Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 4 · column 6 of 9 · from the scan, no model involved
was paid on behalf of 9-Vi million people,” she said.
“The patient’s responsibility is simplified when his doctor agrees to accept direct Medicare payment from the Government,” she said. Mrs. Crumpton explained that under Medicare the patient is responsible for the first $50 in doctor bills each year. After that, he pays 20 percent of the reasonable charges for doctors’ services and Medicare pays the other 80 percent. Reasonable charges are decided by the insurance companies handling Medicare bills for the Government, and they are based on customary and prevailing charges for a given medical service in the locality.
“Doctor’s fees vary, of course,” she added, “so in deciding the prevailing charge for a given service, charges by some doctors are likely to be above that level.” Mrs. Crumpton also pointed out that Medicare cannot make payment directly to a doctor unless he agrees to that procedure. “If the doctor agrees to accept Medicare payments directly, that means he is willing to accept the “reasonable charge” as his total fee and the patient can be sure that he will pay no more than 20 percent of that amount,” she said. The medical insurance part of Medicare is funded by individual monthly premiums that are matched by the Federal Government.
Medicare is administered for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare by the Social Security Administration. Locally, the office is at 20 S. Cameron St., Winchester, Va. Their telephone number is 6671511.
94.6%