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Medicare News

For Immediate Release: Contact:
Friday, July 30, 2004 CMS Office of Public Affairs
202-690-6145

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

MEDICARE PLAN EXPANDS TO INCLUDE MORE BENEFICIARIES IN EIGHT STATES

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today approved a request by UniCare Life and Health Insurance Co. to expand its private fee-for-service health care coverage to more Medicare beneficiaries in eight states, mostly in the Midwest.

 

UniCare Life and Health Insurance, based in Newbury Park, Calif., can begin on Aug. 1 serving beneficiaries in 71 counties in mostly rural areas in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, Virginia and Wisconsin. The plan expansion includes the Duluth, Minn.-Superior, Wis. area and Eau Claire, Wis. (A list of the counties in each state is attached.)

 

The plan also will serve six independent Virginia cities - Bristol, Hampton, Newport News, Poquoson, Roanoke and Williamsburg

 

Beneficiaries can sign up for the plan during the current open enrollment in Medicare Advantage, formerly known as Medicare+Choice.  About 280,000 beneficiaries live in the newly approved service area.

   

“We are pleased UniCare decided to expand this health plan to include more beneficiaries in the eight states," HHS 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.”

 

UniCare began serving beneficiaries in the Midwest and South in 2003.  The company currently operates a private fee-for-service, Medicare Advantage plan in 294 counties in the eight states.

 

A private fee-for-service plan is an insurance program that charges enrollees a premium and cost-sharing amounts and lets beneficiaries choose the providers they want to see, as long as these providers accept the private fee-for-service insurance program.

 

UniCare is a subsidiary of WellPoint Health Networks Inc., based in Thousand Oaks, Calif.   The company’s product, Security Choice, gives beneficiaries in the eight states another Medicare Advantage organization to select.  Several Medicare Advantage plans currently operate in the newly approved service area.   

 

"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."

 

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.

 

ATTACHMENT

 

The following counties in the eight states have been added to UniCare’s coverage area for its private fee-for-service health care plan for Medicare beneficiaries:

 

Illinois (7 counties): Alexander, Cass, Gallatin, Menard, Mercer, Piatt, Stark.

 

Indiana (6 counties): Brown, Franklin, Fulton, Lagrange, Noble, Washington.

 

Iowa (14 counties): Appanoose, Benton, Calhoun, Chickasaw, Crawford, Guthrie, Hancock, Ida, Jones, Madison, Pocahontas, Ringgold, Taylor, Warren.

 

Kentucky (8 counties): Madison, Marion, Menifee, Morgan, Powell, Russell, Shelby, Webster.

 

Minnesota (3 counties): Beltrami, Dodge, St. Louis.

 

Nebraska (5 counties): Boyd, Hayes, Loup, McPherson, Thomas.

 

Virginia (20 counties): Amelia, Botetourt, Carroll, Craig, Cumberland, Dinwiddie, Goochland, Grayson, Greensville, Highland, James City, Lexington, Patrick, Salem, Scott, Smyth, Surry, Sussex, Warren, York.

 

Wisconsin (8 counties): Columbia, Door, Douglas, Eau Claire, Florence, Marquette, Oneida, Ozaukee.

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