Medicare Monitor
The Palm Beach Post's veteran Washington correspondent, Larry Lipman, tracks policy makers and interest groups who are shaping the future of the federal health insurance program for the elderly.Medicare Web Resources
Government
•Medicare
•Medicare Frequently Asked Questions
•Medicare Booklet
•Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
•Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
Organizations
•AARP
•America's Health Insurance Plans
•Brookings Institution
•Center for Medicare Advocacy
•Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
•Century Foundation
•Commonwealth Fund
•Families USA
•Florida 50+
•Heritage Foundation
•Kaiser Family Foundation
•Medicare Rights Center
•National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare
•National Academy of Social Insurance
•National Center for Policy Analysis
Blogs
•AARP Issues Blog: Medicare
•Cato Institute Health Care Blog
•Entitled to Know National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare
•The Health Care Blog
Medicare at a glance
Medicare is the federal health care system that covers about 36 million people age 65 and older, plus 7 million disabled. It has four parts:
Financed by a 2.9 percent payroll tax divided equally between employees and employers.
Financed by beneficiary premiums and federal general revenue. Current monthly premiums are $93.50. Starting this year, individuals whose taxable income is more than $80,000 will pay a higher premium.
Financed by Medicare and beneficiary premiums, which vary among plans.
The plans are private and financed by Medicare and beneficiary premiums, which vary among plans.
-- Larry Lipman
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The latest 10 entries, with the newest at the top, and snippets from the latest comments.
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Recent entries
- Medicare updates prescription drug tool
- Premiums to increase 3.1 percent, lowest in six years
- Most Medicare beneficiaries to have access to cheaper Part D plans
- Satisfaction with Medicare call line drops
- Private fee-for-service plans OK'd
- South Florida accounts for half of Medicare HIV/AIDS costs
- Medicare says colorectal info corrected
- More entries...
Home > Medicare Monitor
Medicare updates prescription drug tool
Hoping to make it easier for beneficiaries to choose a private prescription drug plan, Medicare unveiled an updated Web site on Thursday that allows greater comparisons of price, coverage and quality.
The site allows beneficiaries to sort plans in their communities by factors such as annual costs, the amount of premiums, and what kind of coverage the plans provide once beneficiaries have reached the so-called “doughnut hole,” when coverage temporarily stops.
Beneficiaries who do not have access to the Web may obtain the same information through Medicare’s toll-free hotline at 1-800-MEDICARE (633-4227).
For the first time, Medicare will use a five-star rating system to compare plans based on such measures as access to care, quality of care and customer satisfaction, said Abby Block, director of the Center for Beneficiary Choice in the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
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Premiums to increase 3.1 percent, lowest in six years
Medicare premiums will increase by 3.1 percent next year, the lowest increase in six years, federal officials announced Monday.
The standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B, which covers physician and related outpatient services, will increase from the current $93.50 to $96.40.
Individuals earning more than $82,000 a year will pay a sliding scale of higher premiums, up to a maximum of $238.40 for those earning above $205,000.
The deductible for Part B services will increase from $131 to $135, after which Medicare pays 80 percent of allowable charges.
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Most Medicare beneficiaries to have access to cheaper Part D plans
Medicare officials say 90 percent of beneficiaries in a standalone Part D prescription drug plan will 
have access to at least one plan in their area offering lower premiums than they are paying now.
That’s the good news, because in August Medicare announced that the average premium would increase nearly 14 percent from $22 to $25 a month.
Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt said beneficiaries in every state will have access to at least one plan with a monthly premium below $20 and at least five plans with premiums below $25.
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Satisfaction with Medicare call line drops
Customer satisfaction with Medicare’s toll-free hotline has dropped 13 percentage points to 71 percent in the past three years, according to a report released today by the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general’s office.
The hotline number, 1-800-MEDICARE, received nearly 50 million calls last year, compared to nearly 30 million calls in 2004, its first full year of operation.
Callers hung up without getting a satisfactory answer about 21 percent of the time, nearly twice the 12 percent rate in 2004, the report said. Two-thirds of those who hung up told the inspector general’s office that they considered the wait time to talk to a customer service representative too long.
This year, as in 2004, 44 percent of callers said they had difficulty accessing information: 31 percent complained that the automatic voice system was difficult to navigate; 19 percent said they felt they had not received the information they needed.
Of those who completed their calls, 12 percent said they did not get answers to their questions as quickly as they desired.
