Practitioners boosting Medicare program enrollment
The number of physicians and other health care practitioners enrolling in the Medicare participating physician program has increased to 80.2% this year, up from 77.5% last year, according to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Donna E. Shalala.
Enrollment has increased to 691,000 participants compared with 672,000 last year.
Participation for 1997 is 82.4% for physicians and doctors of osteopathy, 54.1% for limited license practitioners (optometrists, podiatrists, chiropractors, and oral surgeons), and 95.2% for nonphysician practitioners (such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners).
A participating provider is a "provider who accepts Medicare fee schedule amounts as payment in full," according to the HHS.
Bruce C. Vladeck, administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, says, "Our continuing efforts to promote Medicare’s benefits to beneficiaries and physicians, as well as to enforce the limit on charges made by nonparticipating physicians, have contributed to the increase in participation."
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