Baltimore County, MD Time of Your LIfe, 1 Nov 2017

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From YouTube: Medicare's ABCs

Description

Sherry Kolbe, Program Manager of Senior Health Insurance Assistance Program presents updates for Medicare.

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( ♪♪♪ ).

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Welcome to the time of your life with the baltimore county department of aging., I'm your host, ethel rasmussen..

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Today's show keeps you in the know, by conveying important and interesting information about the contemporary topics that impact you, our viewing audience.

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on today's show,, we're pleased to present a segment featuring. The baltimore county public library.

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join paula, miller,, director of the baltimore county, public library,.

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To learn about the many services the library offers its patrons.

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We guarantee you'll be pleasantly surprised., also on the show, is debbie orlove, community business liaison.

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At the baltimore county department of aging,, who concludes today's show with information about senior center travel, senior box office, and what's happening at your local senior center..

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Let's start today's show with an important topic: medicare.

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Navigating medicare can be quite a challenge.

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to learn more about this topic,. Let's start the show with sherry kolbe,.

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Program manager of the state, health, insurance assistance, program,.

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Known as ship, at the baltimore county department of aging.

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Welcome to the show, sherry., thank you for having me.

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before we talk about medicare,. Let's talk about what is the state health insurance assistance program known as ship?.

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Okay,, actually every county in the nation has a ship.

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Our mission is to educate our own county's constituents.

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About all facets of medicare., therefore, our phones are open and we talk to people every day of the week.

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About any question that they would have about medicare,, we try to assist them.

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Okay,, let's turn to the heart of that matter: medicare..

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What is medicare and who is eligible for it?

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medicare, was devised in 1965 to provide insurance.

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For people who are 65 and over.

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gradually it expanded to include those under 65 who are on disability,.

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Individuals as well, who have end-stage renal, disease.

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How, and when should people enroll in medicare?

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well, if you're already getting a social security benefit --.

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Either through disability or age --, then you automatically come on board.

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To medicare the 25th month of disability or at age 65.

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However,, if you're 65 and you are not getting a benefit,.

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Then you do need to take action by calling social security --.

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Either by phone,, visiting them, or online to enroll.

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Rasmussen: now I also understand here's multiple parts to medicare.

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Can you talk about the different parts? kolbe: okay,, there's medicare a and that would cover you.

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If you were literally admitted to the hospital, after three midnights transferred to a skilled nursing facility and maybe therapy after that.

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part b, is considered medical --, it pays for the doctors,, whether in the hospital or out of the hospital; er, preventive services,, your flu shot,.

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Durable medical equipment,, blood,, x-rays, and so forth.

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Then part c,, they are the advantage plans,.

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Which are medicare hmos and ppos, and I look at them as substitutes for your original medicare benefit.

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Then there is part d, which is drug coverage.,.

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Okay. we're going to take a short break and when we return.

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We're going to learn more about the abcs of medicare.

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Let's continue our conversation about the abcs of medicare.

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With sherry, kolbe, program manager of the state, health insurance.

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Assistance program at the department of aging.

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Sherry,, let's turn our attention to medicare part d,, which is medicare's prescription drug benefit..

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Can you explain the benefit as well as some of the important facts to remember.

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In selecting a plan each year and how to enroll in them?.

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Well, medicare part d was designed for those who do not have.

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A retiree health benefit and what it does is it does.

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Through 21, actual private companies provide the drug benefit.

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It consists of, in the beginning of the year,, a deductible.

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Through the majority of the plans,, although seven still do not have a deductible., an initial coverage area, where, basically, you pay no more than 25% of retail for the drugs., the donut hole,, where now one pays 35% of retail for brand drugs.

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And then, if you literally have gone through about $7,400 in drug costs,,.

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You get the catastrophic coverage.

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The part d plans are permitted every year to change their formulary's tier structure, deductibles,.

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Pharmacy contracts and so forth., so every single year we highly recommend anybody on part d.

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To have research done -- we offer this at the various senior centers.

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And you can call the ship office to make an appointment for one-on-one counseling.

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So basically you're saying if it was good for one year,, you still need to check it for the next year?. It's a prudent thing to do it. Every year,.

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Certainly, if you ve not done it for several years,, it is highly likely we might be able to save you. Some money.

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Always good to hear. absolutely., I understand that beneficiaries may need supplemental insurance,.

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Such as medigap plans., can you give some information about this plan to our viewers?

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okay. medigap plans work with original medicare,.

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Meaning you're using the red,, white, and blue card and you do not have an advantage. Plan, an hmo or a ppo.

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Okay, with the medigaps they are designed to fill in.

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What I call the "holes" of medicare --, some of the copays, deductibles, and so forth.

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The medigaps are another alphabet soup of letter, a to n;.

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It depends upon how much coverage you want to have,.

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The premium you would like to pay, and so forth, as to which one you'll select.

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The main thing to remember with the medigaps is the time to buy them.

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Is the first six months you're on medicare part b.

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outside of that window,, the insurance companies will use medical underwriting to see if they would like to cover you.

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And how much the premium will be., but there is definitely no annual open enrollment for medigaps.

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Now some of our beneficiaries may be on a low income.

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Can you talk about some of the assistance programs that are available to them?.

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Okay. well,, as far as getting assistance with the drugs.

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And their prescription plan,, essentially if an individual's income is under $36,000.

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And a couple is under $48,700 a year,.

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There is something out there to help you.

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now, there's the maryland senior prescription drug assistance program.

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To help those with the higher income level,, but those who, let's say potentially their income's under $18,000 a year, --.

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Now these figures, of course, are individualized for individuals and couples --, but then you might be eligible.

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For partial extra help or full extra help, where you get help with the premiums,, the deductibles, and the actual copays.

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There's also programs, strangely enough called qmb and slmb.

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Which? Literally help with the medicare copays and deductibles,.

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Or premiums. when in doubt, call the office and we will assess and help to enroll you.

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Okay, in closing, is, there is anything else.

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That you would like to share about medicare? okay, the main thing that baltimore county's experiencing right now.

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Is that medstar has elected not to continue.

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With their medicare advantage plans., therefore, if you are on a medstar plan now and you've received a letter.

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That it's ending december 31st,, first of all,.

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Don't get too anxious,, you have a lot of options.

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You can call our map office, 410-887-2594,,.

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In order to get a packet and then I will be going out into the community.

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Doing presentations,, particularly parkville, essex,, dundalk, area,.

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And so forth. so,, please call the offices and we will try to help you.

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That's wonderful.

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Thank you for sharing this information with our viewers.

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We're going to take a short break. when we return, learn about baltimore county public libraries., (, ♪♪♪, ),.