tci Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement - 2008 Issue 5

Spending: Health Expenditure Jumps To $2.1 Trillion

High growth in drugs and Medicare spending blamed In 2006, the new Medicare prescription drug benefit contributed to an 18.7 percent increase in Medicare spending, which rose to $401.3 billion, up from $338.0 billion a year earlier, according to a report published in Health Affairs (Jan./Feb. 2008). On the other hand, Medicaid spending dropped for the first time since its initiation in 1965, to $310.6 billion in 2006 from $313.5 billion in 2005. Analysts from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have said that this 0.9 percent drop occurred mainly...

To read the full article, sign in and subscribe to tci Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement.

Thank you for choosing Find-A-Code, please Sign In to remove ads.