Medicare

Four years ago, doctors at Chesapeake Urology Associates started ordering the most expensive kind of prostate-cancer therapy for many more of their patients. Before 2007, the large, multi-office practice was prescribing the treatment, known as intensity modulated radiation therapy, for 12 percent of its prostate-cancer patients covered by Medicare, according to data compiled by a Georgetown University researcher. But starting in mid-2007, Chesapeake Urology's referral rate for IMRT more than tripled, rising to 43 percent of the Medicare cases.

In their recent op-ed ("The wrong fix for Medicare," April 3), Doctors Gary Pushkin and Anuradha Reddy, past presidents of the Baltimore County and Baltimore City medical societies, respectively, advocate abolishing, with no alternative proposal, the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) established to control Medicare costs by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Naturally, on behalf of themselves and the colleagues they represented, they wish to keep doctors' fees high, as members of any trade union would.

The owner of a Silver Spring eye surgery center has agreed t pay $750,000 in restitution and penalties to settle federal charges he submitted false Medicare claims, the U.S. attorney for Maryland and the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services announced yesterday.The case is the first in a stepped-up effort by the U.S. attorney to use civil action to supplement criminal cases in Medicare fraud and other frauds that help drive up health-care costs.The settlement also represents one of the largest civil penalties in recent years in Maryland.

Medicare is in desperate need of reform. Program costs are spiraling out of control and threatening to bankrupt the country. Here in Maryland, on average, each Medicare enrollee costs about $11,400 per year - that's a thousand dollars higher than the national average. Policymakers need to determine how to cut the program's costs. However, during that process, they need to be wary of compromising the care of beneficiaries. Some 800,000 Maryland seniors depend on Medicare to survive.

Medicare is a government-run healthcare system that works. People who have access to Medicare have a relatively positive experience with the services provided by the system. There is no reason that this program should not be extended to Americans who have lost a job, are in college or have just graduated and are looking for a job. As a student with parents who work for the federal government, I lost healthcare coverage when I turned 22. In the state of Maryland, if you are a student you can still be covered by your parents health insurance until you turn 25. Because both of my parents work for the federal government, federal rules trump state law, so my parents' federal benefits are not extended to cover my health care needs.

In response to Garrison Keillor's Jan. 27 commentary ("Don't knock elitism; it could save your life"): What a childish pout we have here, in explaining the Republican plan for health care as "let them die." I sincerely believe that the Democrats' proposed health care plan will cut nearly $500 billion from Medicare because that has been promised. That will most assuredly let someone die. I recently saw my first "comparative effectiveness" study. I was shocked to see the conclusion that Zocor would be preferred over Lipitor because the additional heart attacks with Zocor didn't cause so much lost work time as to cover the cost of the Lipitor!

Jay Hancock 's article about shared sacrifices was well written and I couldn't agree more with his main thrust of putting everything on the table for all to sacrifice, from entitlements to cuts in spending to raising revenue ("Fixing America needs contributions from everybody," Oct. 2). I will point to one piece and take another point of view. That is Medicare. I believe there is a way to reform Medicare making it more solvent without sacrifice. I suggest lowering the age of eligibility for Medicare to 55. This would add about 20 million new younger premium paying subscribers to Medicare.

Each time I write about reforming Medicare, the budget-busting health program for seniors, emails and blog comments follow. "I paid for my Medicare benefits," is the basic message. "It's not an entitlement. It's insurance. I'm just getting out of the system what I put in. " Retirees and boomers close to retirement are alarmed that substantial changes loom for the program they or their spouses contributed to for decades. Many see the potential cuts or greater required contributions as betrayal.

The Sun does a disservice in Noam N. Levey's reporting ("Medicare to run out in 2024," May 14). The article stresses the dates when the Medicare and Social Service trust funds run out of money, but these are, in fact, fairly meaningless milestones. The trust funds do not contain any funds. Today, the money to pay benefits comes from general funds, taxes, newly printed money or newly borrowed funds. As noted in the article, Social Security benefits are already being paid partially from the trust fund — excuse me — from general funds.

Your March 24 editorial about the new health reform bill asks whether it is constitutional to require people to purchase health insurance ("Individual mandate is constitutional"). According to an article in the same issue of The Sun, 14 state attorneys general (all but one of whom are Republican) are filing federal lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of this requirement. Florida's Attorney General Bill McCollum, one of the 14, states that the new requirement "forces people to do something ... that simply the Constitution does not allow Congress to do."

