Category Archives: Medicare
August 14, 2009
August 14, 2009 > Regional variations in Medicare spending have long been a problem. These variations are not the disease to be cured; they are the symptoms of a health care system with some counterproductive incentives. A long-term restructuring of health care to reward quality and not quantity could organically, though perhaps not completely painlessly, reduce spending. read more
July 30, 2009
July 30, 2009 > Even though a major obstacle to agreement on the health care reform bills is their price tags, cost control is not being seriously confronted. read more
July 9, 2009
July 9, 2009 > A congregation of nuns in Rochester, N.Y., who live their last days with excellent palliative care in a supportive and stimulating environment, often choose not to have life-extending treatments. A geriatrician who cares for the nuns told The New York Times that they “have better deaths than any I have seen.” There is reason to believe that their care be replicated outside the convent. read more
May 27, 2009
May 27, 2009 > Doctors fail to discuss the final stages of life with their patients and they keep suggesting life-sustaining treatments that have little appreciable benefit. Better training and more incentives for doctors to have honest conversations with their patients are imperative if Medicare patients are to get appropriate care, and if costs are to be controlled. read more
May 26, 2009
May 26, 2009 > The routine use of innovative life-prolonging treatments has led to increasing interventions performed among people in their 80s and older. If we do not better define medical success and the best treatment plans in an aging society, we may find that we are wasting money at the end of life. read more
May 22, 2009
May 22, 2009 > Everyone is well aware that Medicare is in trouble. But it is not clear that everyone realizes just how serious it is. read more
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