Medicare Books

How to Protect Your Family's Assets from Devastating Nursing Home Costs by Gabriel Heiser is a terrific book. It clarified for me the issues surrounding Medicaid and asset preservation in a straight forward and easy to understand way. It provided me insights into complexities that are necessary for anyone who might be venturing down this path to be aware of and understand. It put into perspective the options that are available and perhaps most important of all, provided me with the background I needed to have a productive meeting with an elder attorney and to ask them the appropriate questions.

In particular, the book was written in a way that could be understood by a layman. It was presented in a very organized fashion and clearly went through the Medicaid process, a necessary pre-requisite for the subsequent chapters. The appendix was particularly useful in that it provided ways to find a qualified elder lawyer and other related resources as well as information on state Medicaid offices. But perhaps most interesting and helpful of all were the case studies. They provided a multitude of practical strategies, comparing and contrasting them throughout the book.

After reading this book, the bits and pieces of information I was able to discern from other books and from several lawyers I previously met with came together to form a clear picture like pieces of a puzzle. Armed with information and the possibilities presented and with an understanding of the implications of our decisions, we are now ready to move forward with plans for our parents with the confidence that we are prepared now to go down this very difficult road.

Thanks Mr. Heiser for all of your help!

I work in an industry where we have a need for such timely, topical and extensive information in the special needs planning area. I found Gabriel Heiser's book to be well written, easy to read, and very comprehensive. I have used it as a resource many times when I am questioned by one of our financial planners or attorneys in our network throughout the country. I have recommended his book to many who are struggling with the complexity of the medicaid system and how best to provide for a disabled individual. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants a complete understanding of the rules and regulations pertaining to the special needs or elder law planning arenas.

Geri N. McHam
The Estate Plan

The System makes it hard to get accurate information about Medicaid coverage of long-term care--even for a former reference librarian like me. I'm recommending this book to Amazon customers and to my local library.

Attorney Heiser's book on protecting assets from nursing home costs is an invaluable and terrific read. For those of us unaware of the financial devastation a nursing home stay can do to a family it is a must read. It gives the reader a chance to ask important questions of attorneys and financial planners to get the most out of their advice and to get through the many different state and federal laws that vary from state to state. Don't see an attorney without reading this first.

This book provides valuable information on a complex subject. Although it may not answer your specific questions, the information given allows you to make informed decision when consulting an estate planner or attorney. Informative easy to read book on a complex subject.

This book was recieved quickly. I founds the book to be very informative and useful. I found the answers to several of my questions I had. I will keep the book close to use for a reference and I am sure I will use it a lot. Thanks.

I have the 4th edition (at this time is the most recent edition in print) and as a psych home care nurse, this little, portable wealth of knowledge has helped me validate to management, as well as to public health and other surveyors, the range in situations that qualify "homebound status" for psychiatric patients. Throughout the book there are samples provided to support a variety of situations that help the nurse better understand, and therefore more accurately report, on each sector of the OASIS forms. Medicare regulations are explained in detail, and I learned information that I had not known in the 14 years I have been doing mental health home care nursing. The manual provides a history and background of homecare, its evolution, provides an overview of documentaion, including the importance of coding, and its significance in home care. Also, valuable tips on improving the nursing visit, setting achievable goals, managing the case, and the guidelines for care for all the home care disciplines, are provided, so the nurse can be knowledgable regarding the roles of the other disciplines. There is a great resource section at the end of the book, and home care definitions, roles, and abbreviations are delineated in this manual as well. All home care codes are listed.

With the often-confusing regulations and data gathering tools out there, at least we on the front lines have this portable manual to help us sort out our assessments and evaluations into the accurate coding and leveling criteria that supports what we do, what we observe, and allows for the appropriate revenue to support the levels of care our patients require. As OASIS data-gathering evolves, newer editions will be needed to keep up with the miriad of changes that will ensue, but at least here is a standard we can all make good use of, and I am willing to bet every nurse, from novice to manager, will find something in this manual that was not known or delineated as well to them in the past.

This manual would also make a wonderful teaching tool for nursing students. They may as well learn early on how intricate the data-gathering tools are in the real working world. Accurate notations on the OASIS forms can either make or break a case, not only regarding reimbursement, but as to whether the levels of care, and variety of disciplines, that you feel are needed, are allowed to provide services to your patient. Hasty and inaccurate translation of evaluations and assessments onto the OASIS forms results in inability to justify to Medicare that the levels of intervention you are requesting are appropriate.

I love this book because, being in the home health industry you have to know what you're charting. If charting is lacking then you will not get the full reimbursement that you are entitled to. Thanks alot.

i had the early verison and used it for making my care plan. the content is now updated and still valuable.

A MUST resource guide for all nurses who work in the Home Health industry.

