Posted on 08/05/2013 4:18:10 PM PDT by ken in texas
Apologies in advance for the vanity.
Any advice for someone signing up for Medicare?
I remember as I approached retirement age I got a letter from my insurance company stating that if I did not get Medicare that the insurance company would drop me like a hot potato.
Get the information booklet (free) from Medicare.com, and read it. It’s one of the few things from the government worth reading. Medicare isn’t complicated, but it is not intuitive, and you need to be able to speak the buzz words.
Are talking about medicare Part D prescription plan?
As ZeroCare ramps up, more and more hospitals are facing the fact that a growing majority of doctors are not accepting Medicare patients. This affects thre ability of the hospital to be able to treat those on Medicare unless it is by either an intern or resident.
I think that as doctors shed Medicare patients, more hospitals will have to join in, except for teaching hospitals. Teaching hospitals are typically either state supported or supported locally through a property or other tax.
Bottom line, it’s going to get really ugly with people yours or your parents’ age unable to get treated by a doctor under Medicare. But, the government will still collect the money from our paychecks and pretend that the status is still quo.
I don’t really follow what you’re saying about hospitals. If the hospital’s policy is to accept Medicare, then fine, all the hospitalists and other medical employees do by default. Individual physicians with hospital privileges may or may not, but if they don’t, they will only admit non-Medicare patients anyway and so it’s not an issue while they’re making rounds or doing procedures in the hospital. I think it is quite rare for any hospital to not accept Medicare, unless it is some sort of a specialized, private hospital (such as drug treatment, maybe).
Not too many doctors actually work for a hospital, these days, outside of interns and residents. Most private practice doctors have “privileges” at various hospitals that they have signed up to perform medical procedures or see their patients.
The hospital can have a policy that they will see anyone, including Godzilla but, if there is no doctor (again, excluding an intern or resident) who will treat the patient, the hospital’s policy is pretty useless. At this point, the hospital “policy” could end up being to make certain that a patient is stabilized and transfer them to a teaching hospital (typically one that is state or locally suported through a tax) that cannot refuse the patient.
Ultimately, it is not the hospital’s policy, but the doctors with staff privileges that determine who will or won’t be treated. And, as more doctors decline Medicare patients, more hospitals will have no choice but to transfer the patient to a teaching hospital. As it is, most teaching hospitals are overcrowded with indigent people who can’t afford to pay to be seen, much less treated, for a given illness or medical condition. So, a transfer patient who isn’t bleeding copious amounts of blood or whose heart is still pumping will end up on a gurney waiting their turn to be seen by an intern or resident.
Again, my experience is the opposite, based on the trends of the last few years locally and in many other discussions.
Physicians are closing their practices due to onerous insurance and reporting requirements and (those who don't retire) are joining hospital-owned clinics. In my little town we have at least 10 who have done this.
In addition, no hospital in this greater region has ever turned down a Medicare patient.
If you’re 65 and on Social Security already, the government signs you up for Medicare automatically. No choice. Part A is inpatient care and it is free to everyone. Part B is outpatient visits and cost about $110 a month, deducted from your SS check every month. Part C is other care and Part D is prescriptions. You can buy supplemental policies that pay what Medicare doesn’t pay for.
In my own case, I refused Part B outpatient care because I am a veteran and get all of my care at the VA hospital. Medicare sent me a new card reflecting Part A only. I reckoned I needed the $110 a month more, than I needed more outpatient care. If you are a veteran eligible for VA care and travel a lot or are away from a VA facility and need emergency or urgent care or even routine outpatient care, you might want to keep Part B just in case you need it. But since I don’t travel, I am doing without it. There is a penalty to sign up for Part B if you don’t take it the initial time you are eligible for it and want it later.
I got tons of offers for supplemental insurance in the mail from various insurance companies that sell them and even had a couple of agents show up at my door to explain it to me. Good luck figuring it all out. It can seem complicated and be confusing until you research it and study it for a while. Remember, nothing the government does is simple.
1) AVOID doctors, nurses, hospitals and anything else connected to the medical profession as much as you possibly can. Hospitals are terrible places. They are full of sick people, and therefore nasty bugs.
2) "Moderation in all things will do you no harm" is not totally sound advice, but its not a bad rule of thumb regarding exercise, diet, work, rest, play etc
3) Never put anything inside any part of your body that wasnt designed to go there.
4) Related to 3) - never take any kind of pill, medicine, salve or ointment unless some doctor specifically tells you it is absolutely neccesary. Once you get into taking these things regularly it usually snowballs until half the concoctions you are taking are simply countering the unforseen side effects of the other half.
5) Pain is a great gift. It sets out boundaries for life. Forget this "go for the burn" business. If it hurts it probably means its damaging in some way. Stop doing whatever it is.
6) Prevention is WAY better than cure. Hence the first post - try not to be ill.
I clicked the site.Is that a govmnt site?No could find a free booklet link?
Today's Dallas Morning News had an article about Physician-owned hospitals and how some are banned from accepting Medicaid and Medicare patients. This is supposedly some fallout from the (Un)Affordable Care Act.
Thanks. I checked my wife’s stack of Medicare related mail from this year and it looks like she’s been signed up for Medicare already (already drawing SS). Now we need to fill in the details.
Sorry, It’s medicare.gov Here’s a link: http://medicare.gov/people-like-me/new-to-medicare/getting-started-with-medicare.html
The first tab is for people reaching medicare age.
There are many others just as good, I’m told, and you won’t feed the liberal machine.
Our supplemental (wifey and I are within a week of the same age) is a "Plan F" which for the two of us is a bit less than 300 bucks a month....we got familiar with that type of plan because of my parents; in their final years there were tons of procedures and hospitalizations and I never, ever wrote even one check - Plan F covers everything.
Our insurance agent, as well as a lifelong friend who's career was an underwriter, strongly suggested Plan F.
Ditter, we live in "snowbird" country and get tons and tons of Canucks here from Labor Day through Memorial Day. Many of 'em get Americanese health insurance and have all their stuff done during that period.
You can't get near Eisenhower Medical Center or the other two area hospitals during that period -- and getting a doctor's appointment gets iffy also.
We're spending around $9,000 less per year, and our current setup covers everything with no deductibles or copays.
We both had cataract surgeries last fall, and I had my gallbladder blow out; as well she overnighted in the hospital after an angioplasty -- zero out of pocket other than monthly Blue Shield Plan F dues.
Yes sir, so I have heard. Do the Canadians have a plan in place for obamacare?
Based on your profile, it appears that you may be in the Left Coast area of Washington or Oregon. Given the liberal slant of the Left Coast, I'm not surprised that Medicare patients are not being turned away.
I'm in Texas anfd, increasingly, the opposite is true. I think that the trend will begin from here since this area has some of the most state-of-the-art hospitals and medical practices.
For now, we'll just have to cal this discussion a draw, but thank you for a good discussion.
FREEgards,
Dusty
Actually, we are in very conservative eastern Washington State. We just had a good friend move to Texas and she thinks it’s more liberal there!!!! Take care.
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