March 12, 2009 
I thought this sounded interesting so I thought I would post it for those of you that are interested…
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On Monday, March 16 at 12:15 p.m. ET, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Alliance for Health Reform will co-host a briefing with a panel of experts discussing the Medicare program. Medicare covers nearly 45 million beneficiaries, including 38 million seniors and 7 million younger adults with permanent disabilities. The program is expected to cost the federal government approximately $477 billion in 2009, accounting for 13 percent of federal spending and 19 percent of total national health expenditures.
Panelists will address questions such as:
- Whom does Medicare serve and what services does it cover?
- What are Medicare Parts A, B, C and D?
- How is it structured and financed?
- What drives Medicare’s costs?
- How does Medicare reimburse providers and hospitals?
- What future challenges face the program?
A live webcast of the discussion will be provided by kaisernetwork.org.
WHO: Ed Howard, JD, executive vice president of the Alliance for Health Reform and Diane Rowland, ScD, executive vice president, Kaiser Family Foundation and executive director, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured will co-moderate the discussion with panelists:
- Juliette Cubanski, PhD, principal policy analyst, Kaiser Family Foundation
- Marilyn Moon, PhD, vice president and director, American Institutes for Research
- Tom Gustafson, PhD, senior policy advisor, Arnold & Porter LLC
Enabling Healthy Decisions 
Does Medicare reimburse hospitals for the services of the Patient Advocate? Does Medicaid? Does anybody?