Milad Pooran was honeymooning in the South Pacific last summer as politicians in Washington were turning a deadline to raise the U.S. debt limit into another opportunity for partisan brinkmanship. A critical care physician from Frederick County, Pooran has never held elective office. But as he watched the spectacle in Washington, he asked his wife for permission to run for Congress. "To see in the newspapers the American politicians airing our national dirty laundry was frankly embarrassing," he says.

It's no accident there's been a scarcity of meaningful conversation about what our presidential candidates have planned for Social Security and Medicare. Even in retiree-heavy Florida, details about the candidates' Social Security and Medicare proposals were largely missing in the recent primary election debate. Why? Because plans to privatize or cut Social Security and Medicare under the guise of deficit reduction represent a larger political disconnect between politicians and the average American voter than any other single issue facing candidates in this presidential campaign.

Maxine Reed-Vance, of Belcamp, director of clinical affairs and causality assurance for Baltimore Healthy Start Inc., has been selected for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Innovation Advisors Program. Vance was selected through a competitive process and is one of 73 selected from a field of more than 900 applicants nationwide. The initiative, launched by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Innovations Center in 2011, will assist health care professionals deepen skills that will drive improvements to patient care and reduce cost.

I'm part of the new "get lost" generation of folks over 65 that many are complaining will financially destroy our fragile economy ("Aging out of health care?" Jan. 19). I know that I'm old and that math has never been my strength, but writer Lisa Pevtzow used the figure $49 billion a year to describe the cost of Medicare coverage for the 45 million old folks of my generation. Forty-nine billion dollars divided by 45 million people equals a little more than $1,080 per person.

Four years ago, doctors at Chesapeake Urology Associates started ordering the most expensive kind of prostate-cancer therapy for many more of their patients. Before 2007, the large, multi-office practice was prescribing the treatment, known as intensity modulated radiation therapy, for 12 percent of its prostate-cancer patients covered by Medicare, according to data compiled by a Georgetown University researcher. But starting in mid-2007, Chesapeake Urology's referral rate for IMRT more than tripled, rising to 43 percent of the Medicare cases.

In Maryland, an orthopedic practice agreed to pay $2.5 million to the federal government to settle allegations that it had billed for patients' visits that never took place and had double-charged for X-ray work to get higher reimbursements. In Connecticut, a health care facility paid nearly a half-million dollars to the federal government in a similar settlement over allegations that it had exaggerated costs associated with a prostate cancer treatment. Those allegations, and another leveled recently at a Baltimore-area hospital, have highlighted an arcane record-keeping practice called "upcoding.

There is no better news than having Scott Brown elected to Congress, and seniors are rejoicing. The Congressional Democrats just don't get it. It is difficult to understand why our Maryland Democrats would sacrifice and betray the trust of elderly citizens of Maryland and the USA. They have voted to take away $500 billion from our Medicare to fund Obamacare, which will only speed up Medicare's bankruptcy. Elderly people like me depend on Medicare and are at the end of our lives when we may need more care.

With the passage of the Affordable Health Care for America Act (HR 3962) by the House of Representatives ("House OKs historic health bill," Nov. 8), we are one step closer to a stronger Medicare for seniors and future generations, as well as stable, affordable health care options for all Americans. AARP thanks Reps. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Donna Edwards, Elijah Cummings, Steny Hoyer and Chris Van Hollen for their votes in favor of better health care for every Marylander.

A 56-year-old Gambrills podiatrist was sentenced to more than four years in prison Wednesday for fraudulently billing Medicare $1.1 million over three years, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office. The scheme marked the second time Larry Bernhard had defrauded the federal agency, according to court records. In 2007, he signed a settlement agreement with the government admitting he'd billed for services he didn't provide between 2002 and 2004, and promising to abstain from using federal health care programs for three years.

Charles Orestus Smith, a retired CareFirst Medicare contractor who was an avid fan of the opera and symphony, died Jan. 3 of a heart attack at his home in the Northway Apartments in Guilford. He was 74. Born in Baltimore and raised in Guilford, Mr. Smith was a 1954 graduate of Polytechnic Institute. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Army and was sent to the Army Language School in Monterey, Calif., where he learned Russian. While serving in Japan, he met and married the former Yasuko Takagi in 1958.