CCH Provides Authoritative Explanation of New Medicare Act

(RIVERWOODS, ILL., November 26, 2003) – The most far-reaching changes to the Medicare system since its inception are documented and explained in a new book by CCH INCORPORATED (CCH), a leading provider of healthcare law information and software, Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003: Law and Explanation. (Approximately 1,000 pages, $149. For more information or to order, call 1-800-248-3248 or visit health.cch.com.)

Healthcare organizations and the professionals who advise them, as well as governmental organizations, libraries and professional associations can all benefit from the detailed and authoritative coverage of this new CCH title which provides professional explanations of each provision of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003. The CCH explanations are cross-referenced to the relevant law.

The book also reproduces the relevant sections of the Social Security Act with the new language highlighted and incorporated into the text. Other handy tools include a detailed topical index and several cross-referenced tables.

 

Reshaping Foundations of Medicare

While much attention has been focused on the provisions regarding coverage for prescription drugs in the Act, the new law touches on many issues and may eventually reshape the very foundations of the Medicare program. According to Jay Nawrocki, CCH healthcare analyst and one of the creators of the new book, the Act not only impacts the 40 million elderly and disabled Medicare recipients but the overall healthcare and the healthcare delivery system experienced by all Americans.

Topics addressed in the legislation include:

  • The Medicare prescription drug benefit;
  • MedicareAdvantage – Providing competition to the Medicare program;
  • Hospital reimbursement issues;
  • Physician reimbursement issues;
  • Rural health initiatives;
  • Skilled nursing facility issues;
  • Home health issues;
  • Appeals and recovery procedures;
  • Regulatory reform;
  • Medicaid issues;
  • Expedited approval of generic equivalents;
  • Reimportation of prescriptions from Canada; and
  • Health Savings Accounts.

"There’s a lot in this legislation for healthcare professionals and their advisors to digest and build their plans around over the coming years," Nawrocki said.

 

Availability and Pricing

For more information or to order, call 1-800-248-3248 or visit the CCH online store at health.cch.com/onlinestore. The single-copy price for the 1,000-page Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003: Law and Explanation is $149 plus applicable tax, shipping and handling. Quantity discounts are available.

 

About CCH INCORPORATED

For more than 50 years, CCH INCORPORATED has regularly tracked, reported, explained and analyzed health and entitlement law for healthcare providers, insurers, attorneys and consumers. CCH is the premier provider of Medicare and Medicaid information. CCH is a Wolters Kluwer Company. The CCH Health group site can be accessed at health.cch.com.

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Editors’ Note: Additional analysis of the Medicare legislation as it progresses, as well as details on the Medicare program, its history, coverage and examples on how it works are available to the working media at www.cch.com/medicarereform. CCH healthcare analysts also are available to provide individual analysis to reporters.