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This issue brief provides an overview of the Independence Plus Initiative, compares core program features with the Cash and Counseling Demonstration program, and discusses several policy issues that arise in the implementation of this initiative. Issue Paper (.pdf)
This report examines the early experience with the Medicare-Approved Drug Discount Card Program, prices offered by card sponsors, and potential savings for enrollees. The report presents information about approved discount card programs, including sponsors, enrollment fees, and drugs covered, as well as beneficiary education and outreach efforts by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The pricing analysis shows that discount cards can deliver savings off of full retail drug prices, but also that savings…
Individuals with disabilities who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid must also shift to a Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2006. This report analyzes how younger dual eligibles in Kansas enrolled in work incentive programs differ than other Medicare enrollees in the types of drugs they use and how much drug spending they have to better assess the impact of the Medicare drug benefit on this population. Report (.pdf)
This guide helps to explain the program rules for Medicare and Medicaid with regard to work. Medicare and Medicaid have come to play important roles in the lives and the futures of roughly 20 million children, adults, and seniors with disabilities - and this guide gives people with disabilities new information to help them get the most from these programs. Full PDF Report Section 1: Protecting Health Coverage For People With Disabilities Who Work HTML…
This paper identifies and examines consumer protection issues that arise from the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003. Key issue areas include: beneficiary information, marketing, enrollment and disenrollment, the drug benefit package and cost-sharing, the appeals process, concerns for low-income beneficiaries, challenges for nursing home issues, and fraud and abuse. Report (.pdf)
Medicare Drug Discount Cards: A Work In Progress This report examines the early experience with the Medicare-Approved Drug Discount Card Program, prices offered by card sponsors, and potential savings for enrollees. The report presents information about approved discount card programs, including sponsors, enrollment fees, and drugs covered, as well as beneficiary education and outreach efforts by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The pricing analysis shows that discount cards can deliver savings off of…
Health Care for Americans with Disabilities Download a printable .pdf of Health Care and the 2004 Elections: Health Care for Americans with Disabilities. IssueBackgroundHealth CoveragePrescription Drugs Under Public ProgramsCoverage of Long-Term Services and SupportsFinancing Medicaid and MedicareAssessing Candidate Positions Issue More than 50 million individuals, or roughly one in five Americans, have a disability. Diverse in health-care needs, levels of functioning, goals, and life circumstances, many count on Medicaid and Medicare to provide coverage for…
Key Implementation Dates for the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit This timeline presents important dates and deadlines of key implementation activities related to the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA). It runs from the beginning of 2005 through the end of 2006, the first year of the new Medicare drug benefit. Some of these dates are defined in the MMA statute, while others are from the final rule issued by the Centers…
This issue brief analyzes federal and state guaranteed issue rules and how they impact beneficiaries’ access to Medigap, including the implications for Medicare beneficiaries with pre-existing conditions and those under age 65 with long-term disabilities. This brief also explores a recently finalized rule: Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities regarding Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act that may have implications for the Medigap market.
This brief overviews the Biden Administration’s 2024 final rule implementing Section 1557 of the ACA, which is home to the law’s major nondiscrimination provisions. It provides a brief background on 1557 rulemaking and identifies key differences between this rule and the 2020 rule from the Trump Administration. It highlights two areas of growing interest impacted by the rule – nondiscrimination protections related to pregnancy and nondiscrimination protections for transgender people. Table 2 summarizes the major…
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