Medicare

Here's What St. Louis Regional Hospitals Charge For 100 Most Common Procedures

Véronique LaCapra and Kelsey Proud — Wed, 08 May 2013 23:06:02 +0000

For the first time, the federal government has released the prices that hospitals charge for the 100 most common inpatient procedures.

The prices for a given procedure can vary by tens of thousands of dollars.

Medicare Pulls Back Curtain On Hospital Bills

Wed, 08 May 2013 21:31:19 +0000

When it comes to health care, the biggest of the big data are all about Medicare.

So, it's kind of a BIG deal when the government releases what individual hospitals charge Medicare — and what they actually get paid — for the most common diagnoses and treatments.

In a first, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services made those figures from more than 3,000 hospitals public Wednesday.

A quick spin through the data shows that what hospital

Healthcare For All: Proposing Fixes To Medicare

Alex Heuer, Mary Edwards and Don Marsh — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:18:28 +0000

Host Don Marsh talks with Dr. David Ansell about his proposal to reform healthcare by fixing Medicare and providing it to all Americans. Dr. Ansell is the Senior Vice President for Clinical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. He is also the author of “County: Life, Death and Politics at Chicago’s Public Hospital."

Physicians for a National Health Program in St. Louis are sponsoring talks by Dr. Ansell:

Medicare: Hot Topic Between Enyart, Plummer

Chris McDaniel — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 23:02:43 +0000

Medicare has been a recurring topic of contention in the race for Illinois’ 12^thCongressional district. Democratic candidate Bill Enyart introduced himself to senior citizens in East St. Louis to discuss his stance on the issue.

As this was the first time many of the senior citizens had ever seen Enyart, he took the time to link his name to a candidate that’s popular in the area.

Debt reduction talk attracts protesters

Chris McDaniel — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 20:12:16 +0000

David Walker has given his lecture on reducing the national debt in 13 cities, but he says his appearance in St. Louis was the first that attracted protesters. Walker was the Comptroller General of the United States from 1998 to 2008, serving in the Government Accountability Office.

Since then, Walker has written a book and toured around America to lecture on the increasing national debt. His lecture tour, titled "$10 Million a Minute", involves him speaking about a variety of areas in which he believes residents can combat the growing U.S. financial burden.