Bureaucracy

Besides legislative oversight in the House and Senate, several agencies and entities in the bureaucracy play a role in Medicare. Some of these include:

• United States Department of Health and Human Services: This is a cabinet-level department of the federal government with the goal of protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. The agencies below fall under this department.
  • Administration on Aging: They work to ensure that older Americans can stay independent in their communities and conducts statistical activities in support of the research, analysis and evaluation of programs such as Medicare to meet the needs of an aging population.
  • Medicare Rights Center: A national consumer service organization whose mission is to "ensure access to affordable health care for older adults and people with disabilities through counseling and advocacy, educational programs and public policy initiatives".
  • Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: Their mission is to make health care safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable and affordable, and to work with the US Department of Health and Human Services and other partners to make sure that the evidence is understood and used.
• The Department of the Treasury also plays a role in Medicare. Some of their responsibilites include managing the federal finances and publishing statistical reports. Because Medicare has become such an enormous faction of the federal budget, the Department has had to deal with Medicare quite frequently.