Fraternity-Testvériség, 1966 (44. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1966-02-01 / 2. szám

4

FRATERNITY

additional day up to the 90-day limit. A “spell of illness” is considered to start with the first day of hospitalization and to end when the patient has spent 60 consecutive days without hospital or nursing care.

The plan covers room and board, prescribed drugs while hospitalized, and other services and supplies, except private duty nursing and services of physicians other than the internes or residents in training. Christian Science Sanatoriums and psychiatric hospitals are included, but there is a lifetime limit of 190 days in a psychiatric hospital.

Nursing Home Care

This covers up to 100 days in an extended-care facility (i. e., a qualified nursing home) in each spell of illness after a stay of at least three days in a hospital. There is no charge to the patient for the first 20 days. The patient pays $5 for each day above 20, up to the 100-day limit.

Home Nursing

The full cost of up to 100 visits by nurses or technicians is covered in a one-year period following the patient’s discharge from a hospital

or extended-care facility. The services furnished must be in accordance with a plan set up and periodically reviewed by a physician.

Diagnostic Services

This covers tests and related diagnostic services, other than those performed by physicians, that are normally provided by hospitals to outpatients. The patient pays $20 of the charge for each diagnostic study,

i. e., for the diagnostic services provided by the same hospital in a 20-day period. The patient also pays 20% of the charges above $20, and the plan covers the remaining 80%.

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SUPPLEMENTARY PLAN

The supplementary plan is a volunteer package of benefits designed to help pay physicians’ costs both in and out of the hospital. It supplements the basic plan by covering most other major medical expenses, except those for dental services, medicines and drugs.

Cost to Individual

Each person enrolling in this plan will pay $3 a month in premiums. (If an individual is drawing Social Security benefits, this $3 will be deducted automatically from the check he receives each month.) The Federal Government will match this with a payment of $3 a month for each participant. The Federal share, estimated at about $600 million a year for the time being, will come from general tax revenues.