If you opt for
original Medicare, you can purchase a Medicare Supplemental Plan (also called "Medigap") for a monthly premium--but you don't have to.
They opt out of
original Medicare and enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan.
South Carolina residents with
Original Medicare can create their free PHR at any time by visiting www.
Medicare Advantage plans can offer more competitive premiums than traditional retiree plans, are fully insured and cover more benefits than
original Medicare.
It is worth the effort to understand the ways in which
original Medicare and Medicare Advantage differ.
Medicare Advantage (MA) organizations offer an alternative to the
original Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) program.
one of the cosponsors of the Medicare Prescription Drugs Savings Plan Bill, which backers say could save billions of dollars each year for senior citizens, persons with disabilities and taxpayers by allowing those eligible the option of choosing prescription drug coverage through the
original Medicare program.
The Medicare health insurance variable has the following four categories and was created from MCBS variables derived from CMS' administrative records: (1)
original Medicare only, (2)
original Medicare plus supplement/Tricare, (3) Medicare managed care, and (4) dually eligible beneficiaries.
They may not realize that a PFFS plan will pay just as much, or more, as reimbursement under
original Medicare.
The
original Medicare program has consistently been so popular with its subscribers that tire profit-oriented HMOs and PPOs have been unable to compete successfully.
If you join a PFFS plan, you are still in the Medicare program, will still be eligible for all of your regular Medicare-covered services, must continue to pay the monthly premium for Medicare Part B, and will keep all your rights and protections under the
Original Medicare Plan--except you will have to pay for services the PFFS plan says are not medically necessary.
Even so, the impact of PPS will be dramatic - as dramatic, in my view, as the impact of the
original Medicare program in 1965.
