Ravi’s Gadgets

Medicare is a GREAT health insurance program!! The problem is most people feel intimidated by it. They are overwhelmed by the choices and get frustrated and ultimately turned off by the whole system. That is unfortunate, but hopefully this article will clear up some of these issues.

Medicare is a health insurance program designed for seniors (people 65 & older) and people with certain disabilities. It covers Hospitalization costs (Medicare Part A) and doctors or outpatient services (Medicare Part B). It was signed into law in 1965 by Lyndon B. Johnson. It has gone through many changes over the years and now there is also Medicare Part C (also called Medicare Advantage) and Medicare Part D (prescription Drug coverage).

Parts 422 and 423 – In the December 5, 2007 issue of the Federal Register, we published a final rule finalizing the Medicare program provisions relating to contract determinations involving Medicare Advantage (MA) organizations and Medicare Part D prescription drug plan sponsors, including eliminating the reconsideration process for review of contract determinations, revising the provisions related to appeals of contract determinations, and clarifying the process for MA organizations and Part D sponsors to complete corrective action plans. In that final rule, we also clarified the intermediate sanction and civil money penalty provisions that apply to MA organizations and Part D sponsors, modified elements of MA organizations and Part D sponsors’ compliance plans, retained voluntary self-reporting for Part D sponsors, implemented voluntary self-reporting for MA organizations, and revised provisions to ensure HHS has access to the books and records of MA organizations and Part D sponsors’ first tier, downstream, and related entities. This correcting amendment corrects a limited number of technical and typographical errors identified in the December 5, 2007 final rule. [73 FR 55763]