**GAO-05-130**                      Published: Dec 08, 2004. Publicly Released: Dec 08, 2004.                  

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## Highlights

In March 1999, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented a telephone help line--1-800-MEDICARE--to provide information about program eligibility, enrollment, and benefits. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) directed GAO to examine several issues related to this 24-hour help line and the customer service representatives (CSRs) who staff it. In this report, GAO evaluated (1) the accuracy of the information the help line provides, (2) the training given to CSRs, and (3) CMS's efforts to monitor the accuracy of information provided through the help line.

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## Topics

Health Care

Contractor personnelCustomer serviceData integrityEducationHealth care programsHealth insuranceMedicareMonitoringTelephonesTraining utilization