http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A study suggests that diagnostic tests are frequently repeated among Medicare beneficiaries, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-common-medicare-beneficiaries.html Health Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:00:04 EST news272562394 Heart failure is a relatively common complication in older women with breast cancer, but the risk is even higher in those patients treated with adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin), Yale School of Medicine researchers report in the current issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-heart-failure-older-breast-cancer.html Cardiology Wed, 14 Nov 2012 15:30:01 EST news272129356 Reforming Medicare payments based on large geographic regions may be too bluntly targeted to promote the best use of health care resources, a new analysis from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health suggests. The analysis will be published in the Nov. 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-regional-analysis-masks-substantial-local.html Health Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:19:07 EST news270933530 Medicare beneficiaries are overpaying by hundreds of dollars annually because of difficulties selecting the ideal prescription drug plan for their medical needs, an investigation by University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health researchers reveals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-medicare-beneficiaries-overspend-hundreds.html Health Tue, 09 Oct 2012 16:20:02 EST news269018396 (Medical Xpress)—A new clinical study spearheaded by the dean of UCLA's School of Nursing has found a direct correlation between pressure ulcers—commonly known as bedsores—and patient mortality and increased hospitalization.   The research is believed to be the first of its kind to use data directly from medical records to assess the impact of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers on Medicare patients at national and state levels.   According to the study, featured as the lead article in the current issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, seniors who developed pressure ulcers were more likely to die during their hospital stay, to have longer stays in the hospital, and to be readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of their discharge. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-hospital-bedsores-patient-mortality.html Health Tue, 02 Oct 2012 07:36:44 EST news268382195 Almost one-third of older adults received care in a skilled nursing facility in the last six months of life under the Medicare posthospitalization benefit, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-high-medicare-skilled-nursing-benefit.html Health Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:00:01 EST news268315800 The protection of the savings of the elderly—one of the primary goals of Medicare—is under threat from a combination of spiraling healthcare costs and increased longevity. As the government attempts to reduce Medicare costs, one suggestion is that the elderly could pay a larger proportion of the costs of their healthcare. But exactly how much would this be and what impact would it have on their finances? A new study by Amy Kelley at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and her colleagues, funded by the National Institute on Aging, aims to identify the portion of wealth Medicare beneficiaries spend on healthcare costs in the last five years of life. Their work appears online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-health-care-elderly-hard-diminish-financial.html Health Tue, 04 Sep 2012 16:32:53 EST news265995030 (AP)—The Federal Trade Commission says it is mailing refund checks to 13,000 Medicare beneficiaries who were overcharged for drugs because a CVS Caremark Corp. business understated the price of the products. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-ftc-refunds-cvs-business-overcharging.html Medications Tue, 04 Sep 2012 13:40:01 EST news265983810 Medicare patients 65 years and older who underwent cataract surgery had a lower odds of hip fracture 1 year after the procedure when compared with patients with cataract who did not have cataract surgery, according to a study in the August 1 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-older-patients-hip-fracture-cataract.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:00:01 EST news262968183 (Medical Xpress) -- Adding stroke severity to a hospital 30-day mortality model based on claims data for Medicare beneficiaries with acute ischemic stroke was associated with improvement in predicting the risk of death at 30 days and changes in performance ranking regarding mortality for a considerable proportion of hospitals, according to a new study whose authors include two University of Cincinnati (UC) neurologists. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-severity-mortality.html Health Fri, 20 Jul 2012 10:47:03 EST news262000017 Elderly beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare plans are more satisfied with their health insurance, have better access to care, and are less likely to have problems paying medical bills than people who get insurance through employers or those who purchase coverage on their own, according to a new Commonwealth Fund study published today in Health Affairs. The study also found that beneficiaries enrolled in private Medicare Advantage plans are less satisfied with their insurance than those with a traditional Medicare plan, and more likely to experience access problems. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-elderly-medicare-beneficiaries-health.html Health Wed, 18 Jul 2012 16:09:00 EST news261846529 As part of the Affordable Care Act, hospitals and medical centers are required to report their quality-of-care and risk-standardized outcomes for stroke and other common medical conditions. But reporting models for mortality that don't consider stroke severity may unfairly skew these results. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-hospitals-stroke-care-markedly-severity.html Health Tue, 17 Jul 2012 16:00:10 EST news261750250 Although some have suggested that patients receiving medication for immune-mediated diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or psoriasis may be at increased risk of herpes zoster (HZ; shingles) shortly after receipt of the vaccine, an analysis that included nearly 20,000 vaccinated Medicare beneficiaries finds that the live zoster vaccine is not associated with an increased risk of HZ shortly after vaccination in patients currently treated with biologics, and that it is associated with a significantly reduced longer-term risk of HZ in patients with an immune-mediated disease, according to a study in the July 4 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-shingles-vaccine-patients-psoriasis-rheumatoid.html Immunology Tue, 03 Jul 2012 16:37:45 EST news260552259 Although use of hospice services is increasing dramatically, a study led by Regenstrief Institute investigator Kathleen T. Unroe, M.D., MHA, an assistant research professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine, has found that nonwhite Medicare patients with heart failure are 20 percent less likely to enroll in hospice than their white counterparts. