Medicare for 2019

#Middlebury #Seniors #Medicare

We have until Dec. 7 to make final decisions about our Medicare plans. If you make changes, they will start Jan. 1, 2019. Many of us will decide to stay with what we have.

By now you should have received your Medicare & You book for 2019. Have you thumbed through it yet? There are a few changes. Some of those changes include charts and lists to help us make decisions.

For those who’ve had a stroke or who have end-stage renal disease, we can talk to our medical staff via telehealth. The doughnut hole – that period in our Medicare Part D prescription plan when we have to cover drug costs – was due to expire in 2020, but now there’s an important change. For 2019 the hole will end for brand-name prescriptions drugs. The rest, generic drugs, will follow in 2020. We won’t have to pay for all of our therapy now.

If you have a Medicare Supplement policy, do you know what changes, if any, are being made to it? Remember that supplement plans generally don’t include Part D drug plans. With a supplement plan, you’ll have access to any doctor who takes Medicare. With an Advantage plan, you might face restrictions and networks.

However, a new law says that we can try out an Advantage plan for three months. If we don’t like it, we can change to another or go back to the original Medicare.

Medicare Advantage plans will, in many cases, go down slightly in cost while benefits actually increase. Those added benefits can now pay for help with activities for daily living, such as personal care and eating. If we need meals brought to us, or a ride to the doctor, or a ramp built outside, plans are now allowed to cover those things.

© 2018 King Features Synd. Inc.