Definitely would buy again from seller. Book was Brand new and price was unbeatable! Book came right on time.

This text arrived in great condition and is a comprehensive look at all aspects of managed health care over the course of managed care history.

Excellent, comprehensive primer on the intricacies of managed care. Covers all the major topics, including delivery systems, public and private sector forms of managed care, regulatory and legal issues, medical management, information systems, and operational issues. Thoughtfully done by Dr. Peter R. Kongstvedt and contributors.

The author created an invaluable tool to help begineers understand the rather complicated topic of managed care using a straightforward linear approach to the topic. All topics are covered early with references to indepth coverage found later in the volume.

Getting the book is just a tool though, you really gotta want to learn the material because as practiced as the author is at putting the pen to paper, it's a very difficult topic and therefore, read.

The book was easy to understand and was written from the perspective of someone who is unfamiliar with the managed care topic. I recommend it highly

As we enter another Presidential Political campaign, where the issues of saving Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will be hotly debated, this is an important book that documents the history of the Medicare program from the 1930's to the ultimate passage of the program in 1965. Professor Marmor is uniquely qualified to bring life to the events. It should be read by all who will want to understand how we "got where we are", and perhaps give insight to ways to make these important social programs more vibrant in the 21 st century

Have you ever wondered how Medicare-the federal health insurance program for the elderly and some disabled--became such a hot news topic, or why its administration and benefit package (the lack of outpatient drug coverage, for example) seems so inexplicable and byzantine?

If so, Theodore Marmor's reissue and revision of The Politics of Medicare is the book you want to pick up. There is no comparable book of its kind. Other scholars have studied Medicare's origins. Journalists trace the ebb and flow of contemporary Washington battles over Social Security and Medicare. But Marmor, a Yale professor and health policy guru, has written the definitive analysis of how the political battles waged over health insurance and Medicare from the 1940s onward powerfully shape the debate over the program to this day.

Wondering why Medicare, unlike almost all major private insurance plans, fails to cover most prescription drugs? The seeds of an answer may be found in the fears of 1960s legislators that the unpredictable cost of drugs could swamp the program at its outset. Unsure why medical expenditures took off in the 1960s and 1970s? Partly because doctors, who had led the charge against a government-sponsored social insurance program for the aged, benefited enormously from generous rules that were designed to assauge their fears about participation. Puzzled how Medicare became such a political hot potato after years of uninterrupted popularity? Marmor deftly shows how the Reagan administration reoriented widely-held fears about medical inflation into narrower fears about the supposedly unsustainable cost of public programs.

Another reason that this astute volume bears reading, or rereading: Marmor shows that elections can really matter. In the absence of the Democratic majority in Congress that emerged from the 1964 elections, passage of Medicare would have been delayed or forestalled altogether.

Within the cozy world of health policy analysts, Marmor is known for being a staunch proponent of national health insurance and a skeptic about the potential of HMOs and different forms of "managed competition" to control health costs and delivery quality care. His convictions enliven the text rather than detracting from its rigorous logic. This is a book that anyone interested in the politics of health care, and in American politics in general, will appreciate.

One thing alone mars this otherwise impressive book: its packaging. Sadly, any seven-year old with access to Microsoft Excel could have improved on the volume's rudimentary and unappealing charts and graphics. But the reader shouldn't let this superficial flaw detract from Marmor's important and unusually well-written book.

The first edition of The Politics of Medicare, reprinted in part for the second edition, provides an engaging analytical structure for understanding the complex forces of governments and politics. While studying under the author, a gifted political scientist, years ago, the first edition was a cornerstone in our studies of healthcare politics and programs in the United States. The book equips the reader with the tools and knowledge to understand political forces well beyond the Medicare program.

The analysis of Medicare in the 1990s, found in the current volume, is excellent. This is an ideal time to read or reread the book since Medicare program changes will face our new President and the newly elected or reelected members of our House of Representatives and Senate during 2001. This fall I read the second edition and found the book very informative and enjoyable.

Revised for the first time since 1973, Marmor's *The Politics of Medicare* still stands as the best single book on the political genesis of Medicare. In this valuable new edition, Marmor brings his classic analysis up to date while addressing the arguments of contemporary critics of the program. During an election year in which Medicare looms large, there is no better guide to the political past and future of America's public health insurance program for the elderly and disabled.

I have read two reviews of this book in odd places, both of which are highly favorable. According to John Glasel of the Musician's Union in NYC, Professor Marmor's 'perceptive work analyzes the partisan squabbling that hs shaped Medicare over the years. The first part, a reprint of the first edition of this book, traces the history of the fight for government health insurance from the 1930s to the passage of Medicare in l965. The book's second part, completely new in this edition, brings the history up to date. Many scholars, according to Glasel, have long considered the first edition of this book the "definitive work on the subject. Its new edition should now be accorded that distinction." I agree with that judgement very much. So does Jeff Levine of WebMD's Washington Bureau, who described The Politics of Medicare as "a book for serious students of public policy," one which does not simply recite "historical facts" but analyzes the origins of Medicare and then, in a complex and thoughtful way, tells the story from l965 to l999.

