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Welcome to the Health Care Financing
Administration (HCFA), the federal agency that
administers Medicare,
Medicaid
and the State
Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
HCFA provides health insurance for over 74 million
Americans through Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP. The majority
of these individuals receive their benefits through the fee-for-service
delivery system, however, an increasing number are choosing managed
care plans.
In addition to providing health insurance, HCFA also
performs a number of quality-focused activities, including
regulation of laboratory
testing (CLIA), development of coverage policies,
and quality-of-care
improvement. HCFA maintains oversight of the survey and
certification of nursing homes
and continuing care providers (including home health
agencies, intermediate care facilities for the mentally
retarded, and hospitals), and makes available to
beneficiaries, providers, researchers and State surveyors
information about these activities and nursing home quality.
To ensure public and expert involvement in running our
programs, HCFA maintains a number of chartered advisory committees. These
committees, whose meetings are open to the public, are used to
provide advice or make recommendations on a variety of issues
relating to HCFA's responsibilities and activities.
DHHS/HCFA Initiatives
include:
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