Medicare, Home Foreclosures: Hot Trends

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Medicare is a heavily searched topic on the Internet today as a new set of regulations are slated to go into effect Jan. 1.

The new Medicare rules will allow doctors to get reimbursed by the government for advising patients on options for end-of-life care during annual checkups.

Also, the end of the annual open enrollment period is approaching. Medicare's annual open enrollment period for seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D prescription drug plans will continue through Dec. 31. During this time, seniors in the federal health insurance program can make changes to their coverage. Any changes will take effect Jan. 1, 2011.

---

Home foreclosures is a trending topic on Yahoo!(YHOO) today following news that the number of U.S. home foreclosures rose in the third quarter.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision released data showing that the number of new foreclosures in the U.S. was up 3.7% to 382,000 in the third quarter from the same period a year ago. This was also a 31.2% increase from the second quarter.

The number of foreclosures in process in the third quarter increased 10.1% to 1.2 million.

---

The chatter on Main Street (a.k.a. Google) is always of interest to investors on Wall Street. Thus, each day, TheStreet compiles the stories that are trending on Google, and highlights the news that could make stocks move.

--Written by Theresa McCabe in Boston.

>To contact the writer of this article, click here: Theresa McCabe.

>To follow the writer on Twitter, go to @TheresaMcCabe.

>To submit a news tip, send an email to: [e-mail].

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints