Helaine I. Fingold, Member of the Firm in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Baltimore office, was quoted in Modern Healthcare, in “Quick Fixes to Improve the Medicare Experience,” by Michael Brady. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
A few changes could make it easier for providers to care for patients who are members of Medicare Advantage plans.
In many ways, the problems of complexity that plague the Medicare program reflect the disjointed nature of the U.S. healthcare system. There are steps that policymakers could take to make life easier for Medicare patients and providers. Most of them fall into one of two buckets: reducing the likelihood that someone will pick the wrong plan and lowering the risk of choosing the wrong plan. But none of the proposed solutions would fix the root cause of consumer confusion: health insurance is too complicated for most people to truly comprehend. …
The federal government’s Medicare and You handbook could use some upgrades. It’s a 120-page repository of nonpartisan Medicare information, but it’s still hard for beneficiaries to understand how to use the information in their everyday decision making. More real-world examples of how different plans and benefits apply to particular situations could help. “I’m a trained healthcare attorney,” said Helaine Fingold, with Epstein Becker Green. “(But) it’s hard to visualize and put together the pieces.”
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