Senior Prescription Savings

Humana last month launched a program, called "Healthy Returns," that provides its Medicare plan beneficiaries with gift cards to Macy's, CVS, Lowe's and

Private Medicare Advantage plans can cost beneficiaries more than traditional Medicare for home health care, nursing homes and certain hospital stays, according to a report released on Thursday by the Government Accountability Office, the New York Times reports.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that $371.5 million in improper Medicare payments has been collected from or repaid to health care providers and suppliers as part of a demonstration program using recovery audit contractors (RACs) in California, Florida and New York in 2007. Nearly $440 million has been collected since the program began in 2005.

As Congress prepares to begin debate on the Bush Administration's proposed FY 2009 budget containing five-year, $24 billion cuts to Medicare's nursing home benefit, a new national survey conducted by Zogby International for the American Health Care Association (AHCA) finds 63 percent of likely voters oppose the cut while nearly half "strongly oppose" the Administration proposal. Notably, 56.

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