What are the common mistakes people make when enrolling in Medicare?
1. Not signing up for Medicare at the right time. Timing, as they say, is everything. It’s especially important when it comes to enrolling in Medicare.
What is the Medicare quiz?
Quiz: Medicare Basics. 2. Blowing the special enrollment period. If you are 65 or older, when you stop working and lose your health insurance coverage or when the insurance you have through your spouse ends, you’ll need to sign up for Medicare. Medicare has created a special enrollment period ...
What is a Medigap policy?
Medigaps are supplemental health insurance policies that work with original Medicare. If you have a Medigap policy, it pays part or some of the out-of-pocket costs that Medicare doesn’t cover, such as your Part A hospital deductible or the 20 percent coinsurance in Part B. Depending on where you live, you can choose from as many as 10 different Medigap plans. Each policy has a different letter name (for example, Plan A) and offers a different set of standardized benefits. Policies with the same letter name offer the same benefits, but premiums can vary from company to company.
What is Medicare Advantage?
Most plans are either health maintenance organizations (HMOs), which often require referrals to specialists and rely on primary care physicians to coordinate a patient’s care, or preferred provider organizations (PPOs), which have networks of doctors, hospitals and medical facilities that contract with a plan to provide services. Your costs are typically lowest when you use in-network providers and facilities, regardless of your plan.
How long can you use SEP after you no longer have health insurance?
Again, timing is everything. What many people don’t realize is that you can only use this SEP either while you are covered by job-based insurance or for eight months after you no longer have job-based insurance. Note: Medicare does not count retiree health insurance or COBRA as job-based coverage.
When does Medicare start enrolling?
If you don’t sign up during your IEP, you will get another chance to enroll during Medicare’s annual general enrollment period, from Jan. 1 through March 31 of each year . However, if you enroll at that time, your coverage won’t begin until July.
Does Medicare cover Part D?
To help pay for your out-of-pocket costs, you can buy a Medigap policy, which has its own separate monthly premium. Original Medicare does not include Part D (prescription drug coverage), so you must sign up for a stand-alone Part D plan if you do not have other drug coverage.
How to Locate the Best and Healthiest Places for Aging Alone
Globally, there are 604 million (plus) people in the 65 and older category. This has created a demand for research on how to live better as people move beyond the working years. Studies suggest drilling down on individual behaviors that affect the health…
9 Ways Solo Agers Can Create a Care Plan that Really Works
In a previous article, Building an Aging Alone Plan, I pointed out that living alone as we get older doesn’t support optimal health. And, if we’re smart, we’re building a strategy to create support and close ties. Another common theme…
Approaching Retirement Alone? 3 Strategies to Stay Social, Happy and Healthy
Financial matters are the top concern for most women 60 and over. Members of my community more often than any other issue, say money and outliving their finances is their main worry…
Building an Aging Alone Plan – Solving the Solo Epidemic
Living alone is a luxury for single people. In my case, I relish having total privacy. It’s because I grew up sharing a bedroom with a sibling. Then, I left home for college and moved into a dorm, only to share another small room. Read More
How Senior Women Aging Alone Can Find Support Networks
Our motive to create a support system extends beyond the need for social connection and to avoid loneliness. Many women, especially those of us without an immediate family, are at risk of isolation and spending too much time alone…
Dear Santa, Here Are the Gifts That Older Women Really Want
In the spirit of the holidays, I call out to individuals 55 and over to share your wish list with Santa. Not the kind of Christmas wishes and dreams we typically hope to receive from relatives and friends. Read More
Aging Alone and the Importance of Self-Care
It feels like it was yesterday I was helping my parents with their care needs while working a full-time job. Today, I’m the one who has grown older and occasionally needs help, but unlike my parents…
Provider Considerations
Medicare Advantage plans have a network of providers. These provider networks have vastly improved recently, but they can still cause issues. HMOs are health maintenance organizations, and PPOs are preferred provider organizations. These are the two most common types of Part C plan networks.
Medigap Open Enrollment
Medigap is often referred to as the alternative to Medicare Advantage. When someone is more than six months away from their 65th birthday or their Part B effective date, they have to answer health questions to get a Medigap plan. When someone first turns 65 or enrolls in Part B, they can get a Medigap plan without answering health questions.
Skilled Nursing Care
Historically, there are very few issues with skilled nursing care when billing original Medicare. Most of the hysteria about Medicare Advantage online comes from people involved with the billing process of rehabilitation services, assisted living, skilled nursing, etc.