On the heels of news that the White House would offer rebates to nearly 1 million people enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans, the Trump administration said Monday that it will pay out $90 rebates to more than 20 million Medicare Part B enrollees.
The White House said in a fact sheet that the rebates will be dispensed from the Medicare Improvement Fund, a $2 billion initiative established by Congress to support improvements to traditional Medicare. The fund "has never before been utilized" by the White House to improve the program, per the announcement, since its creation in 2008.
Most seniors eligible for the rebates will receive it via direct deposit in early October, and those who do not have a direct deposit option will receive a check by mail. Most Part B enrollees are eligible, the White House said.
In a Q&A from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the agency says that deploying the funds as rebates makes sense as "the best way to improve Medicare is to put healthcare dollars back where they belong—in the hands of our Medicare beneficiaries—and make coverage more affordable."
In mid-September, the White House announced that it would send $500 rebates to just shy of 1 million enrollees in plans secured through Healthcare.gov, returning the cost of "overcharges" collected under the Biden administration through user fees meant to support the operation of the federal exchanges.
The government began to dispense those funds on Oct. 1, per media reports.
In the Q&A, CMS says that the Medicare Improvement Fund has only been tapped into previously to "offset" new spending, and that lawmakers have dipped into the fund for that purpose more than 20 times.
This includes pulling out $20.7 billion from the fund to support the passage of the ACA, the agency said.
The White House echoed that commentary in its fact sheet.
"President Trump believes that Medicare Improvement Funds should be used to directly help people on Medicare, not special interests, and is returning healthcare dollars back into the hands of the American people to benefit them and their individual healthcare needs," per the release.