1. After I published my Op Ed, yesterday, I've started to hear from seniors denied Medicare coverage they were promised because of the COVID-19 emergency. They've asked who to call for help. Here are some things I did: https://twitter.com/Adam_Zimmerman/status/1276902984979369990

2. First, read the March 13 Medicare announcement. https://www.cms.gov/files/document/coronavirus-snf-1812f-waiver.pdf It’s poorly written. But you’ll see that Medicare specifically gave seniors more time if they were “prevented or delayed by the emergency” from recovering. Use it in all of your correspondence.

3. Call a Medicare advocacy group, like the Center for Medicare Advocacy and the Medicare Rights Center. They know the Medicare regs in and out. They are hearing about more cases like ours, and they can give you advice about how to frame your story and who else to call.

4. Contact your Medicare regional office. Medicare has ten regional offices that oversee what’s happening in the states and can directly intervene when homes don’t respond to you. Tell them your story and ask them what your rights are to more coverage: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/CMS-Regional-Offices

5. It responded with a letter telling me that--while I had no rights to apply (which is nuts)--the new rules give nursing homes “flexibility” to apply for someone like my mom to get her more time to recover. The letter made my home to wake up and work with us.

6. Contact your representative, citing to March 13 Medicare announcement. (You can include my op-ed.) All have liaisons with fed agencies. You can fill out an online form. Agencies, like Medicare, must respond to congressional inquiries very quickly—sometimes as fast as 48 hours.

7. Finally, contact the corporate business office of your facility. I’ve often found that the local office in my home, which handles all the paperwork with Medicare, doesn’t know all the new the developments with Medicare. But corporate offices sometimes do.

8. Be sure to refer to the March 13 guidance again with them. Mine has been very slow to deal with me—they’re managing outbreaks at five other facilities they own—but under Medicare's new rules, they will be the ones who ultimately do all the filing. END