How Does Medicare Use My Personal Information?
Ever wonder how Medicare uses your personal information and how it might affect your privacy?
Any health insurance program will need personal information about you. At the very least an insurance company needs your medical records and documents that prove your identity. Medicare needs this information as well. The government-sponsored health care program for older Americans and for disabled Americans also needs your billing address.
To Determine Services
Medicare will use your medical information to help determine the services that you need. Unlike private insurance companies, your rates are not determined by your overall health. Medicare rates are usually based on the Medicare recipient’s ability to pay. The governing does use your annual income to determine eligibility for certain programs. Medicare uses your personal records to obtain health information from you, but it is looking only for the services you might need. A patient may also receive reminders in the mail about when he is due for an annual physical
Information that Medicare Does Not Use
Medicare does not check your credit record, level of education, or other items that other insurance companies might use to determine your premiums. The only other bit of personal information Medicare uses is your date of birth and whether or not you are receiving Social Security benefits. Because a person can qualify for this insurance based on his age, Medicare will use a person’s date of birth to help determine eligibility if a person starts drawing social security retirement benefits.
Will Medicare Sell My Information?
An individual does not need to worry that Medicare will sell his personal information to a third party because the program is not designed to turn a profit. A Medicare recipient should carefully monitor his medical records to make sure that the information is accurate. Although medical identity theft does not get as much attention as the other types of identity theft, it can have far more serious consequences.
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- How Do I Qualify For The Medicaid Waiver Program?
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- How is “meaningful use” defined for the Medicaid Program?
- How Medicaid Can Help Me?
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