Federal authorities are investigating claims that some Medicare Advantage health plans have overcharged the government for years by claiming that patients are sicker than they are.
Eight senators, all Republicans, voted against the bill because funding has not been fully allocated for its $214 billion cost. President Obama says he will sign it.
The federal government now factors patient satisfaction ratings into the rates Medicare pays hospitals. Some hospitals with lower ratings are finding it's difficult to change patients' perceptions.
The Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General said it would review Medicare Advantage billing practices with an eye toward curbing overcharges.
Aetna beneficiaries can reconsider their Part D choices after the insurer incorrectly identified some pharmacies as being in-network, dropped others and removed some from the preferred network.
The Cleveland Clinic has seen its Medicare penalties go down, while those paid by hospitals that serve many of Cleveland's poorer residents have gone up.
The administration wants to tie more of Medicare's spending on health care to quality and to encourage doctors and hospitals to be more frugal in their spending.
Medicare is giving hospitals financial incentives to provide better care. But so far about half of the hospitals that got incentive payments found them canceled out by other quality programs.
Community groups getting federal funds to reduce hospital readmissions made little improvement, an early evaluation finds. The experiment will run for five years.