Archive for the ‘Part D’ Category

Medicare beneficiaries should remember:

• Medicare cannot call and ask for financial or personal information over the phone.
• Medicare numbers should be kept in a safe, secure place.
• Medicare will not notify beneficiaries of payments by phone. The beneficiary must be notified of the past due premiums via mail.

It has come to my attention that there are some Medicare beneficiaries around the country are receiving calls from scammers saying they are from Medicare for one reason or another.  Some are saying they have to pay a Pard D penalty and other things like that, while they have you on the phone.  Please remember anyone from Medicare will not ask you for financial or personal information over the phone.

If you question a phone call, hang up and call your local social security office or medicare directly at 1-800-Medicare (1-800-633-4227)

For those of you on a Medicare Advantage plan, if you have not taken a look at the benefits that are being offered for next year, we recommend that you take a look and compare them to what your benefits were last year.  What we have noticed for a lot of the plans is that they are keeping the monthly premium and Doctor office co-pays pretty close to what they were last year, its the hospital copay and out of pocket maximum is where the biggest change is.

A lot of the plans now follow the per day copay for each visit to the hospital which could be somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 on up to $250 per day for the first 7 days or more.  This per day charge can add up pretty fast considering the average stay is somewhere between 5 and 7 days.

The other major change so a lot of the Medicare Advantage plans is that your exposure our out of pocket maximum has jumped.  Depending on the plan you could be responsible for $5000, $8500 or more if you are getting benefits out of the network.

Yes these plans work great for some people, however the most important factor is that you know what your responsible for with any plan you choose.

We are in the process of adding Fox Insurance Company to our list of providers.  Fox currently only offers Medicare Part D prescription programs in the state of Missouri and Kansas. 

We are always looking for ways to improve our product selection and service for our clients so they may be able to obtain the best coverage possible.   Just doing our job as your independent advisor!

See a list of the companies that we can offer here on our company page

Call us with any questions.

Travis

Just posed a link to some Medicare Part D Prescription assistance from the State of Missouri on our resources page which you can get to by clicking on General Information above and then clicking the resources link.

I have to start by saying the reason for this post has made me said, not because we were able to review an move a new client to a better program, but because she was paying over $6000 a year for just her prescriptions.

For every person there is a program that fits their needs, however when you are not placed into the proper program, you spend much more than you need to.  In an earlier post I noted that depending on the Part D prescription program that you were enrolled in, the difference in cost from the lowest cost to the highest cost averaged $3000 for the year.

Now to get to the point of my post.  A new client walked into my office this past week with her current plan details and a list of her prescriptions.  She was currently on a Medicare Advantage HMO plan which included prescription coverage.  Over the course of 2009 she spend $5980 some dollars on just her prescriptions, not to mention her co-pays and deductibles she was responsible for through her medical side of the plan.

When it was all said and done, to make a long story short, we moved her to an individual Part D prescription plan and saved her $900 dollars this coming year just on her prescription program.  (The $900 savings for the year already factors in the monthly cost of the Part D prescription program and all out of pocket cost including copays)

That $900 savings for the year broke down to $75 savings per month.

Her Medicare Supplement Plan J was going to run her $147 per month.  So $147 – the $75 savings means the net cost of her Medicare Supplement is now $72 per month

Her prior Medicare Advantage plan was charging her $20 per month just to be on the plan, plus the co pays and deductibles.

So now you take the $72 additional dollars she is spending and subtract the $20 that she was going to pay for her Medicare Advantage plan and she  is only spending $52 more per month.

THATS NOT ALL!  I must also point out that her Medicare Supplement Plan J does not have any of the hidden expenses such as co-pays or deductibles like her Medicare Advantage had.  So when we factor in the co-pays that she spent with her Medicare Advantage, she saved WAY more by moving to the individual Medicare Supplement and Part D prescription program.

The point I am trying to make here along with everyone of my post is: Just because an agent says they can get you a Medicare plan, does not mean they have access to the proper products for your needs.  Make sure you get with someone who will educate you on all your options so you can make a good decision.

Best Luck,

Travis