|
Social Security Administration Misinforms Over a Million Low-Income and Older New Yorkers about Right to Assistance for Medicare Premiums
July 14, 2002 (New York, NY) The Social Security Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have sent over a million letters to low-income older and disabled New Yorkers misleading them about the eligibility criteria for enrolling in the Qualified Individual Program -1, QI-1, an under-utilized federal program that pays monthly Medicare Part B premiums. For more information on low-income eligibility, read “Are You Eligible For A Medicare Savings Program?” at http://www.tscl.org/NewContent/101525.asp.
"Poor elderly and disabled New Yorkers who are eligible for over $600 in annual savings in health care costs will think they are ineligible, based on the Administration's letter," said Robert M. Hayes, president of the Medicare Rights Center. "Congress directed the Bush Administration to assist people to enroll in programs that will help them. This misinformation does the opposite. It hurts people. The letter from Social Security and CMS is consumer fraud," Hayes said.
In June, Thomas A. Scully, CMS Administrator, and Jo Anne B. Barnhart, Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, sent more than a million letters to low-income New Yorkers informing them about the QI-1 Medicare Savings Program benefit, but the letter states that to qualify for the program an individual cannot have assets totaling more than $4,000 or $6,000 for a couple. In April 2002, the New York legislature eliminated asset qualifications for the QI-1 program.
The Medicare Rights Center demanded that the Administration immediately send out a corrected letter.
Most people are not aware of the Medicare Savings Programs, which are highly underutilized. In recent years, as few as 3 percent of eligible people have enrolled in QI-1. In June, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded a three-year grant to the Medicare Rights Center for the "State Solutions Project" to increase enrollment in Medicare Savings Programs in New York State. Medicare Rights Center (MRC) is a national, not-for-profit consumer service organization working to ensure that older adults and people with disabilities receive good, affordable health care. For more information, visit the MRC web site at http://www.medicarerights.org.
September 2002
|
