Medicaid – Oral Cancer News

I know how lobbyists make sure Americans don’t get dental care–I was one of them

Source: Fortune Date: November 19th, 2021 Author: Wendell Potter As Members of Congress continue their debate on the Build Back Better Act, it’s distressing to see House Democrats ignoring what Americans say they want most out of the legislation: adding dental coverage to Medicare. If the dental benefit isn’t put back into the bill, lawmakers will have shown once again that they listen more to two powerful trade groups in Washington–America’s Health Insurance Plans(AHIP) and the American Dental Association (ADA)–than to their constituents. As someone who has been on both sides, writing talking points for insurers and, more recently, fighting the ADA’s efforts to kill other bills to expand access to dental care, I know these organizations well. And they usually get their way. A recent Morning Consult poll found that the number one thing Americans say they want out of the reconciliation bill is Medicare dental coverage. That’s no surprise when you consider that millions of seniors lack dental coverage. Many suffer quietly with often excruciating pain caused by untreated–and often lethal–oral health disease. The main reason Medicare hasn’t covered dental care since its inception in 1965 (except when oral health problems become so severe they require hospitalization) is that organized dentistry staunchly opposed it. The dental lobby insists that any additional dental coverage should be restricted to the poorest Medicaid recipients. However, its main concern–as it was 56 years ago–is that Medicare would not reimburse dentists to their satisfaction. The ADA’s lobbyists, in essence, are placing the financial [...]

Charlotte Parker2021-12-21T12:29:10-07:00December, 2021|Oral Cancer News|

Insurance coverage key to timely care in head and neck cancer cases

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: Medical University of South Carolina A study published in the JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery examines the effect of Medicaid expansion on head and neck cancer patients, finding that the expansions under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) were associated with improved access to care for these patients and selective Medicaid expansion may worsen existing regional disparities in terms of access to care and outcomes. Medicaid expansion refers to a provision in the ACA that called for expansion of Medicaid eligibility to cover more low-income Americans. It was determined that each state would decide whether to participate in the expansion - accept federal funds - or not. As of 2020, 37 states including the District of Columbia accepted Medicaid expansion. South Carolina is one of 14 states that has not. As a result, there are gaps in coverage for adults who have incomes above Medicaid eligibility limits yet still below the poverty level, exacerbating challenges with access to care, which is vital in the early detection of cancer. "We performed the study because delivering timely head and neck cancer care is critical for optimal outcomes," said Evan Graboyes, M.D., a researcher at Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina and senior author on the study. The surgeon at MUSC Health specializes in the treatment of head and neck cancers. The team analyzed data from a national sample of nearly 91,000 adults with newly diagnosed head and neck cancer who were identified from the National Cancer [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2020-04-01T15:16:01-07:00April, 2020|Oral Cancer News|

Hospitals required to post all prices online beginning January 1

Date: 12/26/18 Source: KATV Author: Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare will require hospitals to post their standard prices online and make electronic medical records more readily available to patients, officials said Tuesday. The program is also starting a comprehensive review of how it will pay for costly new forms of immunotherapy to battle cancer. Seema Verma, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the new requirement for online prices reflects the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to encourage patients to become better-educated decision makers in their own care. “We are just beginning on price transparency,” said Verma. “We know that hospitals have this information and we’re asking them to post what they have online.” Hospitals are required to disclose prices publicly, but the latest change would put that information online in machine-readable format that can be easily processed by computers. It may still prove to be confusing to consumers, since standard rates are like list prices and don’t reflect what insurers and government programs pay. Patients concerned about their potential out-of-pocket costs from a hospitalization would still be advised to consult with their insurer. Most insurance plans nowadays have an annual limit on how much patients must pay in copays and deductibles — although traditional Medicare does not. Likewise, many health care providers already make computerized records available to patients, but starting in 2021 Medicare would base part of a hospital’s payments on how good a job they do. Using electronic medical records remains a cumbersome task, and [...]

