Mild Lung Disease Linked to Heart Function
People with a mild form of a common lung condition—even those without symptoms—are at increased risk for heart problems, according to a new study. This is the first report that mild, often-symptomless chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may be linked to the heart’s pumping ability.
The Health Benefits of Cutting Salt
A computer model suggests that even a modest reduction in salt intake could significantly reduce the number of deaths nationwide from coronary heart disease.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a serious condition that can lead to coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, kidney failure and other health problems. About 1 in 3 adults in the United States has hypertension.
The Balanced Budget Act of 1997, as amended by the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act (OCESAA) of 1999, called for the development and implementation of a prospective payment system (PPS) for Medicare home health services. The BBA put in place the interim payment system (IPS) until the PPS could be implemented. Effective October 1, 2000, the home health PPS (HH PPS) replaced the IPS for all home health agencies (HHAs).
The PPS proposed rule was published on October 28, 1999, with a 60-day public comment period, and the final rule was published on July 3, 2000. This section contains useful information for understanding and implementing the prospective payment system for home health agencies.
African-Americans continue to bear the largest and most disproportionate burden of HIV/AIDS of all racial and ethnic groups in the United States. While black men and women made up 13 percent of the U.S. population in 2007,[1] they accounted for more than half of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses that year and nearly half of all Americans living with HIV/AIDS.[2] For black women ages 35 to 44, HIV was the third leading cause of death in 2006.[3] In our nation’s capital, whose HIV/AIDS epidemic is among the worst in the United States, 6.5 percent of black men are living with the virus — a percentage higher than that of any other racial, ethnic or gender group in the city,[4] and higher than in many countries in Africa.[5]
Today, on the 10th annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, we are inspired to improve our efforts to overcome this public health crisis in the black community. We have a national responsibility to alleviate the HIV/AIDS-related suffering of African-Americans by ensuring that they have full knowledge of — and access to — all proven forms of HIV prevention, treatment and care. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, joins African-Americans in remembering those who have died with AIDS and in fighting this modern plague.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has launched the fifth annual health care provider satisfaction survey of the Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) contractors that process and pay more than $370 billion in Medicare claims each year.
The Medicare Contractor Provider Satisfaction Survey (MCPSS) offers Medicare FFS providers an opportunity to give CMS feedback on their satisfaction, attitudes, perceptions, and opinions about the services provided by their respective contractor. Survey questions focus on seven key business functions of the provider-contractor relationship: Provider Inquiries, Provider Outreach & Education, Claims Processing, Appeals, Provider Enrollment, Medical Review, and Provider Audit & Reimbursement.
If you wait to sign up for Part B because you or your spouse is currently working, and you are covered by a group health plan based on that work, or if you are disabled and you or a family member is working, and you are covered by a group health plan based on that work.
You can sign up for Part B anytime while you have group health plan coverage based on current employment or during the 8-month period that begins the month after the employment ends, or the group health plan coverage ends, whichever happens first. If you have COBRA coverage, you must enroll during the 8-month period that begins the month after the employment ends. This Special Enrollment Period doesn’t apply to people with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD).
In another key step to further states’ role in developing a robust U.S. health information technology (HIT) infrastructure, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced today that Wisconsin’s Medicaid program will receive federal matching funds for state planning activities necessary to implement the electronic health record (EHR) incentive program established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). Wisconsin will receive approximately $1.37 million in federal matching funds.
EHRs will improve the quality of health care for the citizens of Wisconsin and make their care more efficient. The records make it easier for the many providers who may be treating a Medicaid patient to coordinate care. Additionally, EHRs make it easier for patients to access the information they need to make decisions about their health care.
Two demonstrations comprised of a community-wide health information exchange in Indiana and a consortium of several community care physician networks in North Carolina are being implemented to encourage the delivery of improved quality care to an estimated 130,000 beneficiaries in those states, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
The demonstrations are part of the national, five-year Medicare Health Care Quality (MHCQ) demonstration mandated by Congress in the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA). The Indiana and North Carolina demonstrations will make more effective use of best practice guidelines, encouraging shared decision making between providers and patients, and altering incentives for care delivery.
Now, you can help someone you care about apply for Extra Help with their Medicare prescription drug plan costs. Anyone who has Medicare can get Medicare prescription drug coverage. Some people with limited resources and income also are eligible for Extra Help to pay for the costs—monthly premiums, annual deductibles, and prescription co-payments—related to a Medicare prescription drug plan. The Extra Help is estimated to be worth an average of $3,900 per year.
Many people qualify for these big savings and don’t even know it. To find out if someone is eligible, Social Security will need to know the value of their savings, investments and real estate (other than their home), and their income. If they are married and living with their spouse, we will need this information for both of them.