To help today’s Medicare beneficiaries, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) combined eight Compare tools, allowing users to easily find information that is most important in making health care decisions. The new platform is currently up and running.

Using the new Care Compare Tool, CMS combined 8 original provider Compare websites. In the past, there were eight separate Compare tools on the CMS website focused on hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, dialysis facilities, long-term care hospitals, in-patient rehabilitation facilities, physician offices and hospice agencies. Now, users can conduct all of searches in one place, enabling users to start finding any type of care they need with ease.

Users can utilized the Care Compare Tool to find and compare providers that meet your health care needs, including information about quality measures presented across all provider types and care settings.

What Can This Tool Do For Me?

For people with Medicare or their caregivers who want to choose a Medicare provider (like physicians, hospitals, nursing homes, and others), this tool provides a single source search and compare experience, that lets you:

• Find information about services, providers and facilities based on your individual needs.
• Get helpful resources to choose your health care providers.
• Make more informed decisions about where you get your health care.
• Learn about out-of-pocket costs.
• Analyze agency data. 

Find and Compare Health Care Providers

If you’re looking for health care providers that accept Medicare, this tool can help you find them in your area and compare the quality of care they provide. You can get information needed to make the most informed choices about your health care needs, like:

• The closest hospital near you
• Doctors in your area that accept Medicare, and an estimate of their costs
• Quality ratings for local nursing homes
• Quality of patient care ratings for home health agencies
• Dialysis facilities near you
• Contact information for local inpatient rehabilitation centers

Planning for Long-term Care

If you have a loved one who needs long-term care now or will need long-term care in the future, the time to plan is now. Asset Protection Planning for Medicaid eligibility can be started while your loved one is still competent and able to make legal and financial decisions, or can be initiated by an adult child acting as agent under a Power of Attorney or as a guardian, even if your loved one is already in a nursing home or receiving other long-term care services.

Often, the earlier someone plans for long-term care needs, the better. But, fortunately, it is never too late to begin Medicaid planning. If you haven’t done so already, please contact Vanarelli & Li, LLC to make an appointment.

For additional information concerning Medicaid and public benefits planning, visit:

NJ Medicaid and Public Benefits Planning