There are two main types of supplemental coverage for Medicare: Medicare Supplements aka Medigap, or Medicare Advantage, the Part C of Medicare. One way you can begin to narrow down your Medicare Insurance options is just to find out which plans your doctors will accept.
You start off by contacting each of your doctor’s offices and ask them a few questions:
The first question to ask is if they participate in original Medicare. If they answer yes, this means you can enroll in any Medigap plan and be able to continue to see your doctor. You will find the majority of doctors do participate in Medicare.
If they take original Medicare, ask them if they accept Assignment. If they accept Assignment you do not have to worry about paying the extra, (up to 15% more), they can charge if they will not accept Assignment.
Secondly, ask them if they accept any Medicare Advantage plans? If so, ask them which plans they are in the network with? You will want to write these down, and be sure and ask about each one if it’s either an HMO or PPO network.
If your doctor answers no to the second question, then a Medicare Advantage will not be a good option for you unless you’re willing to change that doctor.
For some seniors, their Primary Care Physician (PCP) is the most important to them. For others, Specialists may be the most important. This is because they may not need to see their PCP very often during the year. If you are willing to change all your doctors then these questions do not even matter.
This is just the start of the process to choose which type of plan will be the plan for you. Feel free to call Ashford Insurance and let us help you through this process.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio
