http://www.oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-01-08-00280.pdf

Provides information about appeals made by beneficiaries in Medicare Advantage health plans. Reports that MAOs make the vast majority of organization determinations in favor of beneficiaries but that fewer than 1 in 10 adverse determinations were appealed. From the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services.

http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/medicare/index.html

Presents the Obama administration's explanation for how proposed health care reform will improve the Medicare program for senior citizens. From the Department of Health and Human Services.

http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/seniors/index.html

Subtitled: Protecting Coverage and Strengthening Medicare. Argues that health reform is necessary to maintain and strengthen the Medicare program for elderly citizens. From Healthreform.Gov.

http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/eedata_sc/2006/index.html

Shows the number of wage and salary workers and self-employed persons, the amount of their taxable earnings, and the amount they paid in Social Security and Medicare contributions by state and county. From the Social Security Administration.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr016.pdf

Examines selected health characteristics of four age groups of older adults ranging from 55 to more than 85 years old. Found that poor adults and adults with Medicaid insurance coverage were the most disadvantaged in terms of health status, physical and social functioning, health care utilization, and health behaviors. From the National Center for Health Statistics.

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/103xx/doc10328/06-26-CBOLT.pdf

Describes in nontechnical language how the agency uses a simulation model known as CBOLT to analyze the budgetary and distributional effects of the Social Security program and other federal programs, to evaluate potential reforms to federal entitlement programs, and to quantify long-term fiscal challenges. From the Congressional Budget Office.

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/102xx/doc10297/06-25-LTBO.pdf

Examines the pressures facing the federal budget over the coming decades by presenting projections of federal spending and revenues through 2080. Unless increases in revenues keep pace with escalating spending, or spending growth is sharply reducd, soaring federal debt from rising health care costs and an aging population will weigh heavily on economic output and incomes. Includes sections on the long-term outlook for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security spending. From the Congressional Budget Office.

http://www.medpac.gov/documents/Jun09_EntireReport.pdf

Offers recommendations to Congress on controlling expanding health costs under Medicare. Argues that current spending and utilization trends place Medicare on an unsustainable course and that ways must be found to provide incentives that reward value and not volume of services delivered. Calls for organizing doctors and hospitals into accountable care organizations whose members would received bonuses if quality of care and cost targets were met. From the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.

http://www.wm.edu/about/administration/strategicplanning/index.php

Finds that Medicare paid $75 million for 1.2 million drugs for patients in skilled nursing facilities in 2006, and that $41 million of the payments were inappropriate. From the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services.

http://nihseniorhealth.gov/medicare/toc.html

Online pamphlet of information for people providing care for someone on Medicare. Includes sections on prescription drug coverage, continuing care options, and frequently asked questions. From the National Institutes of Health.

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/ReportsTrustFunds/downloads/tr2009.pdf

Reports that Medicare, weakened by the current economic recession, will run out of funds for paying the hospital coverage or Part A portion of the insurance program by 2017. Also reports that Parts B and D for physician services and prescription drugs are adequately financed over the next 10 years and beyond because premiums are reset each year to meet expected costs. From the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.