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Since 2011, we've helped more than 5 million people understand their Medicare coverage.
A PROPERTY OF HEALTHINSURANCE.ORG, LLC, A NON-GOVERNMENTAL ENTITY
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We do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information we provide is limited to those plans we do offer in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov or 1–800– MEDICARE to get information on all of your options.
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Four reasons to change your Medicare Advantage coverage
If you're enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan and you're not happy with it, you can switch plans during Medicare's annual open enrollment period. Here are four reasons why you might change coverage.
Does Medicare cover hospice care?
Medicare covers almost all aspects of hospice care with little expense to patients or families, as long as a Medicare-approved hospice program is used.
Medicare Advantage (Part C) private health plans
Medicare Advantage plans provide Medicare-covered benefits through private insurance companies, which receive payments from Medicare to cover beneficiary medical costs.
How do I change my Medicare coverage?
Thousands of Medicare beneficiaries change their coverage each year during several enrollment windows. Find out how and when you can switch plans.
Many seniors opt for Medicare Advantage over original Medicare because of the additional benefits associated with it. Dental care, vision screenings, and hearing aids, for example, are all non-covered services under Original Medicare, whereas Medicare Advantage plans commonly pick up some of the cost of these services. And supplemental benefits are making Medicare Advantage an even more appealing option for 2022.
As a reminder, Medicare Advantage plans are offered by private insurers but are required to offer at least the same level of coverage as Original Medicare. They charge their own premiums (though there are many zero-premium plans available, with the enrollees only having to pay the premium for Medicare Part B; some plans even pay a portion of the Part B premiums on behalf of their enrollees), impose their own networks, and set their own rules. In other words, they’re less standardized than Original Medicare, where enrollees can see almost any doctor in the United States.
These days, however, there’s a new incentive to sign up for a Medicare Advantage plan. That’s because insurers offering Advantage plans now have the flexibility to include more supplemental benefits – services that Original Medicare does not cover.
Some of these new benefits relate to quality of life more so than treating an actual medical condition. For example, Medicare Advantage plans can now pay for these relatively new services for qualifying enrollees:
The best part? There’s a good chance that if you qualify for these benefits, you’ll snag them at no additional cost. The reason? Insurers can now be directly reimbursed by CMS for offering these benefits.
Take an asthma patient who frequently sees a doctor or gets hospitalized for recurring attacks. If a Medicare Advantage plan were to cover the cost of a carpet cleaning or air purifier, that patient would potentially suffer fewer attacks, thereby reducing the extent to which actual medical care is needed.
There are 3,834 Medicare Advantage plans available nationwide for individual enrollment in 2022, representing an 8% increase from 2021, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. And more than 90% of Advantage plans offer dental, hearing, vision, fitness, and telehealth benefits.
Here’s a more thorough breakdown:
Benefits for homebound seniors and those with mobility issues are also more widely available, with many Advantage plans offering meal benefits and or offering transportation to medical appointments. Virtually all (98%) Advantage plans offered telehealth benefits in 2021 – an option that’s become increasingly important in light of the pandemic.
Though a host of seniors may qualify for supplemental benefits related to the pandemic, some benefits, like pest control, nonmedical transportation, and home modifications, are expressly designed for enrollees with chronic health conditions.
Here’s what that means, under Medicare rules:
If you have a chronic health condition, you may qualify for supplemental benefits if it’s determined that they’ll improve your health or function. For example, as a diabetes patient, you may qualify for cooking classes that improve your diet, thereby resulting in fewer hospital visits. But if you don’t have a chronic health condition, you will not be eligible for these “lifestyle” benefits.
Furthermore, different chronic conditions may result in different benefit eligibility; much is left to the plan’s discretion. There’s no one-size-fits-all package.
But while some benefits are targeted specifically at beneficiaries with chronic conditions, the federal government also relaxed the rules, starting in 2019, for supplemental benefits that can be provided to all enrollees in a Medicare Advantage plan. Supplemental benefits provided to all enrollees have to be “primarily health-related.” Prior to 2019, that was a fairly limited category of benefits that could be offered. But the definition of “primarily health-related” was expanded in 2019, giving Medicare Advantage insurers leeway to offer additional supplemental benefits to all beneficiaries.
These still include the basics, such as dental and vision benefits, but they can also include more generous meal and transportation benefits, as well as things like adult day care benefits and caregiver support.
See whether you’re eligible for Medicare Advantage supplemental benefits. Talk now with a licensed Medicare advisor at 1-844-309-3504.
If you are interested in pursuing these new benefits, it pays to assess your choices during the Medicare open enrollment period, which runs from October 15 to December 7. During this window, you can choose to switch to a Medicare Advantage plan if it would better meet your needs. If you already have Medicare Advantage coverage, this window is a good opportunity to compare the other available plans and see if one of them would be a better fit.
As a general rule, supplemental benefits shouldn’t be the primary factor in your decision; you’ll want to consider the plan’s main benefits, provider network, Part D drug benefits, etc. But if you’re deciding between a handful of similar plans that will all meet your needs, supplemental benefits and star ratings might help you pick the one you like best.
Maurie Backman has been writing professionally for well over a decade, and her coverage area runs the gamut from healthcare to personal finance to career advice. Much of her writing these days revolves around retirement and its various components and challenges, including healthcare, Medicare, Social Security, and money management.
If you're enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan and you're not happy with it, you can switch plans during Medicare's annual open enrollment period. Here are four reasons why you might change coverage.
Medicare covers almost all aspects of hospice care with little expense to patients or families, as long as a Medicare-approved hospice program is used.
Medicare Advantage plans provide Medicare-covered benefits through private insurance companies, which receive payments from Medicare to cover beneficiary medical costs.
Thousands of Medicare beneficiaries change their coverage each year during several enrollment windows. Find out how and when you can switch plans.
If you're enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan and you're not happy with it, you can switch plans during Medicare's annual open enrollment period. Here are four reasons why you might change coverage.
Medicare covers almost all aspects of hospice care with little expense to patients or families, as long as a Medicare-approved hospice program is used.
Medicare Advantage plans provide Medicare-covered benefits through private insurance companies, which receive payments from Medicare to cover beneficiary medical costs.
Thousands of Medicare beneficiaries change their coverage each year during several enrollment windows. Find out how and when you can switch plans.