Charlotte Parker2019-01-02T12:52:16-07:00January, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

This Is Why Your Drug Prescriptions Cost So Damn Much

Source: www.motherjones.com Author: Stuart Silverstein When the Republican-controlled Congress approved a landmark program in 2003 to help seniors buy prescription drugs, it slapped on an unusual restriction: The federal government was barred from negotiating cheaper prices for those medicines. Instead, the job of holding down costs was outsourced to the insurance companies delivering the subsidized new coverage, known as Medicare Part D. The ban on government price bargaining, justified by supporters on free-market grounds, has been derided by critics as a giant gift to the drug industry. Democratic lawmakers began introducing bills to free the government to use its vast purchasing power to negotiate better deals even before former President George W. Bush signed the Part D law, known as the Medicare Modernization Act. All those measures over the last 13 years have failed, almost always without ever even getting a hearing, much less being brought up for a vote. That's happened even though surveys have shown broad public support for the idea. For example, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll found last year that 93 percent of Democrats and 74 percent of Republicans favor letting the government negotiate Part D prescription drug prices. "I mean, how in the world can one explain that the government actually passed a law saying that you can't negotiate prices?" It seems an anomaly in a democracy that an idea that is immensely popular—and calculated to save money for seniors, people with disabilities, and taxpayers—gets no traction. But critics say it's no mystery, given the [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-10-21T11:17:17-07:00October, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Study examines surgical outcomes after head and neck cancer at safety-net hospitals

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: staff Safety-net hospitals appear to provide head and neck cancer surgical care to a vulnerable population, without an increase in short-term mortality, morbidity, or costs, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery. "Safety-net hospitals provide a disproportionate amount of care to those who are uninsured or underinsured, including Medicaid beneficiaries and other vulnerable populations, compared with the average hospital," according to background information in the article. To determine the association between safety-net hospital care and short-term outcomes following head and neck cancer surgery, Dane J. Genther, M.D., and Christine G. Gourin, M.D., M.P.H., of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, reviewed data from adults who underwent an ablative procedure (a surgical removal or excision) for a malignant oral cavity, laryngeal (larynx; or voice box), hypopharyngeal (hypopharynx; area where the larynx and esophagus meet), or oropharyngeal (oropharynx; oral part of the pharynx) neoplasm in 2001 through 2008. Safety-net burden was calculated as the percentage of patients with head and neck cancer who had Medicaid or no insurance. Overall, 123,662 patients underwent surgery from 2001 through 2008, and were included in the analysis. The authors found that high safety-net burden hospitals were associated with an increase in length of stay but were not associated with an increase in costs of care, after controlling for all other variables, including hospital volume status. Additionally, safety-net burden was not associated with in-hospital mortality, acute medical complications or surgical complications, after controlling for all other [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-11-20T19:06:44-07:00November, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

HPV vaccine not just for girls

Source: www.statesmanjournal.com Author: staff It’s been hard enough to persuade parents to get their preteen girls vaccinated against the virus that causes cervical cancer. Now, health-care providers have an even harder sell: reaching the parents of boys. The vaccine that protects against human papillomavirus, or HPV, has been approved for use in boys since it hit the market in 2006. And while boys don’t share the cervical cancer risk, the vaccination can help stop the virus’ spread, as well as protect boys from other cancers. But as of last fall, just more than 1 percent of all eligible boys had received the vaccine. Since then, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more strongly recommended that boys get it. And the American Academy of Pediatrics threw its support behind the series of three shots for 11- and 12-year-old boys. But experts don’t expect to see a significant increase in the number of boys who have received the vaccine when the CDC releases new vaccination statistics late this summer. Why are so many parents reluctant to have their children vaccinated? Because HPV is transmitted through intimate skin-to-skin contact, parents may fear that vaccinating their children sends the message that premarital sex is OK. Nationwide, 49 percent of girls ages 13 to 17 have received at least one shot, and about 32 percent of girls have received the three doses required for complete protection, according to a CDC report. For girls, doctors cite statistics about how the vaccine protects against the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-08-28T09:31:15-07:00August, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Study: Oral cancers take financial toll

