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Medicare Drug Program News
Lawsuit Halts Medicare Collection of $50 Million
Mistakenly Refunded to Senior Citizens
Center for Medicare Advocacy sues for two senior
citizen groups
 September 19, 2006
In response to a lawsuit by
senior advocacy groups, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
yesterday halted its efforts to recover $50 million dollars in Medicare
Part D drug program premiums it mistakenly returned to senior citizens.
The wheels seem to be coming off at CMS as complaints from Congress and
lawsuits are pounding the agency over billing and other financial errors
that have impacted as many as three-quarters of a million senior
citizens in the drug program.
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Related Stories |
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Detailed Explanation on Correcting Newest Medicare
Billing Errors Due Tomorrow
Two Senators want to know how Medicare and Social
Security are going to correct latest snafu impacting up to 500,000
senior citizens
September
18, 2006 While Medicare and Social Security are still wrestling to
recover $50 million that was mistakenly paid to senior citizens as
refunds of their Part D drug program premiums, the agencies have been
hit with another controversy over additional errors that have been made
in billing seniors for their premiums. Two powerful Senators have asked
for a detailed explanation by tomorrow.
Read
more...
Medicare Tells
Seniors What to Do with Payments Mistakenly Sent by Agency
Some may have to
arrange bank transfers or get repayment plans
August 29, 2006 If you are one of the 230,000 senior citizens that
received a check to reimburse you for your Medicare prescription drug
plan premiums, you have probably heard you should not cash the check. It
was a $50 million mistake by Medicare.
Read more...
Medicare's
Nightmare $50 Million Mistake Draws Senator's, Advocates' Concerns
August 24, 2006 The fall-out continues over the mistaken reimbursement
by Medicare of $50 million to senior citizens paying for their Medicare
drug plan with a deduction for their Social Security check. Sen. Chuck
Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee,
sent a raising concern and several advocacy groups are complaining that
this adds further confusion for seniors to an already confusing program.
Read more...
Medicare Makes $50
Million Mistake by Refunding Drug Program Premiums
230,000 senior
citizens will have to repay the money
August 23, 2006 The Medicare drug program, already under criticism for
being a confusing program for many senior citizens, has just become a
lot more confusing for 230,000 already in the program. The government
has mistakenly sent these seniors checks totaling about $50 million
supposedly reimbursing them for monthly premiums paid this year.
Read more...
Read more
on
Medicare
or
Medicare Drug Program |
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The most recent lawsuit was filed by the Center for
Medicare Advocacy on behalf of the Gray Panthers and the Action Alliance
of Senior Citizens, a Pennsylvania organization. CMA has nine other
active suits against Health and Human Services or CMS.
CMS has agreed to stop mailing letters to the
230,000 Medicare beneficiaries who received incorrect Part D premium
refunds in August and to remove all material concerning the recovery of
the overpayments from its website.
"This is an
important first step in correcting the government's refusal to inform
beneficiaries who received the premium refunds of their right to seek
waiver of recovery of the refunds," said Gill Deford of the CMA.
The CMA earlier this month sent a notice to 230,000
seniors being asked to return the Medicare premium refund, which said,
"The CMS letter fails to outline another important option for Medicare
beneficiaries. In certain circumstances a beneficiary may be entitled to
a waiver of the overpaid refund.
"Waiver of the overpayment may be available to a
beneficiary who was without fault in causing the overpayment and where
repayment would be against equity and good conscience.
"Beneficiaries who believe they meet the
requirements for a waiver should request a waiver when they call the
specially-designated phone number. If they are told they cannot request
a waiver or if the waiver request is denied, they should file an
appeal."
Waiver of recovery where the beneficiary is not at
fault in causing the overpayment and where certain other conditions
exist is provided by statute for many government benefit programs in
recognition of the hardship that recovery might cause for beneficiaries
with fixed low incomes, according to CMA.
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission reports
that 51% of Medicare beneficiaries have incomes under 200% of federal
poverty limits.
"The next steps," said Deford, "are for CMS to
return monies already repaid and inform all beneficiaries who received
the incorrect refunds of their right, under federal law and the US
Constitution, to seek waiver of recovery." These additional steps are
the subject of a motion for a preliminary injunction, which is expected
to be argued next week.
The hearing on Preliminary Injunction motion will
be held Tuesday, September 26 at 4:15 in the courtroom of Judge Henry
Kennedy in federal courthouse in Washington, DC.
Billing Issue Still Not Resolved with Senators
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About Center for Medicare Advocacy |
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The Center for Medicare Advocacy, Inc., founded
in 1986, is a national non-partisan education and advocacy organization
that identifies and promotes policy and advocacy solutions to ensure
that elders and people with disabilities have access to Medicare and
quality health care.
The Center for Medicare Advocacy's national office
is in Connecticut, with offices throughout the country, including
Washington, DC.
If you or others you know are experiencing any
issues regarding this erroneous premium refund and would like to share
the story, please visit the FairMedicare.org Share Your Story page -
click here.
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As this issue heads to court, two U.S. Senators are
expecting a response today from their demand for clarification about
billing mistakes made by Medicare that have left many seniors owning
large amounts on their drug plan premiums. As many as 500,000 seniors
may have received the wrong billing.
The Senators Gordon H. Smith (R-OR), chairman of
the Senate Select Committee on Aging, and John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV
(D-WV), ranking member of the subcommittee on Healthcare in the Senate
Finance Committee, sent a letter to the agency heads of CMS and Social
Security, which handles enrollment for Medicare, expressing concern for
the continued administrative errors that have resulted in seniors living
on fixed incomes being saddled with payment of several months' worth of
Medicare prescription drug premiums all in a single month.
A CMS spokesperson and a lawyer with CMA spoke to
KaiserNet.org about the lawsuit for their daily report today, which is
below.
CMS
Halts Efforts to Reclaim Improperly Mailed Medicare Drug Benefit Premium
Refunds after Advocacy Groups File Lawsuit
Some of the 230,000 Medicare beneficiaries who last
month received erroneous
reimbursements
of their Medicare drug benefit premiums should not have to repay them,
according to a lawsuit filed by the
Center for Medicare
Advocacy on behalf of two consumer advocacy groups,
AP/Long Island
Newsday reports.
A computer error resulted in beneficiaries
receiving an average reimbursement of $215. The reimbursements equaled
the amount of beneficiaries' monthly premiums paid this year.
CMS has
said beneficiaries must return the money.
According to CMA, which is representing the
Gray Panthers
and the
Action Alliance of
Senior Citizens in the suit, federal law allows for waiver of
recovery of funds when a beneficiary is not at fault in an overpayment.
In response to the suit, CMS on Monday agreed to
stop mailing letters that instruct beneficiaries to return the money and
to remove content on the recovery of overpayments from its Web site.
CMS spokesperson Jeff Nelligan said the waiver of
recovery law does not apply in this case. However, he said that he could
not elaborate because "this is a matter in litigation, and consistent
with our policy, we are responding to these allegations through our
court filings."
CMA attorney Gill Deford said, "The next steps are
for CMS to return monies already repaid and inform all beneficiaries who
received the incorrect refunds of their right, under federal law and the
U.S. Constitution, to seek waiver of recovery" (Freking, AP/Long Island
Newsday, 9/18).
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