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News, opinions and meeting coverage in geriatrics.

Primary Care: Medicare's 'Wellness Visit' Money Goes Unclaimed

Launched with great fanfare, wellness codes leave docs frustrated

Morning Break: Your Body on a Coke? No Sex for Grandpa

Health news and commentary from around the Web, gathered by the 麻豆传媒 staff

The Birth and Increasingly Troubled Life of Medicare

Fears of "socialized medicine" swept aside, but cost concerns eventually overtake program.

Diabetic Seniors Lobby for Medicare to Cover CGM Devices

Senate panel highlights glucose control issues facing Medicare patients with diabetes.

AMA Wants 2-Years of Grace for ICD-10 Errors

With time running out, AMA acts to protect physician payment

Pricey Drugs Prompt AMA to Ask FDA and FTC for Help

This time it's generics not brands

ICD-10: AMA Considers Grace Period to 'Save Docs'

No easy choices for AMA as it mulls next steps

Op-Ed: How to Rein In Out-of-Control Healthcare Costs

We all know the medical bill horror stories, but now we have to act on them.

Excerpt From 'Being Mortal ... '

Ivan Ilyich isn't as foreign to today's medicine as we imagine.

CardioBuzz: Toward the $500 an Hour Physician

In this guest blog, Mark Jay Zucker, MD, JD, an attorney and transplant cardiologist at Rutgers University New Jersey Medical School in Newark, explains why he thinks it's time to talk money.

Lethal Injections, MOC, and E-Cigs on AMA Agenda

The American Medical Association is being asked to strengthen its ethical stance on physician participation in execution by extending its ban on doctors participating to include all health professionals.

Calif. Docs Among Top Billers for Complex Visits

Three California doctors are among the top five nationally in billing for the most complex office visits, according to data released by Medicare and analyzed by ProPublica and KQED.

How To Get Medicare To Cover A Spa Trip

Good news for doctors who think their patients need a trip to the spa: Medicare will reimburse, with only two catches.

Treating HCV -- Is the Price Right?

New drugs on the horizon hold out the promise of being able to cure up to 90% of people with chronic hepatitis C (HCV). They are also promising to be expensive.

SGR Repeal Still Gets AMA Support

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- The AMA's policymaking House of Delegates voted nearly unanimously to continue its support of congressional efforts to repeal Medicare's payment formula despite its opposition to a 10-year pay freeze that's part of a draft proposal.

Fast-Acting AMA Group Hopes to Fix SGR

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- A large coalition of American Medical Association members met in seclusion Sunday morning here at the interim meeting of the House of Delegates and rapidly found consensus on a proposed resolution for the repeal of Medicare's sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula.

Medicare's DME Bidding Program Criticized

Despite complaints from multiple parties, Medicare's bidding program for durable medical equipment -- including diabetes supplies -- now includes suppliers to half of all program beneficiaries.

Oncology Clinics Caught in Financial Vise

Community oncology clinics continue to feel the squeeze of a changing reimbursement structure that has forced 288 clinics to close in the past 6 years.

Medicare to Pay for More FDG-PET Scans

WASHINGTON -- Up to three scans using 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-enhanced positron emission tomography technology can be covered by Medicare for oncology treatment planning, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said.

Close-Up: When Hospice Patients Live Too Long

Across the country, Medicare is cracking down on the hospice industry's growing habit of embracing those whose deaths aren't imminent.

OIG: Avastin a Better Buy for Wet AMD

茂禄驴WASHINGTON -- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should establish a national payment policy for bevacizumab (Avastin) to treat wet age-related macular degeneration, a government report concluded.

AMA: House of Delegates Backs Individual Mandate

CHICAGO -- The American Medical Association's House of Delegates has reaffirmed its support of individual responsibility -- including a requirement that most U.S. residents buy health insurance -- as the foundation of universal coverage.

Medicare Paid Millions for Viagra

WASHINGTON -- Despite a rule that bars Medicare reimbursement for erectile dysfunction treatment, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) paid out $3.1 million for the drugs in 2007 and 2008, a new government report found.

Not Enough Evidence to Use BMP Off-Label, Panel Says

BALTIMORE -- A Medicare advisory committee has voted that there is not enough evidence to warrant off-label use of recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein, or BMP, for bone surgery.

Medicare Finalizes Denial of Virtual Colonoscopy Coverage

BALTIMORE -- CT colonography for colorectal cancer screening will not be covered under Medicare, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has confirmed.

Medicare to Cover More PET Scans for Cancer Diagnosis

BALTIMORE -- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced expanded coverage of PET scans for Medicare patients suspected of having most cancers.

Nursing Homes Called 'Dumping Grounds' for Mentally Ill

BALTIMORE -- Young and middle-aged people with serious mental illnesses are increasingly being housed in nursing homes alongside elderly residents, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data show.

Is Cash-Only Medicine the Next Big Thing?

As increasing numbers of physicians work longer and harder to maintain income levels in the face of declining third-party reimbursements, some have opted out -- they're running cash-only practices, and respondents to a 麻豆传媒 online spotcheck think more doctors will join them.

Medicare Will Pay for tPA in Stroke Thrombolysis

WASHINGTON-Medicare is about to announce that beginning in October it will start paying hospitals for use of the thrombolytic drug tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) for treatment of ischemic stroke, according to published reports.