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Medicare News

For Immediate Release: Contact:
Tuesday, July 20, 2004 CMS Office of Public Affairs
202-690-6145

For questions about Medicare please call 1-800-MEDICARE or visit www.medicare.gov.

MANAGED CARE PLAN OFFERED TO MEDICARE BENEFICIARIES IN SAN JUAN AND 29 OTHER MUNICIPALITIES IN PUERTO RICO

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today approved a request by Preferred Medicare Choice Inc. to offer managed care coverage to Medicare beneficiaries in San Juan and 29 other municipalities in northern and western Puerto Rico.  

 

Preferred Medicare Choice, based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, will begin serving beneficiaries on Aug.1 in these municipalities.  Beneficiaries can sign up for the plan during the current open enrollment for Medicare Advantage, formerly known as Medicare+Choice About 343,000 Medicare beneficiaries live in these municipalities, which range from the northeastern municipalities of San Juan and Carolina to the western municipalities of Cabo Rojo and San German. 

                 

"We are pleased Preferred Medicare Choice has decided to serve beneficiaries in San Juan and other municipalities in northern and western Puerto Rico,” Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said.  "Under the Medicare reform law signed by President Bush, Medicare will provide all seniors - no matter where they live - with better health insurance options, including prescription drug coverage and preventive care.  The law is achieving the President's goals of strengthening and modernizing Medicare.”

 

The plan will give beneficiaries in the 30 municipalities another health care option to select.  The other plan currently operating throughout Puerto Rico is MMM. 

 

“We want to make sure all Medicare beneficiaries, whether in a Medicare Advantage plan or fee-for-service, are receiving the highest quality health care," said CMS Administrator Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D.  "We are doing more to guarantee that beneficiaries understand the Medicare coverage options available to them.  We also are reminding beneficiaries of the need to work closely with the doctors and other health care providers that give them medical care."

 

The other municipalities in Preferred Medicare Choice’s newly approved service area are Bayamon, Catano, Guaynabo, Trujillo Alto, Toa Baja, Dorado, Manati, Arecibo, Vega Alta, Vega Baja, Morovis, Ciales, Barceloneta, Isabela, Hatillo, Camuy, Lares, Quebradillas, Aguadilla, Moca, Aguada, Rincon, Mayaguez, San Sebastian, Anasco and Hormigueros.

 

Medicare Advantage HMOs and fee-for-service plans are available where private companies choose to offer them.  Currently, about 4.6 million Medicare beneficiaries -- out of a total of about 40 million aged and disabled Americans – have enrolled in Medicare HMOs.  Original fee-for-service Medicare, currently chosen by more than 35 million beneficiaries, is available to all beneficiaries.

 

Medicare has a far-reaching consumer information program that includes a national toll-free phone number -- 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) or TTY/TDD, at 877-486-2048 -- an Internet site -- www.medicare.gov -- and a coalition of more than 200 national and local organizations to provide seniors more information.

 

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