Source: Dr.Biscuspid.com April 26, 2012 -- The cost of treating individuals with oral, orapharyngeal, and salivary gland cancers is significant, particularly for patients who undergo all three forms of treatment, according to a new study by Delta Dental of Michigan's Research and Data Institute. And for many that is only the beginning of the financial impact of the disease. The project, which involved Thomson Reuters, Delta Dental of Wisconsin, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry, began in March 2010. It is the first retrospective data analysis of a large number of head and neck cancer patients in the U.S. analyzing direct and indirect costs and comparing those costs to a matched comparison group, according to the authors (Head Neck Onc, April 26, 2012). Using data from the 2004-2008 Thomson Reuters MarketScan Databases: Commercial Claims and Encounters Database, Medicare Supplemental and Coordination of Benefits Database, Medicaid Multi-State Database, and the Health Productivity and Management Database, the researchers retrospectively analyzed claims data of 6,812 OC/OP/SG patients with employer-sponsored health insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits. They found that, on average, total annual healthcare spending during the year following diagnosis was $79,151, compared with $7,419 in a group comprising similar patients without these cancers. They also found that the average cost of care almost doubled when patients received all three types of treatment: surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Healthcare costs were higher for oral cancer patients with commercial insurance ($71,732, n = 3,918), Medicare ($35,890, n = 2,303), and [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-04-27T10:16:48-07:00April, 2012|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

When the state paid, people stopped smoking: study

Source: Reuters By: Maggie Fox When Massachusetts started paying for stop-smoking treatments, people not only kicked the habit but also had fewer heart attacks, researchers reported on Tuesday in the first study to show a clear payoff from investing in smoking prevention efforts. Smoking dropped by 10 percent among clients of Medicaid, the state health insurance plan for the poor, and nearly 40 percent of Medicaid patients who smoked used benefits to get nicotine patches or drugs to help them quit, the researchers said. The study -- which suggests states can save money from investing in efforts to cut smoking -- found the yearly rate of hospital admissions for heart attacks fell by 46 percent for Medicaid clients and 49 percent fewer of them were hospitalized for clogged arteries. "The dramatic decline in heart attack hospitalizations for smokers who used the benefit is stunning and demonstrates the effectiveness of tobacco treatment coverage that includes behavioral counseling and medicines approved by the Food and Drug Administration," American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown, who was not involved in the research, said in a statement. Thomas Land and colleagues at the Massachusetts Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Program, as well as the Harvard Medical School, looked at hospital records for the study, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine. In July 2006, the Massachusetts Medicaid program, called MassHealth, began paying for drugs and other treatments to help smokers quit, including nicotine patches, gum and drugs. "Over 75,000 Medicaid subscribers used the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-12-10T12:20:36-07:00December, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Insurance tied to survival odds in head/neck cancers

Source: www.reuters.com Author: staff People with cancers of the head or neck seem to have better survival odds if they have private health insurance, research hints. Head and neck cancers include cancers of the mouth, throat, nasal cavity, salivary glands and lymph nodes of the neck. Most cases are linked to smoking, with excessive drinking being the other major risk factor. But while those habits may raise the odds of developing head and neck cancers, the new findings, reported in the journal Cancer, suggest that insurance coverage influences the odds of surviving. Researchers found that among more than 1,200 patients treated at the Pittsburgh Medical Center between 1998 and 2007, those with private insurance had better survival rates than those with no insurance, as well as patients on Medicaid or Medicare disability. Medicaid is the federal health insurance program for the poor; Medicare disability covers people younger than 65 who cannot work because of a serious disability or illness. In this study, patients who were uninsured or on Medicaid were 50 percent more likely to die than privately insured patients. Those on Medicare disability had a 69 percent higher risk of dying -- with factors such as age, race, income and smoking and drinking history taken into account. Instead, the poorer survival seemed to be partly explained by later diagnosis. People without private insurance generally had more-advanced cancer by the time they saw a doctor, according to the researchers, led by Joseph Kwok of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-01-09T12:33:50-07:00January, 2010|Oral Cancer News|