1. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued 2010 payment information for Part C Medicare Advantage Plans and Part D Prescription Drug Plans.

For prescription drug program enrollees, important information is included about the 2010 Part D deductible, initial coverage limit, out-of-pocket threshold, and related parameters for the standard benefit. 

The annual percentage increase in average per capita Part D spending-used to update the deductible, initial coverage limit, and out-of-pocket threshold for the defined standard benefit for 2010-is 4.66%.

For the first time, CMS will make a "coding pattern differences adjustment" to Medicare Advantage risk scores, reducing Medicare Advantage payment rates to account for differences in disease coding patterns between Medicare Advantage organizations under Part C and the original Medicare program (Parts A and B).  The adjustment will be applied as a uniform 3.41% reduction to all Medicare Advantage plans' Part C risk scores in 2010.

In addition, the 2010 rates reflect a provision in recently enacted legislation requiring a multi-year phase-out of the inclusion of costs of indirect medical education in Medicare Advantage rates.  The maximum reduction as part of this phase-out is approximately 0.60% per year. 

A fact sheet on the announcement is available online at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/media/press/factsheet.asp?Counter=3437&intNumPerPage=10&checkDate=&checkKey=&srchType=1&numDays=3500&srchOpt=0&srchData=&keywordType=All&chkNewsType=6&intPage=&showAll=&pYear=&year=&desc=&cboOrder=date

The full document, Announcement of Calendar Year (CY) 2010 Medicare Advantage Capitation Rates and Medicare Advantage and Part D Payment Policies, is also online at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicareAdvtgSpecRateStats/Downloads/Announcement2010.pdf

2.  Instructions for obtaining extra help with Medicare prescription drug benefits for persons with limited income and resources are now available in 15 languages.

Form SSA-1020 can be obtained in Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, Farsi, French, Greek, Haitian-Creole, Italian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and  Vietnamese. 

The English version is at http://www.ssa.gov/prescriptionhelp/SSA-1020B-OCR-SM-INST.pdf

3.  An Inspectors General's (IG) report found that from April 2005 through September 2008, as many as 7,270 fugitive felons may have received $91,187,762 as representatives of Social Security recipients.

11% were wanted for violent offenses, 21% were for drug offenses, and 68% were wanted for burglary, larceny, forgery, and weapons offenses.

56% of them were serving as representatives for their mother, 21% for their father or stepfather, 9% for other relatives, 6% for their child, 6% for a friend, 1% for their spouse, and 1% for their grandparent.

Of the Social Security recipients, 49% were receiving benefits because they were disabled, including 30% who had mental disorders.

The IG recommended that in the future, the Social Security Administration conduct a computer match to identify all representative payees with felony warrants.