{"id":9237,"date":"2012-10-25T08:08:40","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T15:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=9237"},"modified":"2012-10-25T08:20:32","modified_gmt":"2012-10-25T15:20:32","slug":"toward-more-sensible-medicare-coveraqge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/25\/toward-more-sensible-medicare-coveraqge\/","title":{"rendered":"Toward More Sensible Medicare Coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is my principal objection to the way Medicare works.  Nursing care, therapy and disability services are not covered unless the expectation from such care is to cure an illness or heal from an injury.  Many seniors need care for conditions that are not expected to improve.  I love those rare instances, when I can bring you good news.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"25health-care-reform\"Tens of thousands of people with chronic conditions and disabilities may find it easier to qualify for Medicare coverage of potentially costly home health care, skilled nursing home stays and outpatient therapy under policy changes planned by the Obama administration<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

In a proposed settlement of a nationwide class-action lawsuit, the administration has agreed to scrap a decades-old practice that required many beneficiaries to show a likelihood of medical or functional improvement before Medicare would pay for skilled nursing and therapy services<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Under the agreement, which amounts to a significant change in Medicare coverage rules, Medicare will pay for such services if they are needed to \u201cmaintain the patient\u2019s current condition or prevent or slow further deterioration<\/strong>,\u201d regardless of whether the patient\u2019s condition is expected to improve. <\/p>\n

Federal officials agreed to rewrite the Medicare manual to make clear that Medicare coverage of nursing and therapy services \u201cdoes not turn on the presence or absence of an individual\u2019s potential for improvement,\u201d but is based on the beneficiary\u2019s need for skilled care<\/strong>\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <NY Times<\/a>><\/p>\n

Photo credit: ElderCareAuthority<\/a><\/font><\/p>\n

It may take over a year to implement the changes, but that\u2019s expected.  You can be sure of one thing.  These changes would never<\/strong> take place under a Republican regime.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is my principal objection to the way Medicare works.  Nursing care, therapy and disability services are not covered unless the expectation from such care is to cure an illness or heal from an injury.  Many seniors need care for conditions that are not expected to improve.  I love those rare instances, when I can […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}