Medicare Changing Appeal Procedure
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The Reagan Administration wants to curtail face-to-face hearings for people who contend they have been improperly denied benefits under Medicare. The Reagan Administration wants to curtail face-to-face hearings for people who contend they have been improperly denied benefits under Medicare. Under a new plan, most appeal hearings would be conducted by telephone, and the administrative law judges who make the decisions would be employed directly by the Medicare agency. Critics suggest that the new arrangement would compromise the independence of the judges who hear such appeals. The plan represents a major change for Medicare, the Federal health insurance program for 31 million elderly and disabled people. For the last 22 years, since the program was established, claimants have been able to appeal the denial of certain types of benefits at hearings in courthouses and field offices in more than 130 cities and towns across the country. Seeking More Efficiency More : query.nytimes.com |