Southern Senior Care Blog

News May Not be as Bad as it Sounds

On July 15th, General Motors announced that retired salaried employees 65 and older will lose their GM medical benefits. In exchange, GM will increase pension payments by $300 per month. My father is a retired GM employee, so I am very familiar with this situation. >>> Read the rest …

AARP Medicare Supplement Plans are underwritten by United Healthcare. I’m not going to spend a lot of time comparing AARP Medicare Supplement Plans to those offered by numerous other companies. There have been many articles and documents created that discuss the subject of “Standardization” of Medicare Supplements. In short, in 1997 Medicare standardized all medicare supplements. There are thirteen plans identified by the letters A-L. Companies can offer any or all of these plans and can charge any premium they wish. Plans of the same letter are “Identical” from one company to another. I REPEAT Plans of the same letter are 100% identical. The only difference between them is the premium.

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This is one of the most common questions we receive. When can I change my supplement, my drug plan, my advantage plan, etc. So here are the rules:

When can I change my Medicare Supplement?

Any time you want. That’s right. You could change Medicare Supplement Insurance every month if you wanted to. Realistically, you should review your rates every year, and you will probably find that you will want to change your Medicare Supplement company about once every three-four years to save money. To change to another Medicare Supplement Provider you will need to answer several health questions. Click here to see a list of common questions.

When can I change my Medigap Plan?

See Above. A Medigap Plan is just another name for a Medicare Supplement Plan. They are identical. They are synonyms. The reason for the confusion is the word “gap” which is also used to describe the gap (donut hole) in coverage in the prescription plan. Medicare also uses the two terms interchangeably which adds to the confusion.

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Are you confused with Medicare? What do you sign up for? When do you sign up? How much you should pay for the different plans? What are the penalties if you don’t sign up in time? If you have been asking any or all of these questions, you are NOT alone. This is one of the most confusing times in Medicare history. Not since Medicare was introduced in 1965 have there been so many choices - Medicare Supplement or Medicare Advantage, which Part D plan, how to avoid the infamous “donut hole.” So how do you get unconfused?

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I get this question a lot. What IS the “best” Medigap plan? I think Plan G is the best in about 90% of the cases we see. The exception is if the client lives in a zip code in which they can get a Plan F for less than $134 more than the Plan G. The most significant difference between Plan F and G is coverage for the annual Medicare Part B deductible of $134.

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