If you’re concerned about how much money you’ll spend on healthcare with Medicare, you should consider Medicare Supplement Insurance. While it is true that you could have high medical bills with Medicare, Medicare Supplement Insurance can limit those costs and give you great peace of mind. Read this article to get a good understanding of how much Medicare can cost you, and how Medicare Supplement Plans in Utah can help you save money.
Parts A and B of Original Medicare will provide you with excellent coverage in terms of specific services and procedures. More or less every medically necessary service is covered by Medicare. Not only that, but Medicare will pay for most of the cost for your care and treatments. However, Medicare won’t pay all of the costs for your care. You will have to share in the cost for all of the procedures or services you receive.
The amount you’ll pay will depend on what type of care you get; Part A and Part B have separate costs schedules.
Part A, which helps you pay for hospital and skilled nursing home stayts comes with these expenses:
Whenever you’re admitted to the hospital, you’ll start what’s called a “benefit period.” You’ll have to pay the Part A deductible, then Medicare starts paying for your stay. It is possible to experience more than one benefit period in a year, which means that you could pay this deductible more than once.
Part B covers you in all kinds of outpatient settings. For Part B services, you are expected to pay:
You’ll only pay the Part B deductible once. But, you’ll pay the 20% co-insurance for the rest of the year, for all services and procedures you receive.
All of these costs can add up during a year, especially if you have a major illness like cancer or require long or multiple hospital stays. These costs are uncapped, so your liability is potentially unlimited. To lower the impact of these costs, you should consider using Medicare Supplement Insurance.
Medicare Supplement, or Medigap coverage, is an additional coverage you can add to your basic Part A and B benefits. These plans are offered by private insurance companies. They work in a very simple way. They don’t provide any medical coverage on their own. Instead, they simply pay for some of the costs that you’ll encounter with Medicare (the costs we reviewed above). So, when you’re admitted to the hospital, and you’d normally have to pay the deductible, you can choose a Medigap plan that will pay it for you.
Since Medigap is supplemental coverage, you can only use it in conjunction with your Original Medicare benefits. This means that when you see a medical provider or stay in a facility, they will bill Medicare first. Medicare will pay the amounts that they’re required to. In the case of Part B services, they will pay 80% of the cost for you. Your providers will also bill your Medigap plan, and your plan will pay most or all of the 20% that you would usually have to pay out of pocket. How much your plan pays for you depends on the specific Medigap Plan you choose to enroll in.
In Utah and 46 other states, Medigap Plans have been standardized. This means that the specific benefits provided by Medigap plans are the same in all of these states. In these 47 states, there are ten coverage levels, known as Plans A, B, C, D, F, G, K, L, M, and N. There are high deductible versions of Plans F and G. Every one of these options gives you a different level of coverage. Each Plan covers a different number and amount of the costs that you’re supposed to pay. Since the plans are standardized in all 47 states, the benefits are the same in all of them; for example, Plan N in Utah is identical to Plan N in Alabama.
You will use your Medigap plan alongside your Original Medicare coverage when you see your doctors. Assuming that you’ve paid any required deductible (you generally have to pay the Part B deductible with Medigap coverage), Medicare will pay 80% of your Part B costs for the rest of the year. Your plan will be billed for the remaining 20% of the cost. Depending on which level of coverage you chose, your plan will pay most of this amount, and perhaps all of it.
When you choose Medicare Supplement Insurance, you keep all of your rights under Original Medicare. This includes the ability to see any doctor that takes Medicare patients, anywhere in the country. You also aren’t subject to referral requirements. These features help make Medigap coverage very popular throughout the country.
To get Medigap coverage, you need to be enrolled in both Part A and Part B of Medicare. How the process works will vary based on when you enter Medicare:
The standard case is when you enter Medicare at 65. This is the way most people get their coverage. You have seven months to enroll in Parts A and B when you turn 65. This window opens three months before the month you turn 65. In some cases, you might be automatically enrolled, but if you’re not, you can enroll in Parts A and B at any time during these seven months. As soon as you have a Medicare number, you can enroll in Medicare Supplement Insurance.
You can delay taking Part B if you plan to keep working and will be covered by a qualifying employer health plan. Whenever you retire or lose coverage, you’ll have a Special Enrollment Period during which you can enroll in Part B and A. You can also enroll in Medigap at this time.
It’s possible to enter Medicare before your 65th birthday, even years before, if you meet certain disability or illness requirements. Medicare Supplement Plans in Utah are not required to cover people under 65. While some choose to do so, the premiums are significantly higher than for people who are age 65 and older.
No. You can choose not to enroll.
This OEP is a six month window of time during which you can get any Medigap plan in your area on a guaranteed issue basis. This means that you can’t be declined or charged higher premiums due to your health status. This OEP begins only when you are age 65 or older and enrolled in Part B.
Yes. This can be done during the October 15 to December 7 Annual Election Period.
No. You will also have to enroll in a separate Part D drug plan to get drug coverage.
No; they also don’t cover vision or hearing services.You can add separate coverage for these services if you want to.
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