NOTABLE & QUOTABLE

“We find it inappropriate and misleading to compare [Internet] prices to the service delivery model for power wheelchairs under the Medicare program.”
— Reps. Tom Allen, D-Maine, and Ron Lewis, R-Ky., in a recent “Dear Colleague” letter to fellow House members blasting an Office of Inspector General report that found Medicare’s fees for PWCs were 45 percent higher than prices available on the Internet. Allen and Lewis disputed the OIG’s findings, noting “there are extensive service-related costs associated with Medicare compliance that need to be considered in any comparison.”

3,500
Number of adult day centers providing care for 150,000 older Americans each day. Among those people, 59 percent need assistance with two or more activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, toileting, eating or transferring.

Source: National Adult Day Services Association

15.5%
Percentage of income spent out-of-pocket on health care by Medicare beneficiaries in 2003 — up from 11.9 percent in 1997

Source: Health Affairs

$10 billion
Amount Medicaid would save in five years if current smokers enrolled in the program quit smoking

Source: American Legacy Foundation

45%
of physicians with direct knowledge of impaired or incompetent members of their practice did not always report the incompetence, according to a recent survey. Forty-six percent who knew of a serious medical error did not report it to authorities on at least one occasion.

Source: Annals of Internal Medicine

78
Average age at which baby boomers believe they’ll be “old.” Those in excellent health say they’ll be old at 83, while those in poor health put the number at 74.

Source: MetLife Mature Market Institute

Sunlight
may help decrease the risk of lung cancer.

Source: ScienceDaily/British Medical Journal