Colorado Access cuts Medicare coverage, workforce

[PoliticAverse]

Health insurance provider Colorado Access is axing Medicare coverage for the coming year, leaving about 5,500 senior and disabled customers in search of alternatives.

The Denver-based nonprofit also will let go 83 employees who worked for Colorado Access Medicare and its subsidiary Access Health Colorado, chief operating officer Matt Case said. An additional 40 openings will go unfilled.

Colorado Access also has drawn down administrative expenses and cut the salaries of its executive teams, he said.

"While it's never easy to exit a business and wind things down and, especially, to affect people's jobs," Case said. "In our case it was absolutely necessary."

Read the rest at: http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_28909423/colorado-access-cuts-medicare-coverage-workforce

[SheilaT]

1. ??? Medicare is a federal program

and has nothing to do with the states.

If you're over 65 you get Medicare. The vast majority of people that age get Part A (hospitalization) for free. If they want coverage for doctors they sign up for Part B, which mostly costs $104.50/month. They can also, and separately, sign up for and Advantage Plan (which I've done), some of which cost more money, some of which (like mine) don't.

But a state can't axe Medicare coverage.

[PoliticAverse]

2. This was apparently a "Medicare Advantage" plan offered by a nonprofit company, see...

http://coaccess.com/medicare-notice

https://www.medicare.gov/sign-up-change-plans/medicare-health-plans/medicare-advantage-plans/medicare-advantage-plans.html

Medicare Advantage Plans

A type of Medicare health plan offered by a private company that contracts with Medicare to provide you with all your Part A and Part B benefits. Medicare Advantage Plans include Health Maintenance Organizations, Preferred Provider Organizations, Private Fee-for-Service Plans, Special Needs Plans, and Medicare Medical Savings Account Plans. If you’re enrolled in a Medicare Advantage Plan, most Medicare services are covered through the plan and aren’t paid for under Original Medicare. Most Medicare Advantage Plans offer prescription drug coverage.

[SheilaT]

3. And surely there are other Medicare Advantage programs

available to these seniors. I know what you can get depends on where you live.

But the seniors won't be left high and dry without any Medicare coverage at all, so the article title is somewhat misleading. At the very worst, they'll simply be left with the Part B coverage provided by Medicare itself.

[DhhD]

4. Colorado could solve its needs by accepting the ACA Medicaid Expansion.

I believe that the poor who are receiving Medicare have gotten their Medicare premium cost paid by state Medicaid because they are disabled and/or below the poverty level. ACA catastrophic coverage should kick in. Research is needed.

https://www.cms.gov/
CMS covers 100 million people...
...through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and the Health Insurance Marketplace. But coverage isn't our only goal. To achieve a high quality health care system, we also aim for better care at lower costs and improved health.


But we can't and we don't do it alone. We need your help to find the way forward to a better health care system for all Americans.


Learn more about how we can help each other so all Americans have access to coverage, better care, and improved health.

more at link