Boosting Medicare Revenues For Rehab Services

Boosting Medicare Revenues For Rehab Services

Medical billing may not be changing for Medicare rehab services, but patient premiums are. On September 16, 2005, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced that the Medicare Part B premiums will increase in 2006 to $88.50 a month. This is up $10.30 from the current premium of $78.20 a month. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says this change in medical premiums will not negatively effect patient billing.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says this premium hike is necessary for the survival of the program. They say that in recent years much more medical billing has been done for Part B services. These include things like outpatient therapy, physicians visits, outpatient surgery, etc. Perhaps this is because the medical care has gotten better to the point where billing does not need to be done inpatient. The increase in Part B billing has made in necessary for CMS to raise the Part B premium.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services claims that patients will not see more out-of-pocket expenses because of the new Medicare prescription drug program. They claim the savings from this new prescription drug program will more then offset the hike in Part B premiums.

Another reason CMS claims this premium increase will not effect patients is because they claim one third receive assistance to pay for their entire Part B premium. Another one third can receive Part D premium assistance. Of course it is not a dilemma for those people, but what about the programs that are assisting them with their medical billing problems. This will hurt someone’s pocketbook, whether it is the Medicare patient or not. Unfortunately, the increase in recent year billings has made it necessary for CMS to raise the medical Part B premium.

View all Articles by: Melissa Clark, CCS-P