Don't be fooled by the new title and cover, it's the same book inside. Not one word has been changed - I hope!

If you want to learn to "manage managed care," this is your book. It is certainly one aspect of private practice, but a truly "Successful Private Practice" is so much more than knowing how to navigate managed care. One of these days, maybe I will write the real "Successful Private Practice!"

I highly recommend this book to all the clients of my billing service; in fact, I gave copies for Christmas one year! Therapists are launched into private practice with no clue about how to deal with insurance companies or managed care. Suddenly they have to learn (usually the hard way) how to fill out treatment plans and work with case managers. Susan Frager maps out this new world in a clear fashion, and in language familiar to the clinician.

Any well written handbook is a plus to any mental health office. The information on what should really go on a treatment plan is useful information for a billing service or office manager to pass on to their therapists. This book teaches the therapist a "cooled-down" approach to dealing with the managed care companies instead of an antagonistic approach. Start-up billing services will also find the billing-specific information helpful. This information is spelled out clearly and is easily understood.

This book is excellent. The author's information is presented clearly, giving us mental health providers reassurance that we have a chance with Managed Care. The book is well organized and the information is helpful. Managed Care is a bureaucracy and we must learn the language and the procedures if we are to use Managed Care. This book will help you do that. If you are new to the field and considering Managed Care as a referral source, this is an excellent tool. If you have been struggling with Managed Care for some time, do not hesitate. This book will help you manage your managed care referrals so that you can be a more effective therapist. If you are a mental health provider and are debating about becoming a managed care panelist, you owe it to yourself to read this book before you take the plunge.

Don't be fooled by the new title and cover, it's the same book inside. Not one word has been changed - I hope!

If you want to learn to "manage managed care," this is your book. It is certainly one aspect of private practice, but a truly "Successful Private Practice" is so much more than knowing how to navigate managed care. One of these days, maybe I will write the real "Successful Private Practice."

"This valuable book draws together key aspects of the Medicare story seldom combined in a single volume. Sue Blevins (R.N., M.P.H., M.S.), president of the Institute for Health Freedom, describes Medicare's key characteristics, analyzes its consequences for current and future retirees, outline's the programs historical evolution, and formulates an agenda for reform. Medicare's "midlife crisis" includes, among other things, the inexorable rise in Medicare spending, the beneficiaries' ever-rising out-of-pocket medical costs, the reduction in the number of taxpaying workers per Medicare beneficiary because of the retirement of the "baby-boom" generation, the threat to medical privacy associated with efforts to reduce Medicare fraud, and Medicare's impending bankruptcy. Blevin's concern is what needs to be done to remedy that midlife crisis."

"This volume provides a useful reference for general readers and medical professionals. Its greatest strength is in combining, in a highly readable and concise volume, practical information about how Medicare works and insightful analysis of Medicare's history, consequences, and possible reform. Its weaknesses are chiefly organizational, including a sometimes disconcerting tendency to repeat facts previously discussed. "Medicare's Midlife Crisis" is intended primarily for those not acquainted with how Medicare actually works and how it originated. I would strongly recommend it to a friend who wanted to inform himself quickly about the Medicare issue."

"This book is not about political or economic theory; it is about Medicare's history, administration, and practical effects. Its great virtue is blending the historical with the current, the political dynamics with the actual effects of Medicare. As such, "Medicare's Midlife Crisis" will appeal to a wide spectrum of readers."

Proposed Medicare 'reforms' will hurt seniors and consumers alike: Medicare's Midlife Crisis tells how Medicare should be restructured to help reduce the impact of change on those who need it most. Medicare's growth, Blevins argues, has forced seniors into restrictive health choices and has raised issues of privacy. Issues of freedom of choice for seniors come into play as Blevins examples the problems of a single-payer government healthcare system.

This is a concise, well told tale of the morass that the Medicare program has become. Although Blevins described herself as a "policy wonk" to me in a recent interview, the book is well written, and clearly explains a complex subject.

The book tracks the early efforts at compulsory insurance efforts, on the national as well as the international scene, up to recent schemes for expanding the program by adding a prescription drug entitlement.

Waste, fraud, abuse and misuse account for some 800 million to 1.6 billion dollars yearly in this program. And, as Blevins points out, "If health care costs continue to rise with fewer workers to finance the program, the federal government will have to raise taxes, increase seniors' out-of-pocket costs, reduce benefits, or implement a combination of these reforms."

