Health Highlights: Aug. 23, 2008

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Medicare Prescription Drug Program Not Properly Monitored, Report Says

The U.S. government agency charged with overseeing the Medicare prescription drug program has done very little to check whether the insurance companies administering the plans to 24 million Americans are doing their jobs, the Associated Press reports.

In a report to be released Aug. 25, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services hasn't audited insurers to see if the prescription drug plans were working within federal guidelines, the wire service reports. This could cause "significant misuse of funds in this $39 billion program," the wire service quotes the GAO as saying.

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The GAO checked on five unnamed health insurance companies itself, the A.P. says, and many requirements for participation in the prescription drug program were unmet.

But a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services official countered that a Congressional cap on spending had limited his agency's ability to monitor the insurance companies. This limitation "has seriously degraded CMS' ability to meet its responsibilities in combating fraud and abuse," Kerry Weems, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told the wire service.

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Cancer Risk Decreases After Age 80, Study Says

The risk of most cancers decreases after age 80, according to a Harvard University study.

While previous research has linked old age with increased cancer risk, study lead author Richard Wilson and colleagues found that rates of nearly all cancers peak at age 80 and the rates drop toward zero as people approach the end of their lives, United Press International reported.

There are a number of reasons why people are less likely to develop cancer after age 80, Wilson said. They include: diet changes that result in a reduction of dietary carcinogens; decreased use of substances such as tobacco and alcohol; fewer occupational exposures to carcinogens; and less body weight, which may have an effect on several types of cancers.