Latest News
Don’t fall prey to medical identity theft
By now, most people know about the perils of identity theft, where someone steals your personal or financial account information and makes fraudulent charges or opens bogus accounts in your name. ..Read MoreLately, a not-so-new twist has been getting a…
Privatization won’t fix the VA
FIRST IT was Social Security, then Medicare and Medicaid, and then the public health care option under Obamacare. Now, in the wake of recent allegations that veterans hospitals put patients on secret wait lists, Republicans are calling for the privatization of…
Federal reports: Gathering dust, per Congress’s order
THE 113th Congress doesn’t lack for reading material. As The Washington Post recently reported, members can look forward to the annual report on the state of Little League baseball, the report detailing the Social Security Administration’s printing operations, and the report that…
Medicare rules can leave seniors with unexpected costs
Medicare rules requiring seniors admitted to a hospital to receive three days of treatment as an inpatient prior to paying for follow-up care in a nursing home has left many on the hook for thousands in medical bills.That’s because hospitals…
The retirement apocalypse that isn’t coming
Grandma’s much-anticipated Arctic cruise becomes a slow drift away on an ice floe. Grandpa mortgages his kidneys to pay for a new heart. Social Security is deader than disco and “IRA” only refers to guys named Ira. That bleak vision…
Getting Married Has Its Financial Benefits
Forget the marriage penalty. If getting hitched has any financial effect, it’s likely to be a bonus. In the 1990s, there was much discussion about how the tax code penalized married couples. But many of the issues were addressed in…
State’s Medicaid program now covers naturopaths
Amanda Lewis and her husband use a naturopathic doctor, covered by their private insurance, as their primary-care provider. But until this year, the Sultan woman had to pay $95 a visit for her young son because naturopaths in Washington weren’t…
Is Medicare an example of how government can run health care?
On April 9, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released billing and collection data for the year 2012, for every physician practicing in the United States. This treasure trove of information, while being imperfect by not showing payments…
When Hospital Systems Buy Health Insurers
Another hospital system wants to buy another health insurance company, and consumers may well wonder what this trend could mean for them. As reported last week in Modern Healthcare, the St. Louis-based Ascension Health, the country’s largest nonprofit hospital system, “is in…
Many Americans fear going broke in retirement
Many Americans with significant savings fear going broke in retirement, but they aren’t willing to cut back on their current lifestyle to save more for the future, a new survey shows. About 55% of respondents say they fear not having enough…