Medicare & Medicaid

Medicare and the healthcare system it helped create has led to a situation where healthcare companies, particularly hospitals, offer a reliable source of middle class employment but also consume larger-than-desired public and private budgets that threaten to crowd out investments in education, infrastructure and housing.

Medicare coverage at 50 would be a major incentive to move the rest of the U.S. healthcare system into the prevention business, which is already occurring.

The federal health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, has come a long way since its creation in 1965 when nearly half of all seniors were uninsured. Now the program covers 55 million people, providing insurance to one in six Americans.

Though it provides a vital safety net, Medicaid faces five big challenges to providing good care and control costs into the future.

Admissions and emergency-room care rose in centers that were part of the experiment compared with results in those that weren't.

Total Medicaid revenues for these MCOs soared 103 percent to $110.6 billion in 2014 from $54.6 billion in 2010, according to a study by Milliman.

Sadiq created fake patient files to fool a Medicare auditor by making it appear as if home health services were provided and medically necessary.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is falling short in busting potential fraud by not verifying physician addresses and making sure they are currently licensed, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.

At the top end, the highest median amount paid for the procedure is $61,231 in the Sacramento, California metropolitan area. On the other hand, the Birmingham, Alabama region books the lowest cost paid at $15,494.

Medicare applied the new quality measure to more than 9,000 agencies based on how quickly visits began and how often patients improved while under their care.