Medi-Minutes

HCFA Again Improves Medicare Web Site

The Health Care Financing Administration’s www.medicare.gov consumer Internet site now includes expanded information about Medicare benefits, nursing home staffing levels, health plan options, and other topics in a redesigned format. It is now easier for people with Medicare, as well as those who help them make health care decisions, to navigate through the Web site and find the information that is right for them.

Updated databases enable visitors to find the most current information in their states on Medicare+Choice plans, Medigap policies, nursing homes, and other helpful data. These improvements to the design and content reflect consumer feedback as well as research and expert advice.

Anyone with access to the Internet can use www.medicare.gov. According to the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, users of the site include health professionals, Medicare beneficiaries, and relatives or friends of people with Medicare. Internet usage to seek Medicare information is growing among people with Medicare, whose access to the Internet has increased from 6.8 percent in 1997 to 21.3 percent in 1999 – over eight million of the 39 million people with Medicare.