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Private fee-for-service plans OK’d
Seven health care sponsors may now resume marketing their private-fee-for-service (PFFS) plans after what Medicare officials called “a rigorous review” of their marketing practices proved satisfactory.
Earlier this year, several major health care sponsors including The United Health Group, Humana Inc., and Sterling Life Insurance Co., voluntarily suspended marketing of their PFFS plans, which allow beneficiaries to see physicians outside their network of providers for a fee. Those companies, as well as Coventry Health Care Inc., Universal American Financial Corp., WellCare Health Plans Inc., and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, are now approved to market their PFFS plans.
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South Florida accounts for half of Medicare HIV/AIDS costs
Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties accounted for half the drug costs billed nationwide for Medicare beneficiaries with HIV/AIDS in the last half of 2006, according to a government report released this week. The numbers were released as federal officials are already keeping a close eye on potentially fraudulent medical billings in South Florida. The report by Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Daniel R. Levinson said the “aberrant claims patterns differentiated South Florida providers and beneficiaries from those in the rest of the country.” Although only 10 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries with HIV/AIDS live in the three South Florida counties, the report said the area accounted for half of the drug therapy costs billed nationwide - and 79 percent of the drugs themselves — and 37 percent of the HIV/AIDS services provided between July and December 2006.
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Medicare says colorectal info corrected
Medicare’s Web site has been corrected to reflect the fact that beneficiaries no longer have to meet a $131 deductible before they can receive a colorectal cancer screening test.
Changes have been made to the site’s main page and are being made to other pages within the Medicare site to reflect the current law.
The error was brought to the agency’s attention by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., who proposed the legislation eliminating the deductible requirement.
“We should have been on top of this earlier,” said spokesman Jeff Nelligan, who added that the agency appreciated the information.
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AARP: Keep Medicare provisions in SCHIP
AARP’s senior media relations manager, Drew Nannis, sent out a notice this morning trying to reverse the thrust of an article published in today’s Congress Daily that quoted him as saying AARP might be open to separating the SCHIP and Medicare issues if they had assurances that the Medicare package would not be left out in the cold.
While Nannis doesn’t dispute the fact that AARP’s position might eventually be just that, he said in a statement: “This does not reflect the hard work over the last several months by AARP and other organizations to keep Medicare provisions and SCHIP reauthorization together in the CHAMP Act. AARP has repeatedly been on the record in support of a CHAMP Act that contains both SCHIP and Medicare improvements.”
Whether Medicare remains a part of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program legislation is an open question. The Senate SCHIP bill did not include Medicare; the House bill (the CHAMP Act) did include Medicare with some controversial provisions related to Medicare Advantage.
President Bush has threatened to veto either measure. So here’s my question: why don’t the House Democrats just take the Senate version as is and pass it and send it to the president? That would put the president in the position of having to either accept or veto a bill that is purely devoted to the children’s health issue — without muddying the water with the controversial and unrelated Medicare provisions.
Cardin: Correct colorectal screening information
Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., says Medicare’s Web site has incorrect information related to colorectal screening, and he wants it corrected.
According to Cardin, President Bush signed legislation last year eliminating the requirement that Medicare beneficiaries had to meet a $131 annual Part B deductible before they could receive a colorectal cancer screening test. But the Medicare.gov Web site still listed the requirement.
“We know that early detection of colorectal cancer saves lives,” Cardin said in a statement. “Our seniors need to know that this financial barrier has been erased. Medicare beneficiaries still have high out-of-pocket costs for medical care, and elimination of the deductible requirement will help them get screened earlier.”
Based on statistics from the National Cancer Institute, Cadin’s office noted that more than 147,000 new cases are diagnosed and more than 57,000 people die from colorectal cancer each year. Screening can greatly improve chances of identifying pre-cancerous and cancerous cells before they develop into a more deadly form of the disease.
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AARP-AMA urge Senate SCHIP bill to include Medicare
Two of the most powerful lobbies in Washington urged the Senate to include Medicare reforms during negotiations to meld the vastly different House and Senate versions of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program reauthorization bill.
Simply put, the Senate bill doesn’t mention Medicare.
The House bill slashes payments to Medicare Advantage plans and eliminates a 10 percent Medicare cut in doctor payments scheduled to take effect Jan. 1.
The American Medical Association and AARP both like the House version better.