Most seniors believe that Medicare pays for everything. Nothing could be further from the truth. The tables in the appendices outlining the payment limitations should be read by everyone who uses Medicare to pay for their medical expenses.

If you are 65 or 25, you must read this book. Why?
Because everyone of us is affected by Medicare now --
regardless of age. If you're 25, you are affected by the
Medicare taxes taken from your paychecks. If you're 65,
Medicare rules your health care.

Ms. Blevins has written a concise and informative expose
about this immensely expensive and influential bureaucracy.
She tells the story of Medicare with six eye-opening chapters:
1. Don't Know Much About Medicare?
2. The Push for Compulsory Health Insurance: EarlyInternational and National Efforts.
3. Medicare's Enactment in the United States: From State to
State to Federal Coverage.
4. Did Government Officials Ignore the True Costs of Medicare?
5. How Has Medicare Affected Seniors?
6. Medicare Reform in the 21st Century: Time for True Choice
and Competition.

Learning about Medicare doesn't sound like a necessary, let
alone interesting thing to do -- at least, that's what I
thought before reading Ms. Blevins' book. However, my
outlook quickly changed after only reading a few pages
of Chapter 1.

A great help in learning about dealing with our families. Levine reveals complex problems,that we are not all aware of. She is both wise and humorous on this NEW subject brought on by a longer life span.

A great help in learning about dealing with our families. Levine reveals complex problems,that we are not all aware of. She is both wise and humorous on this NEW subject brought on by a longer life span.

Great information for those in a or getting into a caregiver role for adult children or seniors. Very helpful in coping with this very stressful situation. A humorous approach to a stage of life that many boomers may find themselves entering. "hits the nail on the head"

This book is the first one that I have found on a subject that is very important to the "Baby Boomer Generation". This covers the newest and biggest problems emerging as this generation gets ready for retirement.

This book is really a satire against Medicare. It is written from the perspective of one of the Devil's executives. This executive writes a memo (essentially the whole book) to his boss (The Devil) about how well Medicare is working out in their malevolent plan. I considered it very entertaining reading.

Professor David Hyman has used the seven deadly sins to serve up an easy to read description of the Medicare mess. His satirical approach is both amusing and on target. I think this small volume is required reading for both the layman and the expert. The book supplies a historical perspective, and provides a useful focus on the Medicare problem areas. I think this focus and fact driven perspective is essential, if the nation is to make any progress confounding Mephistopheles.

No ordinary survey, MEDICARE MEETS MEPHISTOPHELES takes the form of allegory, and is written as a memorandum from an underling demon to the devil himself. Devilish details demonstrate Medicare's pitfalls and the foundations that only undermine honesty and encourage greed and profiteering. In using satire as a vehicle for analysis, Hyman provides a biting analysis easy to digest.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This book is amazing. The authors have a great way of making light of issues that most don't want to think about, let alone read about. While it is light-hearted, the book is also quite informative - It is a must read for old and young.

As a woman who graduated with a Psychology degree - and then shifted gears to become an Estates & Trusts lawyer - I find that Ms. Whitman and Dr. Glisson smoothly combine information from often-disparate schools of thought in their book. Planning for the end of your life is not just a medical, business, or legal affair; it is also a matter of the heart. These authors get that. The tone of the book instantly puts the reader at ease, with the use of humor and quotes from everyday people who completed surveys on the topic, and provides critical information no matter in what stage of life you find yourself. Share it with those you love.

My mother-in-law lost her battle against ovarian cancer in December. If only my husband and I had this book when she was diagnosed! It contains so much helpful advice that could have made the past two years less of a nightmare. The book has great information on clinical trials and hospice. It also would have helped us make sure all the right legal documents were in place. If we'd had access to this information earlier on, I think we could have saved a lot of money on attorney fees. Since I'm in my late thirties, I've never given much thought to wills, etc. But after reading this book, and watching the whole Anna Nicole saga on TV, I understand how crucial it is to have the proper paperwork, and am in the process of having a will and other documents drawn up myself.

This is a fantastic book. Gratzer hits the nail on the head. The unfortunate truth is that the people in Canada with the power to change the system won't consider an approach like this because it would be political suicide in Canada. Gratzer shows us that health care reform in Canada does not have to be synonymous with Americanization of health care - a notion that seems to escape most Canadians.

While some in the United States admire Canada's Single-Payer health care system, this book shows how misplaced their admiration is. In fact, Canada's system is under-funded, out-of-date and failing fast. They can't keep hold of their doctors -- or their patients. They fail to invest in new equipment or technology, and they barely perform any new research. Gratzer argues that Canada should move towards a system of medical savings accounts to restore accountability and patient power in Canada.