Medicare finds how hard it is to save money

New York Times, April 7, 2008

An experiment to see whether the Medicare system could prevent expensive hospital visits for people with chronic conditions has suggested that such an approach may cost more than it saves. Under the experiment, nurses periodically place phone calls to patients to check whether they are taking their drugs and seeing the right doctors. Medicare says the experiment so far has not reduced medical bills enough to offset the program's fees--as much as $2,000 a year for each patient.