Senator Bennet Fights To Ensure Continued Health Care Coverage for Colorado’s Seniors

Without Legislation, Medicare Contracts Could Be Withdrawn from San Luis Valley's Colorado Choice Health Plans and Rocky Mountain Health Plans - Limit Services Available to Seniors

May 19, 2009 -- Washington, DC - Senator Michael Bennet, Colorado, today announced his push to ensure continued health care coverage for seniors in Colorado's rural communities. Currently, Rocky Mountain Health Plans and San Luis Valley's Colorado Choice Plans are at risk of losing their Medicare Cost Contract plans, which ensure Medicare coverage, at the end of 2009.

In an effort to ensure health care access for Colorado's Medicare beneficiaries living in rural areas, Bennet today joined lawmakers in introducing legislation that would extend Medicare Cost Contracts for an additional three years.

"We can't let Colorado's seniors lose their access to affordable, quality health care," Bennet said. "Medicare cost plans have provided quality, cost-effective services to Colorado's seniors for over 30 years. This bill will ensure that seniors living in Colorado's rural communities will continue to receive quality health care."

Medicare cost plans ensure the availability of private health plan choices for Medicare beneficiaries living in predominantly rural areas. Medicare cost contracts are managed care plans that are reimbursed on a cost basis for providing health services. Cost contract premiums cover Medicare deductibles and additional benefits not covered by basic Medicare. For the costs of a normal Medicare fee-for-service copayment, seniors with cost contracts can use any Medicare provider regardless of whether they participate in the health plan's network. Cost contracts are vital to seniors who have them.

Under current law, Medicare cost plans must withdraw from any part of their service area after January 1, 2010 if there are two local or two regional Medicare Advantage plans that overlap the cost plan's service area.

In Colorado, this would mean Rocky Mountain Health Plans, which serves approximately 23,000 seniors in the Western Slope region and Colorado Choice Plans in the San Luis Valley, which serves 574 seniors, would have to withdraw significant, if not all, of their services to beneficiaries.

In an effort to ensure services continue for nearly 25,000 seniors in the Western Slope and the San Luis Valley, Bennet joined Senators Amy Klobuchar and George Voinovich in introducing the Medicare Cost Contract Extension and Refinement Act of 2009 to extend Medicare Cost Contract plans an additional three years.

The bill would ensure that beneficiaries will continue to have Medicare managed care choices available before taking cost plan choices away from them. In addition, the legislation would make a technical revision to change the way CMS counts enrollment of MA plans in the service area to ensure that they have adequate enrollment to reasonably predict stability in the market. Finally, the bill would apply a number of Medicare Advantage requirements, including those concerning quality, to Medicare cost plans.

Source: Senator Michael Bennet