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Medicare Part B Premium Remains Unchanged For 2000, But Future Increases Expected The Medicare Part B premium stayed at the 1999 rate of $45.50 in 2000, but is expected to rise to $46.50 in 2001. The Part B premium covers physician services, hospital outpatient care, durable medical equipment, some home health and other services outside hospitals. Both Parts A (hospital insurance), and B of Medicare require recipients to share costs in the form of deductibles and co-payments. Part B requires a premium contribution equal to 25 percent of the costs of Part B. Over time, current law will require an increase because Part B is expected to rise faster than Part A making it a larger share of total program expenditures. In 1997, some Members of Congress projected that changes they made to Medicare would result in a monthly premium increase of more than $10 by 2000. This has not happened. In fact, Medicare spending overall in 1999 was $10.6 billion less than the previous year, thus no increase in premiums for Medicare recipients. The drop in spending was attributed to cuts in payments to health care providers as well as a crackdown on fraud, waste, and abuse. Source: "Medicare Part B Premium Unchanged For 2000," HCFA, October 19,1999. This article first appeared in Volume 5, Issue 4 of "The Social Security and Medicare Advisor" newsletter (March/2000). To receive future editions of "The Advisor" in its special, free e-mail version, please click here. | ||||||||
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