HHS Secretary Sebelius released a new report on Mon Mar 5 on how the health reform law has eliminated lifetime limits on coverage for more than 105 million Americans. Before health reform, many Americans with serious illnesses such as cancer risked hitting the lifetime limit on the dollar amount their insurance companies would cover for their healthcare benefits.
The end of lifetime limits is one of many new consumer rights and protections in the law for Americans nationwide. In the report, HHS provides data on the number of people in each state that benefit from this component of the law. The Obama administration also released updated state data on other ways the new law has impacted Americans, including the number of people with Medicare receiving new preventive benefits and the various grants awarded to states. While some plans provided coverage without dollar limits on lifetime benefits, 105 million Americans were previously in health plans that had lifetime limits. HHS estimates that 70 million people in large employer plans, 25 million people in small employer plans, and 10 million people with individually-purchased health insurance had lifetime limits on their health benefits prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act. This includes 39.5 million women and 28 million children; 11.8 million Latinos and 10.4 million African Americans. To view the report on lifetime limits, visit http://aspe.HHS.gov/health/reports/2012/LifetimeLimits/ib.shtml. To view additional state-by-state data on the benefits of health reform, visit http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/blog/2012/03/04/new-data-affordable-care-act-your-state. The full text of this excerpted HHS press release (issued Mon Mar 5) can be found at http://www.HHS.gov/news/press/2012pres/03/20120305a.html. ________________________________ It's Not too Late to Give and Get the Flu Vaccine. Take advantage of each office visit and protect your patients against the seasonal flu. Medicare will continue to pay for the seasonal flu vaccine and its administration for all Medicare beneficiaries through the entire flu season. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also recommends that patients, healthcare workers and caregivers be vaccinated against the seasonal flu. Protect your patients. Protect your family. Protect yourself. Get the Flu Vaccine-Not the Flu. Remember - The flu vaccine plus its administration are covered Part B benefits. CMS has posted the 2011-2012 seasonal flu vaccine payment limits at http://www.CMS.gov/McrPartBDrugAvgSalesPrice/10_VaccinesPricing.asp. Note that the flu vaccine is NOT a Part D-covered drug. For more information on coverage and billing of the flu vaccine and its administration, as well as related educational provider resources, visit http://www.CMS.gov/MLNProducts/35_PreventiveServices.asp and http://www.cms.gov/immunizations. ________________________________ Note: If you have problems accessing any hyperlink in this message, please copy and paste the URL into your Internet browser. If you know someone who would like to subscribe to a Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) provider listserv, go to (http://www.cms.gov/prospmedicarefeesvcpmtgen/downloads/Provider_Listservs.pdf). If you would like to unsubscribe from a specific provider listserv, please go to (https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa.exe?INDEX) to unsubscribe or to leave the appropriate listserv. Please DO NOT respond to this email. This email is a service of CMS and routed through an electronic mail server to communicate Medicare policy and operational changes and/or updates. Responses to this email are not routed to CMS personnel. Inquiries may be sent by going to (http://www.cms.gov/ContactCMS). Thank you.
