Medicare routinely advises seniors to rent home medical equipment when it would be far less expensive if they bought it. Medicare, the government health program for seniors, isn’t alone in this practice. Some private insurers do the same thing.
For 630,000 Coloradans enrolled in Medicare, it's time to make decisions. The period for open enrollment has been moved up this year.
Instead of the usual deadline of Dec. 31, the enrollment period begins Oct. 15 and will close Dec. 7. The change was designed to avoid deadlines coinciding with the end-of-year holiday season.
Medicare officials are scrambling to spread the word about the new deadline. "We worry about inertia," says Colorado Medicare spokesman Mike Fierberg.
Two years after assuring Congress it would immediately begin researching a promising treatment for soldiers with traumatic brain injuries, the military is just getting started.
