Hospital Insurance Deductible

• Title I of the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988 amended provisions pertaining to inpatient hospital service deductibles. The original provisions required a deductible for each "period of illness." However, the Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988 required only one deductible for "the first period of continuous hospitalization in a calendar year." The act also eradicated all limitations on the duration of coverage for inpatient hospital services. The act provided Medicaid coverage of Medicare premiums for individuals with incomes below 100 percent of the federal poverty level; these individuals are known as Qualified Medicare Beneficiaries. This Medicaid cost-sharing provision was not repealed.
  
  

Prescription Coverage

• The Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988 added coverage for specific types of drugs. Title II of the act required Medicare coverage of expenses related to insulin and other prescription drugs. The act added Medicare coverage for immunosuppressive drugs after organ transplants and would have changed annual deductibles for the aforementioned drugs to $550 in 1990, with Medicare paying 50 percent of the costs exceeding the deductible. The act required the annual deductible to go up roughly $50 each year until 1992, with Medicare paying 50 percent of the remaining costs of prescription drugs.
  
  

Mammograms

• Title II of the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act provided coverage for mammograms. Women 65-years-old or older were given Medicare coverage for mammograms every other year; women from age 40 to 49 were also provided coverage, even if they weren't at high risk of contracting breast cancer. The act provided once-a-year Medicare coverage for mammograms for 50 to 64-year-old women. In addition, 40 to 49-year-old women at high risk of contracting breast cancer were also covered. The act also provided medicare coverage for women between the ages of 35 and 40 to receive one mammogram within a five-year period.
  
  

Reporting

• Title II of the act required drug studies and reporting of various healthcare-related topics. The act required the Secretary of Treasury to create a guide providing information on "comparative average wholesale prices of at least 500 of the most commonly prescribed outpatient drugs." The Secretary was required to mail the study to doctors, senior citizen centers and Medicare hospitals. The Secretary was also directed to educate pharmacies and doctors about occurrences of incorrect prescribing and drug dispensing habits. The act also would have made it the Secretary's duty to inform pharmacies and physicians about occasions of adverse drug interactions and inadequate healthcare.