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Medicare HMO Withdrawals Put Managed Care Savings In Doubt Termination by Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) of contracts with Medicare has cast into doubt the savings that can be achieved through managed care. Since 1998 more than 1.6 million Medicare beneficiaries have been forced to find other plans when their Medicare HMOs discontinued service. According to the General Accounting Office (GAO), withdrawals can mean higher out-of-pocket costs and lost access to inexpensive prescription drug benefits. HMOs say reimbursements from Medicare are too low and they are overburdened with regulations, but the GAO contends that payment rates to HMOs have risen faster than spending in original fee-for-service Medicare. Source: `Medicare+Choice Plan Withdrawals Indicate Difficulty of Providing Choice While Achieving Savings,` GAO/HEHS-OO-183, September 2000. This article first appeared in Volume 6, Issue 4 of "The Social Security and Medicare Advisor" newsletter (March/2001). To receive future editions of "The Advisor" in its special, free e-mail version, please click here. | ||||||||
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