ICA NEWS!  

For Immediate Release
October 21, 2005

Dear Valued ICA Colleague:

Two weeks ago, ICA circulated a news release alerting members to the issues and dangers accompanying the massive marketing effort now underway to promote the new Medicare Part D drug benefit. Managed care organizations and other health plans have mounted a massive sales effort, often fraught with confusing statements and sometimes outright misinformation. In addition, many scams and fraudulent efforts to obtain credit cards or other payments from senior citizens, under the pretext of signing up for a Part D plan, are also operating. To assist you in educating your patients on this new federal program, ICA 's Medicare Committee and headquarters staff have prepared the attached patient handout, which details the main areas of concern surrounding this new program, and offers a number of key points of advice.

You should also be familiar with the main issues, which include:

• Medicare beneficiaries do not have to enroll in Part D; participation is voluntary. If beneficiaries already have good coverage elsewhere, they may not need it.

• No one can be excluded or charged higher premiums for health reasons or pre-existing conditions.

• The Part D prescription drug benefit is not free. It has been estimated that the average monthly premium in 2006 will be $32.00.

• The International Chiropractors Association urges all Medicare beneficiaries to study the options closely, ask detailed questions, especially regarding the availability and terms for accessing chiropractic care through any managed care plan.

• Remember: no one has to enroll in a managed care plan to obtain the new drug coverage .

• Medicare law provides that all authorized benefits must be available, whether a beneficiary uses Part B, in which one can choose any provider for care, or Part C, the managed care option.

• While all benefits are required to be available, the record has shown that access to chiropractic care in Medicare managed care plans has been somewhat more difficult, and beneficiaries are strictly limited in their choice of doctors of chiropractic to providers “approved” by the managed care plan managers.

Please feel free to print and use this handout with your Medicare patients, as a service from ICA . A space has been provided on the reverse of the flyer to print your name and clinic information. This is a situation where you have both an obligation and an opportunity to assist our senior patients in making the best decisions, and to better educate them on the powerful, drugless and clinically proven alternative chiropractic has to offer. You may also want to consider distributing this informational document at senior centers, public libraries and any other public information distribution centers where members of the community might see and benefit from this information.

In the coming weeks, ICA will be distributing additional information for use in your practice on Medicare and other issues through an exciting new series of “Proven Strategies for Practice Success” e-mail broadcasts. We look forward to significantly strengthening and enhancing the flow of practical and timely information and resources for use in your daily practice.

Thank you for your commitment to chiropractic and your support for the ICA .

Yours in Service,

John K. Maltby, DC, FICA
President

####

You are receiving this fee e-mail newsletter because you have requested it, or due to your relationship with the International Chiropractors Association or organizational and professional affiliates.  If you believe you have received this message in error, or you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send a reply e-mail to ICANews@chiropractic.org  with UNSUBSCRIBE as the first word in the body of your message. 

Click here to subscribe or change your e-mail address:


Click here to join ICA

*Copyright © 2005, International Chiropractors Association ( ICA ) all rights reserved.  All or part of this message may be retransmitted for information purposes, but may not be used for any communal purpose, posted on a website, or used in any non-ICA publication (other than that of an ICA affiliate) without the permission of the ICA.