

Part B Excess Charges
What are excess charges? Medicare beneficiaries may have to pay Medicare Part B excess charges if the receive services form a non-participating provider. A provider that has not signed an agreement to accept assignment for all Medicare -covered services is considered "non-participating." However, these providers can still choose to accept assignment on a case by case basis. Here's what happens if a doctor, provider, or supplier doesn't accept assignment: The Medicare benefi


Participating and Non-Participating Medical Providers
What is the difference between Participating and Non-Participating Medical Providers? Participating providers are Physicians and practitioners who register with Medicare as participating providers agree to accept assignment for all of their Medicare patients. Accepting assignment entails two conditions: agreeing to accept Medicare’s fee-schedule amount as payment-in-full for a given service and collecting Medicare’s portion directly from Medicare, rather than the patient. The


Part B Premiums
Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Part B are generally required to pay a monthly premium. Medicare Part B premiums are calculated as a share of Part B program costs. For most beneficiaries, Part B premiums are set to equal 25 percent of the projected annual Part B expenditures per enrollee ages 65 and over and the remaining 75 percent of Part B program costs is funded by general revenues. Until 2007, all Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Part B were subject to the same mont