Just the Essentials: Deciding on Medicare Coverage Plans

We stumbed across this very informative piece this morning by Allsup on MarketWatch that details the 10 most important things that indivudals/caretakers must ask themselves when figuring out appropriate Medicare coverage.

The article stresses that knowing one's healthcare needs is the key to understanding what plans are solid for their needs.

We highly recommend that you print out this list, available here.

Indiana: Beware of Medicare scams

Everyone should be on the look out for Medicare fraudsters out to get money from unsuspecting seniors. Medicare does not contact seniors to go over their health care benefits and medicare does not schedule time to visit with seniors in their homes. If you or someone you know has been contact by a source claiming to help out with Medicare, let the authorities know immediately.

For an example, please click here.

Economy likely to move up Medicare's insolvency

From WashingtonPost.com:

Federal health officials estimate that the struggling economy will speed up by one to three years the exhaustion of the Medicare trust fund covering hospital and nursing home care.
Trustees for the Social Security and Medicare programs warned last March that the trust fund for Medicare Part A would become insolvent in 2019. But the chief actuary for Medicare said Monday the economy will likely generate less revenue through payroll taxes than the trustees had projected.

Once the trust fund is exhausted, the federal government will continue to pay for hospital care and other services, but it initially would only have enough money coming in to cover 78 percent of estimated costs.

Trustees issue a once-a-year report on the financial conditions for Social Security and Medicare. In the fall, the trustees get an update that tells them what's happening versus what their latest projection indicated. In the latest update, Medicare's top actuary braced the trustees for a deterioration in Medicare's finances.

For the rest of this article, please click here.

Medicare Part D Drug plans

At US News, they have the new prices for most popular Medicare Part D stand alone drug plans. Most have increased a significant amount. See the prices here.

Medicare Troubles with Part D

From USNews.com:

Phillip Moeller writes,

Besides premium increases, many Part D plans have added other fee hikes, reduced covered drugs, and backed off on other protections as well. These changes are extensive and are layered onto a program with mind-numbing variables. The nation is broken up into 34 coverage regions, for example, and most states offer roughly 50 different private insurance plans with huge ranges of coverages and costs.
Whew! Paul Krugman may have won a Nobel Prize for economics, but I bet even he would have a hard time figuring out the best Part D plans for his elderly relatives. This year, more than ever, though, it will pay to look carefully at Part D choices. So, grab another cup of coffee, and bear with me.
The Part D program began with much fanfare and confusion in 2006. Since then, more than 16 million people ages 65 and over have signed up for the stand-alone Part D plans, and they've tended to stick with their original choices despite many plan changes in 2007 and 2008.

For the rest of this article, please click here.

6 Wks for Seniors to Sign up For Medicare Drug Plan

From the Chicago Sun Times

Starting today, seniors have six weeks to sign up for another year of Medicare Part D -- the prescription drug benefit -- that goes along with Medicare Part A (hospitalization), Part B (outpatient and doctor costs) and Medigap (the supplement that covers other costs including co-payments and deductibles).

For more information click on the US Government's website.

Argus Leader encourages Medicare prescription holders to shop around for perscription coverage

In an article at Argus Leader, officials encourage Medicare users to shop around for prescription drug coverage. They foresee significant increases and changes in what Medicare part D will cover. For most of the popular drug plans, the most popular drugs could increase in price anywhere from 8% to 64%.

Other price increases include:
The monthly premium for the most popular Medicare Part D plan - the AARP Medicare Rx Preferred Plan - will increase 15 percent, from $32 to $37.

The next most popular plans come from Humana. The premium for the standard Humana plan will go up 60 percent, from $25 to $40, while the premium for the enhanced plan will go from $23 to $38.