Insurance Info

Stated by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Medicare Supplement Insurance (also referred to as Medigap cover) is medical insurance given by private insurance providers. This is used to fill the gaps in Original Medicare Plan Service.

The Medigap policies help by paying some of the medical care rates that the original Medicare Plan doesn’t pay. If you use the original Medicare service and have an active Medigap policy, then you will get the unique services of both in payment of rates for health care.

It is important that you note that there are twelve different standardized medicare supplement insurance services and they are label A through L. These plans have their very unique differences in their service and benefits.

The medicare supplement policy is not a need for everybody. If you have a quality health insurance service from leading medical insurance providers, there’s a chance that the needs in your medicare coverage may already have been taken care of. Continue reading ‘Medicare Supplement Insurance – Important Tips and Guide For Getting the Best Service’ »

The complicated world of Medicare can quickly be explained in simple ways as follows:

Medicare PART-A: This is the hospital portion of the plan, and it pays for the following

• Inpatient hospital care
• Hospice care
• Some skilled nursing care
• Home health care

Before we go any further, you also need to learn what “benefit period” is: Benefit period refers to the number of days you receive care in a hospital or skilled nursing facility. Medicare uses this count to determine the amount it will pay per a benefit period. Three factors determine your benefit period:

1. The length of stay in skilled nursing facility
2. The length of your stay in hospital
3. The length of release before you return to a skilled facility or a hospital

Your benefit period begins the day you are accepted to a hospital and continues as long as you: (1) Stay in a hospital (2) Transfer to a Medicare approved skilled care facility within 30 days of your stay. And it ends if you don’t receive hospital or skilled nursing care for consecutive 60 days whenever you leave hospital or skilled nursing home care. Continue reading ‘What Does Medicare Part-A And Part-B Pay For?’ »

Medicare Supplement Plan J is one of the Federally-standardized Medicare Supplement plans. Much has been written and discussed about the upcoming June 1, 2010 changes to the standard Medicare Supplement plans. One of the major changes with the modernization of the plans is the elimination of several plans, including Medigap Plan J. It is important to note, however, that existing Plan J policyholders will not lose their current Plan J coverage with this modernization of the plans.

In reality, the elimination of Plan J is by default. The two benefits that J has to set it apart from Plan F, the most common Medigap plan, are Preventive Care and At Home Recovery. Those two benefits are being eliminated from all of the plans by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) due to lack of use. The elimination of these benefits means that J is a duplication of F, so it is thereby discarded. Continue reading ‘Medicare Supplement Plan J – What's Happening to it in 2010?’ »

Effective June 1, 2010, the Medicare Supplement marketplace will look completely different. That is the government-appointed date, on which all companies that market and sell Medicare Supplement plans will have to abide by the modernized Medigap plans chart. Most significantly, this modernization adds two new plans to the mix of available Medicare Supplemental plans, Plan M and Plan N. Both plans promise to be legitimate choices for new and existing policyholders – are they right for you?

What the Plans Will Cover

Medicare Supplement Plan M will be very similar to current Medigap Plan D. It will still have the core benefits of covering the 20% that Medicare doesn’t cover at the doctor, hospital and skilled nursing (as well as hospice coverage); however, Plan M will not cover the Medicare Part B deductible (currently $135/year) and it will only cover half of the Medicare Part A deductible (currently $1068/year). It will not have any co-pays, though. Most people project Plan M to have a premium of approximately 85% of current Plan F premiums (Plan F is the most common plan currently). Continue reading ‘Medicare Supplement Plan M and Plan N – Why the New Plans Might Be Right For You’ »

Temporary health coverage is required for people during a transitional time of their life when they would otherwise have no medical coverage. This could be recent graduates, people between jobs, laid off or anyone who is waiting for permanent medical coverage to begin.

Temporary health insurance or short-term health insurance fills a gap until standard, long term coverage can be started. Most of the time, the coverage does not include routine preventive care like physicals or immunizations. The purpose of the coverage is to provide protection in the case of an accident or unforeseen illness. Continue reading ‘Temporary Health Coverage During Transition’ »

Medicare Supplement plans have certain “Guaranteed Issue” periods that allow individuals to apply for a plan without denying you coverage, excluding your pre-existing conditions, or charging you more because of any health conditions. These guaranteed issue (GI) rights are Federally-mandated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and apply to you all Medicare-enrollees who are in one of these specific situations.

