Medicare News
| For Immediate Release: | Contact: |
| Thursday, February 08, 2001 | CMS Office of Public Affairs 202-690-6145 |
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MEDICARE+CHOICE HMO RETURNS TO MONROE COUNTY, ILLINOIS
The Health Care Financing Administration, the federal agency that administers Medicare, today approved a request by United HealthCare of the MidWest to re-enter the Medicare+Choice program and offer health care coverage to Medicare beneficiaries in Monroe County, Illinois, where service had been terminated.
About 4,000 beneficiaries live in Monroe County, where United HealthCare will offer coverage as early as March 1, 2001.The HMO gives Medicare beneficiaries in Monroe another option in the Medicare+Choice program.
The re-entry of United HealthCare into the Medicare+Choice program results from the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvements and Protection Act, signed into law on Dec. 21, 2000. That law infuses $11 billion into the Medicare+Choice program over the next five years. Medicare+Choice organizations that had given HCFA notice of their intent to terminate coverage for Medicare beneficiaries were permitted to rescind that decision by submitting a letter to HCFA by Jan. 18, 2001.
Currently, of the 39 million people with Medicare, about 5.6 million have chosen to be in a Medicare+Choice organization. Medicare+Choice now contracts with a total of 177 private health plans. The Medicare+Choice program was created by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.
