Medicare won't let clients repay government, lawyers say

[babylonsister]

Guess the gov't doesn't need the dough. :shrug:


Medicare won't let clients repay government, lawyers say

By David Goldstein | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — Attorney Stephen Bough's client owes Medicare several thousand dollars and is anxious to pay, if only Bough knew how much. Medicare won't say, despite repeated pleas over the past year for an answer.

"I keep telling them there's money waiting," said Bough, who practices in Kansas City, Mo. "Not many people send letters for a couple of months and say, 'Let me send money,' and get ignored."

It took Kansas City attorney John Kurtz more than a year to find out how much his client, also a Medicare beneficiary, owed to the federal government's health care program for the elderly.

Usually it's Washington that's trying to squeeze money out of taxpayers. Here's a case of some people trying to pay the government what it's owed, only to learn that Washington doesn't seem to be that interested.

They're personal injury lawyers and they represent Medicare beneficiaries who've been in accidents. Medicare has paid their hospital costs, which must be reimbursed once the victim reaches a damage settlement with the party at fault.

Lawyers in Kansas City and elsewhere, however, said that Medicare can be extremely slow to tell them what its share of the settlement should be, taking several months and as much as a year or more.

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/71641.html