HomeCare Editors’ Top 5: Week of August 17

Whistleblower Says Medicare Advantage Plans Padded Charges in Home Visits

A whistleblower case in Texas accuses a medical consulting firm and more than two dozen health plans for the elderly of ripping off Medicare by conducting in-home patient exams that allegedly overstated how much the plans should be paid. (Schulte/NPR)

Telephone Therapy Helps Older People in Rural Areas

Therapy provided over the phone lowered symptoms of anxiety and depression among older adults in rural areas with a lack of mental health services, a new study shows. (Gillespie/Kaiser Health News)

Cities Put Nurse Practitioners Alongside Paramedics

A home-bound heart patient called 911. His leg hurt where a catheter was inserted, but he didn’t complain of chest pains. To paramedic Scott Fox, it was the kind of call that might have meant automatically rushing the man to a hospital emergency room. “There was no talking him out of it,” Fox recalls. But now he had another option. (Smouse/USA Today)

Study Casts Doubts About Hospital “Frequent Fliers”

Super-utilizers are the frequent fliers of the health care system, whose serious illnesses send them to the hospital multiple times every year and cost the system hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. (Andrews/Kaiser Health News)

Families of Disabled Children Sue Texas Over Medicaid Cuts

Relatives of children with disabilities are joining therapy providers in a lawsuit against the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, weeks before the agency is scheduled to slash payments to a therapy program for the poor. (Walters/Texas Tribune)