You may have heard it’s Open Enrollment for Medicare and wondered what that even means. It means that Americans have until December 7, 2023 to change or expand their Medicare plans. If you try to make changes after that date, it might be up to the discretion of an insurance company that is administering the plan.
The plans are sold according to what “Part” of Medicare they fit into:
- Parts A and B (traditional Medicare): Parts A and B cover hospitalization and outpatient coverage, respectively. Part A covers hospitals, skilled nursing, and hospice care; Part B covers outpatient care, durable medical equipment, and home health care.
- Part C: Medicare Part C is also known as Medicare Advantage. It’s supplemental insurance that can only be purchased on top of existing Part A and B coverage, and it covers vision, dental, and hearing.
- Part D: Part D is for prescription drug coverage, and must be linked to a Part A and B plan.
Parts C and D are administered by private insurance companies, all of which are bound by strict rules set by the government. The only real difference between them is the price — though, on the Connecticut healthcare exchange set up by the ACA, premiums tend to hover around the same dollar amount.
A curious person might be tempted to just Google for information about Medicare, but there is a lot of misleading, for-profit stuff out there. Fortunately government websites usually show up near the top of the results — look for the .gov domain. To save yourself some time, click here to access the official Medicare portal for finding plans. This link will help you see if you qualify.
Our Lifestyle Concierge and our Financial Concierge have a lot of experience dealing with Medicare services and setting up the billing for Parts C and D plans. Contact us to see what we can do for you.
Recent Comments