The Railroad Retirement Board announced its selection of Palmetto Government Benefits Administrators LLC, a subsidiary of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina, to process the Medicare Part B medical insurance claims for physicians' services to about 650,000 railroad retirement annuitants. The selection followed a competitive federal procurement process.

Palmetto GBA will assume the existing Augusta, Georgia Medicare claims operations facility of the Board's previous carrier, Uniprise, a UnitedHealth Group company, which informed the Health Care Financing Administration and the Railroad Retirement Board in February that it is withdrawing from the Medicare program as a claims processing contractor. Uniprise will work with the Board's new carrier in the transition of operations at the Augusta facility, which is 70 miles from the Palmetto GBA headquarters offices.

An independent federal agency headquartered in Chicago, the Board administers the over $8 billion-a-year benefit programs provided under the Railroad Retirement and Unemployment Insurance Acts covering the nation's railroad workforce and their families. Railroad retirement beneficiaries are covered by Medicare on the same basis as social security beneficiaries, and the Board, which enrolls annuitants for Part B medical coverage and collects premiums, also has authority to select a Part B carrier. Carriers for Part A hospital insurance claims are selected by the Health Care Financing Administration which administers the Medicare program.