The objective of this review by the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General was to estimate the extent of FY 2000 fee-for-service Medicare payments that did not comply with Medicare laws and regulations. Based on HHS¿s statistical sample, HHS estimates that improper Medicare benefit payments made during FY 2000 totaled $11.9 billion, or about 6.8% of the $173.6 billion in processed fee-for-service payments reported by the Health Care Financing Admin. (HCFA). As in past years, these improper payments could range from inadvertent mistakes to outright fraud and abuse. HHS recommendations address the need for HCFA to sustain its efforts in reducing improper payments. Tables and graphs.

Health care for the elderly American is among our nation's more pressing social issues. Our society wishes to ensure quality health care for all older people, but there is growing concern about our ability to maintain and improve quality in the face of efforts to contain health care costs. Medicare: A Strategy for Quality Assurance answers the U.S. Congress' call for the Institute of Medicine to design a strategic plan for assessing and assuring the quality of medical care for the elderly. This book presents a proposed strategic plan for improving quality assurance in the Medicare program, along with steps and timetables for implementing the plan by the year 2000 and the 10 recommendations for action by Congress. The book explores quality of careâ€"how it is defined, measured, and improvedâ€"and reviews different types of quality problems. Major issues that affect approaches to assessing and assuring quality are examined. Medicare: A Strategy for Quality Assurance will be immediately useful to a wide audience, including policymakers, health administrators, individual providers, specialists in issues of the older American, researchers, educators, and students.

Health Insurance is a Family Matter is the third of a series of six reports on the problems of uninsurance in the United Sates and addresses the impact on the family of not having health insurance. The book demonstrates that having one or more uninsured members in a family can have adverse consequences for everyone in the household and that the financial, physical, and emotional well--being of all members of a family may be adversely affected if any family member lacks coverage. It concludes with the finding that uninsured children have worse access to and use fewer health care services than children with insurance, including important preventive services that can have beneficial long-term effects.