More than 2.65 million Medicare recipients have saved more than $1.5 billion on their prescriptions this year, a $569-per-person average, while premiums have remained stable, the government plans to announce today.

That’s because of the provision of the health care law that put a 50% discount on prescription drugs in the “doughnut hole,” the gap between traditional and catastrophic coverage in the drug benefit, also known as Part D.

And, as of the end of November, more than 24 million people, or about half of those with traditional Medicare, have gone in for a free annual physical or other screening exam since the rules changed this year because of the health care law.

Get more details at USA Today.

Good news for seniors: The government says Medicare’s basic monthly premium will rise less than expected next year, by $3.50 for most.

It could be good, too, for President Obama and Democrats struggling for older Americans’ votes in a close election.

At $99.90 per month, the 2012 Part B premium for outpatient care will be about $7 less than projected as recently as May. The additional money that most seniors will pay works out to about 10 percent of the average Social Security cost-of-living increase they’ll also be due.

Some recently enrolled younger retirees will actually pay less. They were charged $115.40 a month this year, and they’ll see that go down to $99.90.

The main reason for lower-than-expected premiums seems to be the connection between Social Security COLAs and Medicare. Some also cite a moderation in health care costs.

But the Obama administration is hoping seniors will get a simpler takeaway message: Medicare is under sound management.

Read the rest of the article at the Tribune-Review.

Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign for children now has a counterpart for the 50-plus set. The National Institute on Aging on Wednesday launched its “Go4Life” campaign, aimed at increasing physical activity among Baby Boomers and their parents.

“Physical inactivity cuts across all age ranges, so we felt the need to do something especially for older adults,” said Chhanda Dutta, chief of NIA’s clinical geronotology branch. While Go4Life isn’t a Let’s Move! outgrowth, Dutta said, the campaigns do have much the same goal.

A 2007-2008 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that just 22.1 percent of people age 65 and over regularly participated in physical activity during their free time. The numbers drop to 11 percent among those 85 and over.

For more than a decade NIA has received calls from seniors and their family members asking how best to exercise. “Eventually, we realized that we needed to get the research we support and transform it into something practical for adults,” Dutta said. NIA first released an exercise guide in 1998, and it has now been revamped and made a key part of the Go4Life campaign.

Find out more about exercise for seniors at Kaiser Health News

Nearly 50 million people on Medicare, as well as those entering the program at a pace of one every eight seconds, are likely to get more than their money’s worth before they die.

The same can’t be said for anyone under 55 who will rely on the federal health care program for those 65 and older in the future. They face higher costs and, possibly, longer waits before they qualify for coverage.

Medicare — one of the most popular programs ever devised by the federal government — is on the chopping block, again.

The article lists five ways  Medicare could be “squeezed” — and the reasons it will be difficult.

Read more about the issues facing Medicare in the current federal budget debate from USA Today.

At Ann’s Choice, the retirement community where the Alleys live, 58 residents are participating in the Penn study, which will examine the physiology and psychology attributes of participants to learn why some elderly people maintain strong brain function.

The research study is the first the Warminster retirement community has been involved in, said Jody Gerstman, a social worker at Ann’s Choice.

More than 150 Ann’s Choice residents initially applied to be part of the study, and those chosen range in ages from 63 to 93.

The Penn Memory Center study is described as a mini version of the large, long-running Religious Orders Study out of Rush University in Chicago. That study involves more than 1,000 retired Roman Catholic clergy who agreed to medical and psychological evaluation annually and brain donation after death. The study started in 1993 and is expected to wrap up this year.

The Religious Orders Study and others show that people can live long lives with no sign of memory loss, but post-death exams of their brains show key markers of deterioration, said Dr. Steven Arnold, director of the Penn Memory Center and one of the lead scientists in the local study.

….

Growing evidence suggests that people who experience high, prolonged periods of stress or who have a negative outlook on life can have a two times higher risk of developing cognitive decline later in life, Arnold said. Cognitive skills are used in the process of acquiring knowledge and include reasoning, perception and intuition.

Arnold said he wanted Ann’s Choice involved in the study because it’s an active senior community. The researchers want to determine how lifestyle – the degree of social interaction, physical and mental exercise – play in maintaining healthy brain function.

Read the full article: Study focuses on why some remember better than others

Philadelphia has one of the world’s largest urban park systems. And, according to census data, the city has the highest proportion of people 65 and older of any of the 10 largest cities in the country.

Yet 73 percent of Philadelphians over 60 reported never using their neighborhood park in the previous year, according to data from Public Health Management Corp.’s 2008 Household Health Survey.

That troubles local advocates for seniors because of the benefits that public parks can provide for older adults. Being engaged and connected in the community is related to older adults’ being more physically active and to the length of time that seniors want to stay in their homes, according to an analysis by Allen Glicksman, director of research and evaluation for the nonprofit Philadelphia Corporation for Aging.

Regular exercise can help seniors prevent falls, the leading cause of injury or death for people 65 and older. Other research from the 2008 survey showed that people with health limitations are less likely to use public recreation facilities. So even perceived risks to unsteady legs, such as uneven steps, rickety handrails, and cracked sidewalks, could deter older adults from using parks, Glicksman said.

