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Show BLUE SHIELD WILL CONDUCT MEDICARE PROGRAM IN UTAH The assignment of Blue Shield as carrier of Part B the Medical Insurance Program of the Medicare law applies to Utah only and is not a blanket assignment of Blue Shield nationally. It is anticipated that several carriers car-riers as well as Blue Shield will be assigned on a nation- basically the same function as Blue Cross does for the hospital hos-pital portion of Medicare that is, to determine eligibility of each patient at the time of receiving re-ceiving care; determine availability avail-ability of benefits; administer Continued on Back Page wide basis. The portion of the Medicare law with which Utah Blue Shield is involved is known as "Part B" and involves the physicians' services only. The Blue Cross Association, of which Utah Blue Cross is a participant, was named intermediary inter-mediary for the hospital portion por-tion of the Medicare law in January Lewis G. Hersey, executive director of the Medical Service Bureau of the Utah State Medical Med-ical Association the Blue Shield Plan for Utah explained explain-ed that in administering the medical portion of Medicare, Blue Shield will carry out Here's More About BLUE SHIELD Continued from Page One claims; make payments to dos-tors, dos-tors, and review the utilization, appeals and complaints. Blue Shield was chosen, Mr. Kershcy said, because of their close affiliation with the majority ma-jority of the doctors in the state. Mr. Hershey explained that "Part B" allows everyone over age 65 the option of joining by paying a premium of $3 per person per month. The Federal matching $3 comes from general taxes. The "Part B" Medical Insurance Insur-ance Program will pay 80 of the reasonable charges for the following services, after the first recipient has paid the first $50 in each calendar year: 1. Physicians' and surgeons' services. 2. Home health services, even if you have not been in a hospital hos-pital up to 100 visits a year. 3. A number of other medical medi-cal and health services, such as diagnostic tests, surgical dressings and splints, and rental rent-al of medical equipment. |