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2. Medicare Coverage and the MPPP – Medicare provides the following types of coverage: a. Medicare Part A. Pays for hospital services and limited skilled nursing services. Medicare Part A is provided at no-cost to a person who: is insured under Social Security or Railroad Retirement Systems (e.g., paid into the system for forty (40) quarters of work) and sixty-five (65) years of age; has reached the twenty-fifth (25th) month of a permanent and total disability; or received continuing kidney dialysis or had a kidney transplant. Under an agreement with the SSA, the State is authorized to purchase Part A through the MPPP for persons who are elderly or living with a disability who do not qualify for no-cost Part A coverage. b. Medicare Part B. Pays for physician services, durable medical equipment and other outpatient services. Medicare Part B is available to persons who pay a monthly premium and are sixty-five (65) years of age or older without regard to whether they are insured in the Social Security or Railroad Retirement Systems as well as anyone who has reached the twenty-fifth (25th) month of a permanent and total disability. Initial enrollment is a seven (7) month period that starts three (3) months before a person first qualifies for Medicare and extends three months past the sixty-fifth (65th) birthday or, if failing to enroll during this period, through an open enrollment period held each year from January through the end of March. The State pays the Part B premium for Medicare beneficiaries eligible through all of the MPPP eligibility pathways listed below. c. Medicare Part C. Medicare managed care (“Advantage”) plans provide Medicare Part A, Part B and Part D (prescription drug coverage) for beneficiaries who qualify. d. Medicare Part D. Pays for prescription drug coverage for enrolled Medicare beneficiaries. Costs for beneficiaries vary. Low-income Medicare beneficiaries who qualify for the Federal government’s Extra Help program, which provides assistance in paying the costs for Part D, are automatically eligible for the MPPP. The SSA provides electronic notification to the States of Medicare beneficiaries who are eligible for the MPPP on this basis. e. Medicaid wraps around Medicare’s coverage by providing financial assistance to beneficiaries in the form of payment of Medicare premiums and cost-sharing, as well as coverage of some benefits not included in the Medicare program. Not all dual eligible