Beth Witten, MSW, ACSW, LSCSW, is a Resource and Policy Associate for Medical Education Institute. Currently Beth also consults with the Missouri Kidney Program where she and her daughter Amy coordinate Patient Education Program classes in the Kansas City area for people with chronic kidney disease. In the past, Beth worked for the National Kidney Foundation where she developed educational materials for a renal community education and awareness initiative for Medicare Part D. In addition, Beth provided consultation to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a member of the ESRD Training & Support Team for a decade. In that position, she helped train ESRD surveyors and answer questions about the dialysis regulations from them and members of the renal community. Beth has decades of experience as a nephrology social worker advising patients and professionals. She can answer your questions about dialysis reimbursement, Medicare policy, living and working with kidney disease, and the dialysis regulations, including patient rights and responsibilities.
Hi Beth my name is Amelio Martinez I am desperate for info. I was discharged September 17th from my clinic, for not having medicare part B. In turn clinic was not getting paid. Since then I have not had regular treatment and am just lost. I go to the ER when I need to buy have to go threw a bunch of criteria to be admitted. I talked to Socail Security and asked if I could be reinstated they said no. What can I do?
Anyone can apply for Part B during the annual general enrollment period January thru March and Part B will take effect July 1, 2019.
Did you never have Part B or did you lose it due to nonpayment if premiums? You can have premiums taken out of a checking or savings account if you’re not getting Social Security or Railroad Retirement benefits.
Do you qualify for Medicaid with or without a spenddown (share of costs) or a Medicare savings program that helps pay Medicare premiums and/or out of pocket costs?
https://www.medicare.gov/your-medicare-costs/get-help-paying-costs/medicare-savings-programs
What did your clinic do to help you resolve the payment problem before involuntarily discharging you? According to federal regulations, the clinic is supposed to make an effort to resolve the problem. If the problem can’t be resolved before you can get Part B reinstated, most patients get dialysis thru hospitals on sn emergency basis when labs show a need. Ask the hospital for a social worker. He/she may be able to help you.
Good Evening:
Will you be able to send me where is it written by CMS that Home Staff Assisted HD is not covered service by Medicare