Are you satisfied with your hospital?

According to a survey of 2.3M patients, there are more of you who are satisfied now compared to 5 years ago.

However, "room conditions, food quality and discharge process" are still a problem with many patients: more than 50% were not satisfied with their rooms, and more than 33% were not satisfied with their meals and discharge process.

Now, what we would like to know is what questions were asked of those surveyed and where were the hospitals located? According to the Wall Street Journal, there were more than 1,700 hospitals represented in this survey.

To find out how your hospital is rated by the government, you can check out the Hospital Compare tool on Medicare.gov.

Are you satisfied with your hospital?

Oversight for nursing homes receives a failing grade

Finding a nursing home for your loved one is difficult – especially one which you can trust will care for him/her the way s/he deserves. The least you can expect is that the nursing homes are regulated – at least by the government – especially if Medicare/Medicaid is paying for a patient’s stay. However, according to the New York Times article, "Oversight of Nursing Homes Is Criticized," a new report has been released by Congressional investigators stating the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) "fails to hold homes with a long history of harming residents accountable for the poor care provided." The government can legally impose, for compliance problems, a stiff penalty of up to $10K/day taken from the Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements owed to the nursing homes. However, this authority is seldom used.

For example:
The report found "that a nursing home was still open even though it had repeatedly been cited for 'poor quality care,' poor nutrition services, medication errors and employing people who had been convicted of abusing patients."

How can this be?

Considering "about 1.5 million people live in the nation's 16,400 nursing homes on any given day, more than 3 million people receive nursing-home care at some point in the year [and] Medicaid and Medicare pay for more than two-thirds of patients," why is there such failure to hold these nursing homes accountable? Some argue that stiff penalities would cause the nursing homes to shut down. If the nursing homes are not providing the care they should be and abusing their patients, they should be shut down! Would you risk putting your loved one in a nursing home in that situation?

Neither would we.

A blow to the Democrats

Unfortunately, the Senate blocked a proposal supported by the Democrats that would have allowed Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. Considering the Department of Vertans Affairs, HMO's and private companies such as Walmart can negotiate prices, why not Medicare who has over 43 million beneficiaries?

The reason for the block: because of " 'the power of the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry', which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on lobbying and advertisements against the bill."

Fortunately, "Senate would vote again on the issue, perhaps as an amendment to a spending bill or other measure."

"The fight will go on. "

And so it should.

AARP - Major Medicare insurer ... and major lobbyist

Hmmm… very interesting. On Monday, AARP announced it would offer a suite of products for those age 50 to 64 years old such as a high deductible insurance policy, a managed care plan, and other products… in addition to being the "largest provider of private insurance to Medicare recipients" when coverage becomes available next year.

Considering that a) "revenues and royalties from the sale of goods and services have, for many years, accounted for a substantial part of AARP's income," b) AARP is (possibly the largest and most powerful) lobbyist for older Americans and c) it is "perceived as the most important voice for older people", wouldn't this be considered a conflict of interest?

We think so.

And so do others.

According to the director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, "AARP will not be perceived as a truly independent advocate on Medicare if it's making hefty profits by selling insurance products that provide Medicare coverage." For instance, a topic that has been hotly debated between the two political parties is whether the role of private insurers be limited? AARP would instantly side with the Republicans opposing the limitation of private insurers. (And why not? They are a private insurer themselves and they are receiving a windfall.) However, is this the best choice for Medicare beneficiaries?

What do you think? Is there a conflict?

Prescription drug sales increase

It's great to see not all are against the Medicare Prescription Drug benefit. According to the Wall Street Journal article, "Prescription-Drug Sales Increase, Fueled by Medicare-Drug Benefit," US prescription drug sales rose 8.3% in 2006. "Prescriptions dispensed through the Medicare drug benefit accounted for 17% of retail prescriptions," -- pretty significant, especially in light of the report by the Consumers Union (see yesterday's blog entry).

It seems the Prescription drug benefit is one of the best things to occur to the pharma companies.

"If there's one thing that can bankrupt America, it's health care"

That is the statement made by the US Comptroller General, David Walker.

The Medicare Drug Benefit is under fire now, being called "probably the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s." The benefit was meant to help seniors with the cost of their prescriptions yet, a new report from Consumers Union found that 28% of private insurance plans offering the Medicare Part D increased the costs of their drugs in 2006 by 5% or more --- after seniors were already locked into their insurance plan for the year. Already, increases in some prescription drug costs have occurred in 2007-- and are expected to continue.

In order to get some accountability, the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sent "letters to Medicare drug plans requesting data to determine the size of drug plans' profits and whether discounts negotiated by PBMs [Prescription Benefit Managers] with drug makers were passed on to beneficiaries." This sounds like a reasonable request; however, the CMS Administrator declined the request stating "several independent entities … have concluded that public disclosure of negotiated price concessions will reduce the ability of pharmacy benefit managers and plans to negotiate significant discounts." Even the lobbyists representing the PBMs responded to the chairman's request by stating "... we think it's critical that the committee safeguard the information."

If the savings are being passed down to the beneficiaries (which doesn't explain the increases to the Part D plans), why the secrecy?