Medicare and Medicaid: Many Eligible People Not Enrolled in Qualified Medicare Beneficiary Program (Letter Report, 01/20/94, GAO/HEHS-94-52). The Qualified Medicare Beneficiary Program pays many out-of-pocket expenses for Medicare recipients whose incomes are not quite low enough to qualify them for regular Medicare benefits. The number of people enrolled has steadily increased since the program began in 1989, but a substantial portion of those eligible have yet to sign up--despite repeated efforts by government and advocacy groups to publicize the program. Many believe that people have not enrolled because of the perceived welfare stigma associated with means-tested programs and because of the complicated application process. Many also believe that authorizing the Social Security Administration (SSA) to make program eligibility determinations would help overcome these factors and boost enrollment. Although SSA might be able to increase enrollment, GAO believes that this concept should be tested before it is generally adopted. Finally, some state part A buy-in practices delay or preclude enrollment of Qualified Medicare Beneficiary Program and regular Medicaid beneficiaries in part A. This, in turn, can place some beneficiaries at a disadvantage relative to beneficiaries in other states. --------------------------- Indexing Terms ----------------------------- REPORTNUM: HEHS-94-52 TITLE: Medicare and Medicaid: Many Eligible People Not Enrolled in Qualified Medicare Beneficiary Program DATE: 01/20/94 SUBJECT: Health care programs Eligibility determinations Medical expense claims State-administered programs Hospital care services Health care costs Supplemental security income program Health insurance Public assistance programs Federal social security programs IDENTIFIER: Qualified Medicare Beneficiary Program Medicare Program Medicaid Program District of Columbia California Delaware Georgia Michigan Oklahoma Texas Washington ************************************************************************ We regret that the full text of this item is presently unavailable. See the GAO FAQ - Section 2.0 for printed copy ordering information. The FAQ is automatically retrieved with all WAIS search results or can be obtained by sending e-mail to: [email protected]