Read the full article: Phila. effort aims to make parks fit for seniors

The Sisterhood of the Dumbbell meets three times a week at St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Devon. “Sisterhood of the Dumbbell” is my name for the group, and Sharon Eisenhour, who kindly invited me to meet these iron-pumping ladies, and Jeanne Lynam, their inspirational leader, embraced my suggestion.

…

Dumbbells in hand, Lynam led the women through a varied menu of resistance exercises, some done standing up, others on a mat – overhead presses, triceps extensions, shoulder shrugs and arm raises, chest flyes, curls, crunches, leg raises, and some mysterious female rite involving the pelvis and glutes that probably best falls under the rubric “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Lynam kept the movements slow and gentle, calling for different weights – light, medium, or heavy – for different exercises. Nothing explosive, no macho competition to see who could hoist the most iron or do the most reps. Each woman chose a weight range she could handle. Some dumbbells weighed as little as two pounds; others, as much as 12.

Read more of the article: Women on the move, and better for it

The new changes in insurance regulations provide an opportunity for scammers to take advantage of consumers. Several insurance scam cases in Pennsylvania have been reported and there is an expected increase in the near future. 

 The Intelligencer reports:

“One consumer group found more than one-third of state insurance bureaus reported “much higher” health insurance fraud last year. Scammers are seeking to exploit consumer confusion over coming changes involving insurance coverage.

A person bearing a government ID badge appears at your door with a sales pitch that goes something like this:

By law, all Americans are now required to obtain health insurance. You have 30 days to comply or face jail time. Sign here to buy your coverage.

The claim sounds legitimate. Most people have heard something, somewhere, about the new federal health care law and how it requires that everyone carry health insurance. But those coverage requirements don’t kick in for another four years. The law also carries no criminal penalties for not obtaining health insurance. And one more thing, the government won’t offer insurance policies under the law. But crooks are counting on people not knowing these things, or anything about the Affordable Health Care Act, consumer rights and protection advocates say.”

Read the full article: Health insurance scams flourishing

Tips on avoiding medical insurance scams

 Currently, there are different types of scams that exist. Educating the community on the 2011 expectations of the Affordable Care Act is will aid in eliminating the scams. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ have published tips and reminders on how to avoid scammers.

The Intelligencer reports:

“The National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ tips on how to avoid being a scam victim:

Be aware: Beware of fax, e-mail, telephone poll solicitations. For seniors, Medicare officials contacting you should have your account information on record so don’t give it out.

Check if insurer is legit: Don’t give out any personal information until you verify with your state insurance department that the insurer and agent are licensed to write insurance in your state. Generally, health insurance companies that sell policies to individuals or to employers must be licensed in each state where they do business; the producers (agents or brokers) who sell policies must also be licensed in the states where they sell policies.

Keep paperwork: Ask for copies of all paperwork you sign. Keep a copy of the payment receipt or check for your initial premium payment.

Follow up: Call the insurer if you don’t receive a copy of your insurance policy outlining your coverage within 30 days of your purchase.”

Read the full article: Avoid the new health law scams

During Cindy Cool’s almost daily visits to the nursing home, she would routinely find her Alzheimer’s-suffering father wearing urine-soaked clothes.

The Blue Lake, Calif. resident said it would take upwards of 20 minutes for the apparently short-handed staff of Eureka Healthcare and Rehabilitation to respond and help Cool clean her father. Other patients fared worse, she said.

“A lot of times I walked out of there crying because of the things I saw,” Cool said an interview.

She provided key testimony before a Humboldt County jury last month slammed the owners of her father’s nursing home with a $677 million verdict, sending shock waves through the industry and rekindling calls for tort reform.

The verdict as it stands is already thought to be the largest in the country this year and its ramifications are still being sorted out weeks after the jury surprised even the plantiffs’ lawyers with the size of their verdict. Tort reformers have seized on the verdict as the latest example of litigation abuse.

The company’s stock price has plunged on fears it will have to file bankruptcy. Cool, 58, was part of a class-action lawsuit representing 32,000 patients that blamed the nursing home staff shortage for the misery she encountered — echoing a common complaint across the country that for-profit nursing homes are too concerned with the bottom line.

After Wall Street investment firms went on a nursing home buying spree during the early years of the new century, critics charge that many companies drastically cut payroll expenses to prop up stock prices.

Read more.

A new report on retail prices of brand-name drugs shows the 217 products most used by older Americans increased by an average of 8.3 percent during 2009, the largest increase in years, even as inflation was negative.

Over the last five years, according to the report to be released on Wednesday by the senior lobby AARP, the retail prices for the most popular brand-name drugs increased 41.5 percent, while the consumer price index rose 13.3 percent. An AARP official called for measures to hold down drug prices.

Drug industry officials challenged the finding, however, saying select brand-name prices did not reflect the reality of more people using low-price generic drugs. Generics now account for about 75 percent of all dispensed prescriptionsin the United States, according to IMS Health, a research firm.

The industry pointed to a broader survey of drug prices showing they rose by 3.4 percent during 2009. The survey, conducted by the government for its official Consumer Price Index, includes generic as well as brand-name drug prices, Jonathan Church, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said on Tuesday.

Find out more.