The GI rights generally occur when your current health care coverage is changing in a certain way or you are involuntarily losing your coverage. Specific insurance companies may create their own GI situations, and they do; however, there are seven Federally-prescribed GI situations that all Medicare Supplement insurance companies must follow. If you fall into one of these periods, you should be able to sign up for a Medicare Supplement plan on a Guaranteed Issue basis. These seven situations are:

1. You have employer or union coverage that pays AFTER Medicare, and that coverage is ending.
2. You are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, and this plan is leaving the Medicare program, stops servicing your area, OR you are moving out of the plan’s specific service area.
3. You have a Medicare SELECT policy, and you are moving out of the plan’s service area. You can keep your current policy, but you do have the right, on a GI basis, to switch to a new policy. Continue reading ‘Medicare Supplement Plans – What Are Guaranteed Issue Periods and When Do They Occur?’ »

From expensive but extensive policies to cheap and inadequate coverage plans, insurance companies make it certain that they don’t discriminate. One option many insurers provide is short term insurance, coverage that protects you much like a standard policy would but only for a short period of time. You are able to protect yourself from financial loss the same way you would with any standard length policy.

To find the most affordable short term insurance rates, jump online and start comparing insurance quotes from a number of different companies.

So what’s the need for short term insurance? A quality policy can be beneficial in each insurance category:

1. Auto insurance. If you are taking a trip with a friend who will be driving your vehicle, or if you find yourself driving someone else’s vehicle for a short period of time, it is your answer. An accident can occur anywhere at anytime, so you will want coverage even if you are driving uninsured for a day. Continue reading ‘Learn About Short Term Insurance’ »

If you have an original Medicare plan and you want to cover up the bridge between your exact expenditure and claimed policy money then you need to have a policy which is called Medigap policy. It is to be remembered that to have a Medigap or Medicare supplement policy you have to have an original Medicare policy. You can understand from its very name that it is actually a gap coverage made by Medicare supplement. The fact is that the Original Medicare has several gaps that don’t pay for all the medical services that you may need. Therefore this type of Medicare supplements policy. This is a kind of health insurance plan that helps you pay for some of your costs in the original Medicare and also for some of the cost for some medical aid that it does not cover. It is really helpful because in this policy you ca recover your total expenditure on your health issue what will not be gained by a mere original policy.

These supplementary insurance policies are sold by the private insurance companies and are under their sole administration. According to the law the private insurance companies can offer only twelve standard Medicare Supplement Insurance Plans, named A through L. each of these plans have their own set of benefits, different from the others. However, almost all of the twelve Medigap policies provide the basic benefits of Medicare part A and B. Therefore it is always recommended to study all the Medigap plans before deciding to choose the one that would fit the best for you. Besides that the fact that should be kept in mind is that, no matter from whatever insurance company you may purchase a particular plan, all of the plans with the same letter cover must provide the same benefits. As for example if you purchase a Medigap plan C policy, it should cover the same benefits without depending on the company that is selling the plan. However, the premium rates may vary for different companies. Therefore you are free to purchase any Medigap policy from the company you like and be sure to get the same benefits provided by the other companies. Continue reading ‘Medicare Insurance Plan is Very Useful For Having the Total Expenditure’ »

Medicare Supplement plans and Medicare Advantage plans are the two choices that individuals have for coverage in addition to the Federal program. Although they have a few similarities, overall, these plans differ greatly and must be considered individually to determine which is the best for each individual. In most cases, when you are able to qualify medically and afford a supplement, or Medigap plan, it proves to be most advantageous.

The easiest way to understand the difference is to remember that Advantage pays INSTEAD of Medicare, while supplements pay AFTER Medicare. Advantage plans are the privatized form of the Federal government’s program, and they replace it (although you are still enrolled in the government program, it just doesn’t provide your benefits); supplements, on the other hand, are designed to fill in the gaps of the government’s program, and they are in addition to it. Continue reading ‘Medicare Supplement Plans – Are They a Better Choice Than Medicare Advantage?’ »

Your individual Medicare Supplement Open Enrollment period is the period of time in which you can purchase a Medicare Supplement from any insurance company, without having to qualify medically, pay a higher rate due to any current or former health conditions, or wait for coverage. Open Enrollment is Federally-mandated, so every company has to abide by it.

When Is It?

This initial enrollment period begins for each individual on the first day of the month in which they are both age 65 or older and enrolled in Medicare Part B. It lasts for a period of six months from that date. For example, if your birthday is March 3 and you enroll in Medicare Part B to start on March 1 of that same year, your Open Enrollment period would begin on March 1 and last through the month of August. Continue reading ‘Medicare Supplement Open Enrollment – When is it and How Does it Work?’ »