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-impact-enrollment-disenrollment-hospice.html Health Mon, 25 Jun 2012 12:00:01 EST news259843487 (HealthDay) -- A variety of procedural and biologic factors contribute to the development of interval colorectal cancers, seen in 7.2 percent of Medicare beneficiaries, according to a study published in the June 15 issue of Cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-prevalence-predictors-interval-colorectal-cancer.html Cancer Fri, 08 Jun 2012 12:17:18 EST news258376624 A dozen recommendations to ensure that Medicare beneficiaries have access to high-quality, coordinated care were provided today by the American College of Physicians (ACP). The new policy paper, Reforming Medicare in the Age of Deficit Reduction, was released at Internal Medicine 2012, ACP's annual scientific meeting. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-internal-medicine-physician-specialists-policy.html Other Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:12:00 EST news254146299 Patients who paid for heart medications solely through Medicare were 57 percent more likely to not take them during coverage gaps compared to those who had a Part D low-income subsidy or additional insurance, according to research published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-patients-heart-drugs-medicare-coverage.html Cardiology Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:00:06 EST news253888926 Kidney cancer patients who had only their tumor removed had better survival than patients who had their entire kidney removed, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-kidney-cancer-patients.html Cancer Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:53:36 EST news253878810 An analysis of Medicare beneficiaries suggests that surgical treatment for nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) increased substantially from 2001 through 2006, primarily due to a doubling in the rate of Mohs micrographic surgery procedures, according to a report published in the April issue of Archives of Dermatology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-medicare-mohs-micrographic-surgery-surgical.html Health Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:04:59 EST news253811091 The majority of Medicare beneficiaries with kidney failure participate in Medicare's Part D prescription drug coverage program, and most of these receive a low-income subsidy from the program, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The study presents the most comprehensive description of drug coverage to date among Medicare beneficiaries with kidney failure. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-drug-coverage-medicare-beneficiaries-kidney.html Health Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:00:12 EST news250443433 Even though a large clinical study demonstrated that radiation has limited benefit in treating breast cancer in some older women, there was little change in the use of radiation among older women in the Medicare program, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in the March Journal of Clinical Oncology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-evidence-benefit-older-breast-cancer.html Cancer Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:00:03 EST news250167131 (AP) -- Years after Jacques Roy started filing paperwork that would have made his practice the busiest Medicare provider in the U.S., authorities say they've found most of his work was a lie. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-doctor-medicare-scheme.html Health Wed, 29 Feb 2012 12:56:09 EST news249742562 Telephone motivational counseling sessions did not result in a statistically significant improvement in adherence to an osteoporosis medication regimen, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-intervention-adherence-osteoporosis-medication-regimen.html Health Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:00:11 EST news249573776 The American Heart Association has launched the online-only open-access Journal of the American Heart Association: Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Disease (JAHA) -- packed with free peer-reviewed research on heart disease and stroke. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-american-heart-association-free-access-online.html Cardiology Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:00:02 EST news249046992 A new study by researchers at Tufts Medical Center provides unique insight into factors that affect Medicare decisions on whether to pay for medical technologies. The study, published online by the journal Medical Care, underscores that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has incorporated evidence-based medicine into its decision making, highlighting the importance of the strength and quality of the supporting clinical evidence. Further, the research provides important insight into the "reasonable and necessary" criteria, illustrating the significance of the availability of alternative therapies, while suggesting that CMS accounts for value in coverage decisions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-factors-underlying-medicare-decisions-coverage.html Health Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:42:35 EST news248355745 Family companions who routinely accompany older adults to physician office visits could be helpful to health care quality improvement efforts, according to a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The authors found that three-quarters of older adults who attend physician visits with a family companion are consistently accompanied over time, nearly always by the same companion. The results are featured in the January 2012 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-physician-older.html Health Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:42:38 EST news246555753 Demographics and clinical factors appear to be associated with survival in patients with Parkinson disease (PD), and the presence of dementia is associated with a significant increase in mortality, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Neurology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-demographic-clinical-factors-survival-patients.html Parkinson's & Movement disorders Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:00:04 EST news244731482 The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has prepared a request to submit to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to expand coverage of medical nutrition therapy (MNT) for specific diseases, including hypertension, obesity, and cancer, as part of the CMS National Coverage Determination (NCD) Process. Most chronic health conditions can be controlled or treated with medical nutrition therapy, yet Medicare will only reimburse nutrition therapy services provided by a registered dietitian for individuals with diabetes and renal disease. "That's just not enough if we want to improve the health of the nation and rein in escalating healthcare costs," says Marsha Schofield, MS, RD, LD, the Academy's Director of Nutrition Services Coverage. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-academy-nutrition-dietetics-advocates-nutritional.html Health Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:10:10 EST news243490146 Between 1998 and 2008, heart-failure related hospitalizations declined substantially among Medicare patients, but at a lower rate for black men, according to a study in the October 19 issue of JAMA. Also, 1-year mortality rates declined slightly during this period, but remain high. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-hospitalization-heart-failure-medicare-patients.html Cardiology Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:22:59 EST news238173769 Advance directives do have an impact on health care at the end of life, especially in regions of the country with high spending on end-of-life care, according to a University of Michigan study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-advance-palliative-medicare-end-of-life.html Health Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:50:58 EST news236965845