Demonstration to Improve Enrollment in State Buy-in to Medicare for Low-Income Medicare Beneficiaries

Résumé

Title IV of Division A, Social Security Administration, of the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999, Public Law 105-277, directs the Commissioner of Social Security to expend $6,000,000 for Federal-State partnerships which will evaluate means to promote the Medicare buy-in programs targeted to elderly and disabled individuals under titles XVIII and XIX of the Social Security Act (the Act). Administration of the Medicare buy-in programs described in titles XVIII and XIX of the Act is the responsibility of the Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) in the Department of Health and Human Services. The Commissioner of Social Security is responsible for the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs described in titles II and XVI of the Act. The Medicare and Medicaid programs are statutorily linked to the programs administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA). Because of this linkage, SSA provides certain Medicare- and Medicaid- related services to HCFA, the States and to SSA's beneficiaries. Among these services are public service information activities about the Medicare and Medicaid programs,