Center for Medicare Advocacy

Advancing Access to Medicare and Healthcare

Main Content

  • Count On Us

    We remain open and fully operational – although most of our staff are working remotely. Our phones, email, and online contact forms are available.

    Count On Us

  • COVID-19 and Medicare

    As the nation and the world continue to struggle with COVID-19, we will continue to compile information on the virus as it relates to Medicare.

    COVID-19 and Medicare

  • Podcast with Judy Stein: Moving Forward with COVID-19 and Medicare

    Center for Medicare Advocacy Executive Director Judy Stein joins journalist Mark Miller to discuss what the pandemic is teaching us about ways to improve Medicare.

    Podcast with Judy Stein: Moving Forward with COVID-19 and Medicare

  • Our Commitment to Justice

    Black Lives Matter. The Center for Medicare Advocacy mourns for George Floyd and for the named and unnamed people of color who have been murdered or harmed in countless ways in our country. We mourn for our country. We protest.

    For more than thirty years, the mission of the Center has been to ensure fair access to Medicare and health care for all. FAIR. FOR ALL. We can’t separate ourselves from the greater fight for fairness, for justice – for all.

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    Our Commitment to Justice

Events

COVID-19: Advocating for Nursing Home Residents
A Webinar Series

Hosted by the Consumer Voice and featuring Center for Medicare Advocacy Senior Policy Attorney Toby S. Edelman, this series of webinars is focused on the impact of COVID-19 on long-term care facilities and its residents. Webinars are scheduled for June 26, 2020 02:00 PM. (All times Eastern).

Register now.

2020 Virtual National Voices of Medicare Summit

The Center for Medicare Advocacy is grateful to all the participants, presenters and sponsors who helped make this year's program a reality, if not exactly the reality that was originally planned.

We are humbled and honored by all the speakers who so generously gave their time.

Read more.

National Medicare Advocates Alliance

The Center for Medicare Advocacy's National Medicare Advocates Alliance provides Medicare advocates with a collaborative network to share resources, best practices, and developments of import to Medicare beneficiaries throughout the country. The Alliance is supported by the John A. Hartford Foundation.

Learn more.

Recent News

Issue Brief Regarding Medicare and Family Caregivers

The Center for Medicare Advocacy has written an Issue Brief, Medicare and Family Caregivers, as part of collaborative work to advance the RAISE Family Caregivers Act, Public Law 115-119 (1/22/2018). The Center’s Issue Brief explores the role Medicare does, and could, play in supporting older and disabled beneficiaries and their caregivers. The Issue Brief was written with support from The John A. Hartford Foundation.

Download the Issue Brief.

Federal Court Orders Appeal Rights for Some on “Observation Status”

Litigation Image

On March 24, 2020, a federal court issued a decision in a nationwide class action Alexander v. Azar, finding that certain Medicare beneficiaries who are admitted as “inpatients” and then changed to “observation status” at hospitals have the right to appeal to Medicare to challenge that status.

The Center has posted answers to frequently asked questions about the decision, including why the issue is significant, who gained the right to appeal under the court’s decision, and who may wish to appeal once a process is established.

Note that the government has appealed the court’s decision, and we do not yet know when CMS will establish a process for appeals of observation status. Please check this space for further updates and sign up for our Alerts to receive news about significant developments in the case.

Learn more.