Medicare Watch

Medicare Reaches a Milestone

On July 30, consumers and
advocates across the country
will celebrate Medicare’s 45th
birthday. Since Medicare was
enacted in 1965, the program
has ensured that millions of
Americans have access to
quality, affordable health care.
Today, over 47 million older
adults and people with disabilities look to Medicare as a source of health and financial security.

Read Medicare Rights Center President Joe Baker’s statement on the milestone.

Read birthday wishes for Medicare from the friends, staff and volunteers of Medicare Rights, and add a message of your own.

The Leadership Council of Aging Organizations (LCAO), of which Medicare Rights is a member, released a statement that commemorates Medicare’s 45th anniversary. The statement outlines the ongoing effort to preserve and improve Medicare, and points to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as a key part of that preservation.

Read the LCAO’s statement.

Read more about health reform and Medicare.

Take action! Contact your senators and representatives, and tell them to preserve Medicare.

Forum Focuses on Care Coordination for Older Americans

On July 28, the Campaign for Better Care held the Building Better Care Forum: Improving the System For Delivering Health Care to Older Adults and Their Families. At the forum, policymakers, caregivers, patients and providers discussed problems associated with fragmented care. For example, speakers discussed unnecessary rehospitalizations and inadequate discharge planning and highlighted how improving communication across care settings and among providers, their patients and their patients’ caregivers would create higher quality health care and lead to savings. Participants also discussed health reform, which includes provisions aimed to create incentives for providers to make care coordination a priority in their practices, including paying Medicare providers based on the quality of the care they provide rather than per service.

Medicare Rights Center is a member of the Campaign for Better Care, a coalition of organizations and stakeholders that advocate for reform of the health care delivery system to provide better coordinated, high-quality and patient-centered care. 

Watch the Building Better Care Forum.

Learn more about Care Coordination.

Tell us your story.

Dear Marci,

Medicare is refusing to pay for a health care service I received, is there anything I can do?

— Donald (Edina, MN)

Dear Donald,

If Medicare is refusing to pay for a health care service you received, you can appeal the decision. You have legal rights to get the care you are entitled to regardless of which type of Medicare you choose. These rights exist in Original Medicare and Medicare private health plans.

It is not difficult to exercise your rights and appeal a Medicare denial of a service you believed was necessary. Exercising your rights is easy if you know what to do.

Click on this link to get help you with your appeal. Learn more about appealing Original Medicare and Medicare private health plan denials on www.MedicareInteractive.org.

The excerpt above is adapted from Dear Marci, our biweekly newsletter for consumers. Sign up for Dear Marci.

Spotlight

KaiserEDU has released a new multimedia presentation on health reform and Medicare. The presentation includes information on a wide range of topics, including Medicare basics and changes to the Medicare prescription drug benefit (Part D) under health reform. KaiserEDU is a service of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Watch the presentation.