Since Medicare doesn’t cover most dental care, seniors often go without treatment.
By SUSAN JAFFE | Health Affairs | December 2016 | Volume 35, Number 12
The last time Evelyn Sell went to the dentist was nearly three years ago, when he told her his staff would no longer be able to lift her out of her wheelchair and into the dentist’s chair. “That really threw me for a loop,” said Sell, 87, a retired p
reschool teacher who lives in Kingsley Manor, a retirement community in Los Angeles. “I didn’t know what I was going to do about dental care.”
Care at home: During a recent visit to Kingsley Manor, a Los Angeles, California, senior living community, dental hygienist Maria Ladd uses an intraoral camera to take photos of resident Ruth Wilson’s teeth. (Photo: Susanna Castillo)
…Then earlier this year, she found the solution. A flyer in her mail informed her that the management of her assisted living facility had partnered with the Virtual Dental Home project run by Pacific Center for Special Care at the University of the Pacific in San Francisco. Sell could have a dental hygienist come to her home. She was one of the first residents to sign up.
The project is one of several innovative demonstrations that providers and researchers are developing to serve vulnerable uninsured or underinsured patients. Despite their promise, however, these efforts meet only a fraction of the need. A comprehensive solution would likely require federal legislation, but bills to broadly expand Medicare’s dental coverage have languished in Congress. So some advocates for older adults are working on a third front, seeking changes to Medicare coverage policy based on the idea that dental care can be an integral part of the medically necessary care Medicare covers. [Continued here] …
nis, acting director of the Medicare Enrollment and Appeals Group at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. 
l their marketplace policies.
s. But after a nearly four-hour congressional hearing last week investigating spikes in Mylan’s EpiPen prices, Maryland Democrat Elijah Cummings told Mylan CEO Heather Bresch, “You might as well have taken the Fifth, too, with the kind of information that we’ve gotten here today.” 
was a response to complaints from Medicare patients who were surprised to learn that although they had spent a few days in the hospital, they were there for observation and were not admitted. Observation patients are considered too sick to go home yet not sick enough to be admitted. They may pay higher charges than admitted patients and do not qualify for Medicare’s nursing home coverage.
challenging denied claims continues to spiral, increasing the backlog of cases and delaying many decisions well beyond the timeframes set by law, according to a government study released Thursday.
Looking for ways to save money and improve care, Medicare officials are returning to an old-fashioned idea: house calls.
es and preventing what many scientists believe would be the harmful effects of global warming.