CMS To Introduce New User-Friendly Billing Statements for Medicare
On Saturday, CMS plans to release new user-friendly Medicare billing statements, which it hopes will help beneficiaries fight fraud within the program, Kaiser Health News/Washington Post reports.
The new format was designed to make it easier for beneficiaries to review their Medicare billing statements in part by using large font and plain English descriptions. The forms currently consist of more than 12 pages of dense medical language and hard-to-decipher abbreviations.
Federal officials hope that the easier-to-read statements will help beneficiaries find fraudulent charges. To further fight fraud, the new statements also will advertise incentives of up to $1,000 for tips that lead to detecting fraudulent charges.
The new format will be available online, at www.mymedicare.gov, beginning Saturday. New paper statements, which are mailed every three months to about 36 million beneficiaries, will be phased in beginning in early 2013 (Jaffe, Kaiser Health News/Washington Post, 3/6).
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