Medicare Seeks Public Input to Update List of Chronic Conditions

Medicare is seeking public comment to help update an 11-year-old list of severe and disabling chronic conditions that qualify beneficiaries for enrollment in private Medicare plans focused on their special needs.

The private health plans that provide Medicare benefits, Medicare Advantage plans include special needs plans that restrict enrollment to those with any of 15 severe or disabling chronic conditions.

The list of qualifying ailments, which include alcoholism, cancer, chronic heart failure, and dementia, haven’t been updated since they were first adopted in 2008. But a panel of clinical advisers will update the list in the fall.

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