Medicare savings ideas have missed the mark

Many seniors still struggle to afford these programs and many go without much needed medications.

Well have they tried hiring people when the bill comes in from the doctor to see if they even went and had anything done instead of taking the doctors word for it? I mean they wait until millions are paid out before their light bulb goes on....If they would try that,then when fraud appears they can take quicker action

MEDICARE IS THE PROBLEM!!! Solve this government agency; How is it you fiddle with the free market and expect it to cost less? Stop overpricing the exams, and try paying "fair market value," which is what the OIG told Medicare in a 2002 report (and one of many over the decades).

I am shocked. The president stated he would eliminate fraud and waste in the medicare program to make up the funds taken to pay for his healthcare bill.
What happened?

Instead of attacking what helps us, we should be attacking what ails us. Start with banning all pharmaceutical commercials - if people arent running to their doctor believing they have the latest illness and need the latest pills, health care costs will go down.

I'm sure the fool Obama has to have Michelle tie his shoes for him, the incompetent loser in Chief

It is too early to tell if Obama's plan has worked or not, his plan was put in place to win votes, not save the tax payer or medicare money. The election will tell if he was successful.

God I hope every tax payer votes this time and then reflect on the hope and change we actually received in the past three years.

Having just started using Medicare I can appreciate how impossible it would be to stop all the corruption in that program. There is no way to keep up with which patients get what done by whom and for how long or how many times. The patients don't care, they probably couldn't find out anything even if they tried. The doctors are given a blank check with every patient as are the ancillary labs and support personnel type sub contractors. Just like "tomorrow never comes" greed will never be appeased. The program is doomed because it is unworkable financially. Medical care will just keep going up and up in cost until it will finally break the bank. At that point things will sort themselves out pretty quickly. Those that cannot afford medical care will die.I worked and saved all my life for retirement but I could never keep up with medical expenses now when a lipid panel blood test costs $800.
I guess that movie "Logan's Run" which screened almost 30 years ago had it right. When people reached the age of 35 they were ceremoniously laid to rest.

EMR was another plan devised by Medicare/government to decrease healthcare costs. Electronic medical records(EMR) are a sham! It is costing us dearly and giving us less service. Doctors are seeing up to 40% less patients with EMR. There is no universal software system. All doctors have to go out on their own and make a decision on what program to buy. Some programs are TRASH! Many doctors have lost money on implementing EMR. EMR is being required by Medicare and they are giving doctors up to $44K over 4 years to off-set costs. A doctor can lose more than this in one year on the cost of using the EMR system. Billions are being wasted NOW!! The government should have investigated and studied the software programs and recommend one program as the universal program for doctors to use. EMR will drive up medical costs in the near future. Decreased numbers of patients seen by doctors and increased overhead costs (EMR software, computer maintenence, IT support).

"The Congressional Budget Office says two major approaches tested in recent years mostly failed to reduce spending... A report issued Thursday concluded neither approach reduced spending... Care coordination increased spending in some cases, when added fees for monitoring patients were taken into account.
Both approaches are part of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul."
Between this, and the $500 Billion that Obama Cut from Medicare to Help Pay for the Health Care Bill Fiasco will Hasten the Insolvency of this Program.
Another Example of "Change"? However, Obama will Find Some Way to Blame the GOP for this which the Mainstream Media will Gladly Parrot to Obama's Gullible Voting Bloc...

Ryan needs voted out next election.

The medical and pharmaceutical industry will sabotage every attempt the fix the mess. Lower costs means lower profits or less need for insurance. We need to introduce some form of logic and competition to the market. The recent requirement that companies spend at least 80% of the premiums they collect on care is a good start 20% is plenty for overhead and profit. Likewise keeping companies from excluding anyone with a "preexisting condition" was another. Anyone else notice how "pre so and so" has become a existing condition"?
Oh wait, these are two of the things the right is trying to repeal.

Close the loopholes and get rid of massive fraud and medicare will survive on our monthly regular payments which are paid whether we use medicare or not. Those fees are also required as well as a co pay. Amazingly these frauds are committed by greedy thieving repectable clinics and doctors who charge the earth for a visit but that seems is not enough. Maybe they need 10 homes and 2 lear jets.

obamacare is all smoke and mirrors!!---usa-afro engineering the budget is a joke,with the nation as the punchline!!lmao

When i had atnea insurance i had to do with bad care and still had to pay out of pocket on low wages so i am happy with medicare now.

Republicans want everything private but how will older people like me be able to pay out of pocket to insurance companies that wont pay you for care. Insurance companies rip people off.like term insurance biggest rip off. Whole insurance will always be there and not taken away when you are 80

Nonpartisan analysts do not exist; they either get paid for their work or they do not do the work. Standard & Poors has downgraded our credit rating; Obozo and the worthless washington wimps are oblivious. Remember when Joe Bidon said they would call Jon Corzien when they had a money question and that he was the smartest man they knew when it came to economics. The 1.6 billion MF Global lost under the watch of Jon Corzien tells me Obozo and the regime have absolutely no idea what they are doing. Obozo will be remembered as the one who ruined our nation’s credit rating and always compared himself to Lincoln when he is actually more like Hugo Chaves. Even producing a budget much less making real changes to the budget process and reductions in spending are beyond the bow of these worthless washington wimps. Obozo promised, in his own words, if he didn't turn around the economy; it would be a one term proposition. The nation that can survive Obozo is less likely to survive the dumb masses that made him their president.

Say it ain't so, but the annoited one promised these changes were needed for Medicare. Has Obama kept one promise?

This article is incorrect in characterizing these demonstration project purely as "approaches of Pres Obama's health care overhaul". Every one of the demo projects that the CBO analyzed began prior to the Obama adminstration. The latest start date for analyzed Disease Management and Care Coordination projects was 2006. The Value Based Payment projects began as early as 1991 with the latest start date of 2008. Check your facts. Care delivery projects recently begun (coincidentally during the Obama adminstration) are building on the lessons from these earlier projects.
This gross mischaracterization based on emotional inability to do anything but blame those who don't look, act, walk, talk, pray like yourself is EXACTLY why our government is ineffective and country is so discordant...