Medicare Contingent On Health Improvement

Until recently, continued qualification for Medicare required a health improvement, showing that the benefactor’s health was improving. This caused many seniors to lose their benefits when suffering from chronic conditions or diseases such as heart failure, Alzheimer’s, or Parkinson’s. Chronic diseases and conditions would prevent seniors from showing an improvement in their health and therefore lead to a loss of benefits.

If you have a chronic condition, by definition your are not improving. Our view is that Medicare regulations were intended to allow people to maintain their health status. They don’t have to show they are getting any better. The point is to allow them not to get any worse, if possible.

Recent Changes In Medicare

Thanks to a recent class action lawsuit, the government has finally agreed to a settlement plan which allows Medicare patients to maintain benefits even if they don’t show an improvement in their health. This settlement should also lead to an easier process of attaining the benefits of Medicare and hopefully provide better coverage.  These changes will obviously take some time to be fully implemented but should start going into effect some time in 2013 or early 2014.