Fwd: Recording Available: Understanding Your Medicare Health Options

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Begin forwarded message:Date: January 9, 2009 12:03:32 PM ESTTo: "Louis " Subject: Recording Available: Understanding Your Medicare Health OptionsReply-To: The Medicare Rights Center is pleased to announce that we will be hosting monthly free web seminars on important Medicare topics. The monthly seminars will be held on the second Thursday of each month. To register for these seminars, please follow this link."Understanding Your Medicare Health Options"To view a recording of this seminar, follow this link (approximately 2.5 hours).If you do not have Flash installed, you will be prompted to install Flash before viewing.For additional instructions on how to listen to this recording, including system requirements, click here.To download a copy of this presentation with large print, follow this link.To download a copy of this presentation with room to take notes, follow this link.Description:Whether you are in Original Medicare or a Medicare private health plan (like an HMO or a PPO), it is important to understand your Medicare health plan choices. To educate professionals, caregivers and people with Medicare about Medicare Health Options, the Medicare Rights Center is providing a free educational web seminar that will explain: Why you should understand your Medicare health plan options. What your Medicare health plan options are.How to choose a Medicare health plan.How to better understand the Medicare health plan you have.During the seminar, several participants raised some very interesting questions which we would like to follow-up on1) Can a Medigap policy agent sell you a plan if you are going to drop your Medicare Advantage plan? As we mentioned in the presentation, a Medigap policy agent may NOT sell a Medigap supplement policy or certificate to an individual enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan unless the effective date of the supplemental coverage begins after the termination date of the individual’s Medicare Advantage plan. In other words, if you plan ahead, you should be able to have the Medigap kick in as soon as you get back into Original Medicare.2) Do I have to pay the Part A deductible every time I go into the hospital? After you pay a deductible ($1,068 in 2009) each benefit period, Original Medicare will cover you in full for days 1 through 60 that you are in a hospital. For days 61-90, you pay a daily coinsurance. Medicare pays for up to 60 additional hospital days in your lifetime with a high daily coinsurance, after you have used up your 90 days of hospital coverage in a benefit period. A benefit period begins when you enter a hospital or a skilled nursing facility, and ends when you have been out of the hospital or skilled nursing facility (SNF), or stop receiving Medicare-covered skilled services at the SNF, for at least 60 days in a row.If you are in a Medicare Advantage plan, you might have to pay a deductible each time you are admitted to the hospital. This is a good place to reiterate that MA plans vary widely from each other, so it's always in your best interest to call the plan directly and ask these kinds of questions.3) Will Medicare cover a prosthetic I had before becoming eligible for Medicare? Yes. Under Medicare's Durable Medical Equipment (DME) benefit, medically necessary care related to a prosthetic will be covered (Medicare pays 80%, you pay 20%).You can access recordings of recent web seminars on our website. All the best,The Web Seminar TeamAnd, for those of you with questions about Medicare, we would like to share all of our online resources with you:To learn more about the ins and outs of Medicare, please visit Medicare Interactive, an independent, public resource of the Medicare Rights Center that offer expert information and advice on Medicare at www.medicareinteractive.org.If you need help with an individual Medicare problem, please call our Consumer Hotline at .If you need to appeal your Medicare drug plan, please call our Appeals Hotline at .Get free weekly e-mail updates on health care benefits, rights, options and emerging issues. Go to www.medicarerights.org/subscribeframeset.html to subscribe to Dear Marci today. Remove yourself from this mailing.Modify your profile.