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homes nationwide that were not meeting basic requirements to look after their residents, government investigators have found.
• The report, released Thursday by the Department of Health and Human Services' inspector general, said Medicare paid about $5.1 billion for patients to stay in skilled nursing facilities that failed to meet federal quality of care rules in 2009, in some cases resulting in dangerous and neglectful conditions.
• One out of every three times patients wound up in nursing homes that year, they landed in facilities that failed to follow basic care requirements laid out by the federal agency that administers Medicare, investigators estimated.
• By law, nursing homes need to write up care plans specially tailored for each resident, so doctors, nurses, therapists and all other caregivers are on the same page about how to help residents reach the highest possible levels of physical, mental and psychological well-being.
• Not only are residents often going without the crucial help they need, but the government could be spending taxpayer money on facilities that could endanger people's health, the report concluded. The findings come as concerns about health care quality and cost are garnering heightened attention as the Obama administration implements the nation's sweeping health care overhaul.
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• PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) -- Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky is scrambling this month as his start-up company rolls out its new, high-tech smart watches.
• The devices are tethered wirelessly to a wearers' Android or iPhone. With hands truly free, wearers can read texts, see who is calling them, scan Twitter or Facebook feeds and yes, check the time, while digging in their garden, barbequing a steak or -- as Migicovsky was doing when he conceived of the idea -- riding a bike when his phone began to ring.
• Pebble began shipping in January. It not the first to make a play for the watch market. But the firm is the most popular in the smart watch sector today, bubbling up amid rampant rumors that Apple has its own iWatch in the works.
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