A working conference convened by the Center for Medicare Advocacy, Inc., supported by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York City-based private foundation, and AARP
 

January 19, 2007

Prior to the conference, the Center commissioned three background papers to provide a framework for discussing the topics at hand. The first paper, written by senior attorneys from the Center for Medicare Advocacy, presented a brief history and an overview of the current Medicare beneficiary complaint process. The second paper, written from the perspective of a physician, examined and assessed the attributes of an ideal complaint process, regardless of the entity performing the review function. The third paper, written from an academic and legal perspective, explored possible alternative entities that might handle the complaint process function, including existing entities and a potential new entity. The three papers and their accompanying presentation slides are provided below in Portable Document Format (PDF).