Supplemental health plans for Medicare insurance beneficiaries may soon be facing cutbacks as a result of the major reductions being made in the budget as a result of the special U.S. Congress deficit reduction panel. Medigap insurance plans provide additional coverage for many elderly people who have Medicare. These are individuals often live on fixed incomes. They rely on Medigap to protect them from the many deductibles and expenses for which Medicare does not provide coverage. A lobbyist that has been keeping track of the latest “super committee” developments explained…
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First large insurance company is ceasing coverage of Avastin breast cancer drug
Blue Shield in California, which is a health insurance company with 3.2 million members… is the first among the large insurers in the company to announce that they will no longer be providing coverage for the breast cancer drug called Avastin, following a unanimous recommendation by a federal advisory committee that the Food and Drug Administration rescind the medication’s approval as a treatment for the disease, stating that patients were not helped by its use. That said, Avastin is still holding onto its approval, as commissioner Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg…
Read MoreAnswers you should know to the FAQ’s about Medicare
Though it may feel overwhelming when you are faced with the most common questions to Medicare and Medicare Supplement Insurance, in truth, it doesn’t take hours of research to know what options are available to you. The most commonly asked question is regarding the difference between Medicare Advantage (MA) Plans, and the Original Medicare. The fact is that there are a number of important differences between them. The original plan is government Medicare, whereas MA is private Medicare. The two plans involve comparable out-of-pocket expenses. An MA plan is essentially…
Read MoreInsurance Dialogue launched new website to help people obtain coverage from Medicare
Insurance Dialogue, a company serving as a liaison between consumers and insurers, has launched a new initiative to boost enrollment in the federal Medicare program. The company has developed a website that aims to help consumers find the Medicare plans that are best suited to their needs. The website, RightMedicare.com, is part of an overarching endeavor to raise awareness of health insurance amongst those that may need it most. Many of these people may not be aware that they are eligible to receive coverage through the program, especially as health…
Read MoreProsecutions for healthcare fraud increase by 85 percent since 2010
Recently released federal statistics have shown that national healthcare fraud prosecutions have increased by 85 percent since the end of 2010, partially as a result to stepped-up efforts to enforce fraud laws under the Obama administration. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a non-partisan group, released the statistics which show that there have been 903 prosecutions in 2011 so far. That number is 24 percent higher than the total for all of 2010, when there were 731 healthcare fraud prosecutions through various federal agencies nationwide. Furthermore, TRAC statistics have shown…
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