Republicans resurrected the specter of Medicare rationing Thursday in an election-year vote to repeal cost controls in President Obama's health-care overhaul. In the GOP crosshairs is a board that would be empowered to force cuts to drug companies, insurers, and other service providers if Medicare spending balloons. A Republican plan announced this week, laying down a dividing line between the parties, also would limit Medicare cost increases, but it would rely on competition among private insurance plans.