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Obamacare Aims to Close Medicare 'Doughnut Hole'
There's a Medicare prescription-drug coverage abyss that is playfully referred to as the "doughnut hole," though there is nothing sweet or amusing about it.
There's a Medicare prescription-drug coverage abyss that is playfully referred to as the "doughnut hole," though there is nothing sweet or amusing about it.
But thanks to the Affordable Care Act, which had a rocky launch last week, Medicare beneficiaries will see that gap shrink again in 2014 and in each year until 2020, according to Medicare.gov.
The doughnut hole is the temporary limit on what Medicare drug plans pay after certain dollar thresholds for drugs have been met.
The year starts with monthly Part D premiums and a $310 deductible. You pay 100% of drug costs until hitting the deductible. Then, out-of-pocket costs—consider those copays—drop to 25% of the price of your medications. The plan pays the rest until you reach a ceiling of $2,850 in combined payments by you and the plan.
Read the full story here: http://on.wsj.com/1a4WExD
Source: Wall Street Journal
Black Youths Overlabeled High Risk in Mental Health Emergencies
May 9th 2025Despite similar scores on an aggression risk evaluation tool in a pediatric emergency department, Black youths were significantly more likely to be labeled with a high aggression risk behavioral health flag in their electronic health records compared with White youths.
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New Research Challenges Assumptions About Hospital-Physician Integration, Medicare Patient Mix
April 22nd 2025On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Brady Post, PhD, lead author of a study published in the April 2025 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care®, challenges the claim that hospital-employed physicians serve a more complex patient mix.
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