Tag: Cleveland Clinic

Medicare covers new Alzheimer’s drug, but there is a catch

April 23, 2022

Volume 399, Issue 10335

23 April 2022

WORLD REPORT The federal health plan for older Americans will pay for the controversial new drug aducanumab only for patients participating in clinical trials. Susan Jaffe reports.

The Biden administration’s long-awaited decision to pay for a controversial new Alzheimer’s disease treatment, aducanumab, will not make it easier for many older Americans with Medicare health insurance to get it. [Continued here.]

…

Medicare returning to an old-fashioned idea: house calls

May 23, 2016

By Susan Jaffe, Kaiser Health News | May 21, 2016 | and also published in

Looking for ways to save money and improve care, Medicare officials are returning to an old-fashioned idea: house calls.

But the experiment, called Independence at Home, is more than a nostalgic throwback to the way medicine was practiced decades ago when the doctor arrived at the patient’s door carrying a big black bag. Done right and paid right, house calls could prove to be a better way of treating very sick, elderly patients while they can still live at home. …By all accounts, saving any money on these patients is a surprise. Independence at Home targets patients with complicated chronic health problems and disabilities who are among the most expensive Medicare beneficiaries. [Continued in USA Today, Kaiser Health News, The Washington Post, or Next Avenue]

…

Billions served but Cleveland Clinic says no thanks to McDonald’s

September 9, 2015

Susan Jaffe | Washington Correspondent for The Lancet 9th September 2015

McDonald’s, the giant fast-food restaurant chain, has been adding healthy options to its menu of burgers, fries and shakes, but the new choices are too little, too late for the Cleveland Clinic.

After 20 years of serving patients, visitors, and Clinic employees in Cleveland, Ohio, the restaurant’s last day will be September 18. The world renowned hospital is not renewing its contract with McDonald’s.

“As a part of Cleveland Clinic’s commitment to health and wellness, we have made a number of changes across our health system over the past ten years that promote healthy food choices, exercise, and a smoke free environment,” said Eileen Sheil, the Clinic’s executive director for corporate communications, explaining why McDonald’s had to go. [Continued here]

…

Doctors skittish about health technology despite promise of big federal bucks

July 7, 2011

By Susan Jaffe | Center for Public Integrity | July 7, 2011

The goal is to bring the last outposts of the nation’s health care system into the computer age, linking medical providers so that they can coordinate and improve patient care and — in the process—reduce unnecessary health care spending. But convincing everyone to use electronic health records has not been easy. …Neither reward nor punishment has

persuaded some small practice doctors — a troubling omen for the Obama administration, which believes that conversion of paper records to electronic form is a crucial step toward health care reform. [Continued]

…