Medicare News
| For Immediate Release: | Contact: |
| Monday, February 12, 2001 | CMS Office of Public Affairs 202-690-6145 |
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MEDICARE+CHOICE HMO RETURNS TO SANTA FE AND TORRANCE COUNTIES, N.M.
The Health Care Financing Administration, the federal agency that administers Medicare, today approved a request by Lovelace Health Plan to re-enter the Medicare+Choice program and offer health care coverage to Medicare beneficiaries in Santa Fe County and parts of Torrance County, New Mexico, where service had been terminated.
About 16,500 Medicare beneficiaries live in Santa Fe and Torrance counties, where Lovelace will offer coverage as early as March 1, 2001.The HMO gives beneficiaries in these counties another option in the Medicare+Choice program. (Please see Editor's Note at the bottom of this report).
The re-entry of Lovelace 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. To date, HCFA has approved requests from four managed care organizations that submitted letters of intent to re-enter the Medicare+Choice program.
The other managed care organizations that will re-enter the Medicare+Choice program are: Univera HealthCare Central New York in five counties there; United Health Care of the MidWest, in Monroe County, Illinois; and St. Joseph Medicare Plus, in Bernalillo, Sandoval, Torrence, and Valencia counties in New Mexico. More than 240,000 Medicare beneficiaries live in areas affected by all four plans.
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.
Editor's Note: The full county of Santa Fe is eligible for coverage by Lovelace. In Torrance County coverage is extended to beneficiaries in six ZIP codes: 87016, 87032, 87035, 87057, 87061.
