Search

This analysis provides a detailed look at per person Medicare spending on the nearly 30 million beneficiaries over age 65 who are enrolled in the traditional Medicare program. Among the key findings of the report is that per person spending rises with age, peaking at age 96. But this rise is not entirely explained by Medicare spending on end of life care, which declines with age. What Medicare spends money on also changes as beneficiaries age. Hospital care is the largest component of Medicare spending throughout the age curve, up to age 100, but there is less spending on physician services and more on home health, skilled nursing and hospice care as beneficiaries age.

This paper identifies and quantifies, to the extent possible, the factors that explain the gap between actual Medicare spending in 2014 and CBO’s 2009 projections of what Medicare spending would be this year. The study synthesizes information from a variety of sources and presents new analysis to assess the extent to which lower-than-projected Medicare spending in 2014 can be explained by deliberate policy and program changes, unexpected trends, and other factors.

A new Kaiser Family Foundation report finds 135 different U.S.-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs) received U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding in 2013 to implement U.S. global health programs on the ground. The report aims to shed light on the extent of the role of NGOs in carrying out U.S.…

Most Americans in prime working age who aren’t currently employed hope to return to work in the future, though family responsibilities, health issues and a lack of good jobs pose significant challenges, finds a new survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, The New York Times and CBS News. Rather than…

In the latest post in the Policy Insights series, Jen Kates and Josh Michaud outline eight questions that are likely to shape the U.S. global health response in the last two years of the current presidential term and beyond. Follow Jen Kates and Josh Michaud on Twitter, and access previous columns…

To help shed light on recent trends in the U.S. employment market, the Kaiser Family Foundation partnered with the New York Times and CBS News to conduct a survey of adults between the ages of 25-54 (generally considered to be prime working age) who are not currently employed. Rather than focusing only on those who meet the official government definition of unemployment, this survey takes a broad look at all prime-age adults who are not working, regardless of their desire for work or job-seeking activities. While the official U.S. unemployment rate has declined since the start of the recession in late 2007, the total share of adults who are not employed has risen in recent years. This survey examines the views and experiences of this broad group of prime-age workers who are not employed, including how they get by financially, the factors to which they attribute their lack of employment, what it would take to get them working, and – for those who used to work – how being out of work has changed their lives.

This report examines the role of both Medicare and the Indian Health Service (IHS) in providing access to health care for about 650,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives who are age 65 and older or who have permanent disabilities. While Medicare provides important health care coverage for most in this group, its relatively high cost-sharing and gaps in benefits can be problematic for American Indians and Alaska Native Medicare beneficiaries who do not have additional supplemental coverage or who cannot access IHS providers.

This issue brief analyzes the number and variety of Medicare Advantage plan choices available to beneficiaries in 2015. It describes trends in number of Medicare Advantage plans, plan premiums, and plan quality ratings, including changes in prescription drug coverage and limits on out-of-pocket expenses. This spotlight is part of a series of spotlights tracking key changes in the Medicare Advantage program.

This fact sheet provides an overview of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Innovation Center)’s State Innovation Models (SIM) initiative. It focuses on the delivery system and payment approaches that Model Testing states are taking and discusses what SIM means for Medicaid. Six states – Arkansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, and Vermont — received Model Testing awards to implement and test their Innovation Plans over 42 months.

With the approval of new specialty drugs, such as the Hepatitis C treatments Sovaldi and Harvoni, states are mindful that the cost the Medicaid prescription drug benefit could increase. To achieve savings, and improve management and health outcomes, it is important to understand which drugs are most frequently prescribed and which drive spending. Using state drug utilization data provided through the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, as well as an industry drug database, this issue brief examines trends in prescriptions and spending before rebates, and places findings in the context of policy discussion.