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1993.07.02 :  Second Quarter FY 1993 Medicare Payments for Health Care Services

Contact: Anne Verano (202) 690-6145     
July 2, 1993

       Medicare payments for health care services in the second
quarter of fiscal year 1993 amounted to $33.6 billion, up 7.85
percent from benefit payments in the same quarter of FY 1992, the
Health Care Financing Administration announced today.
       HCFA Administrator Bruce C. Vladeck said data for the first
two quarters of FY 1993 show a moderation in the growth of Medicare
benefit payments, which increased 13.4 percent in FY 1992. 
       "Two quarters do not provide conclusive evidence of a trend
for the months and years ahead, but offer some basis for optimism
that Medicare spending is slowing," Vladeck said.
            o  Payments for services in the FY 1993 first quarter
               were 11.4 percent more than those in the same quarter
               of FY 1992.

            o  The rate of increase was less than 8 percent for the
               second quarter of FY 1993 over the second quarter of
               FY 1992.

       (The federal fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30. 
The first quarter of the 1993 fiscal year covered October through
December of 1992.  The second quarter of FY 1993 covered the period
January through March *This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated.
1993.)

       The Medicare program, which serves the elderly and disabled,
had approximately 36 million enrollees in March 1993, an increase of
2 percent from March of the previous year. 
                                  
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EDITOR'S NOTE: HCFA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, directs the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which
help pay the medical bills of 67 million Americans. HCFA's estimated
FY 1993 expenditures are almost $230 billion.