RSS Feed
|
|||||
|
Medicare Answers Medicare Rights Center Here Info On New Medicare Drug Benefit Q: I have more than $1,000 in prescription drug costs a year. Will the new Medicare drug benefit help me? -Marshall Dear Marshall, The new Medicare drug benefit may help you if you do not currently have drug coverage and your drug costs are over $810 a year. However, whether it helps will depend upon three factors: • Whether insurance companies in your area offer coverage at a reasonable premium; • Whether the drug benefit from an insurance company, or if not available from one, from the government, will cover the drugs you need; and • Whether you can get your drugs cheaper through a discount drug plan or buying them from Canada. The new drug benefit will begin in 2006 with the addition of a new part to Medicare: Part D. A Medicare drug discount card will go into effect in Spring 2004. In addition to your Part B premium, you will have to pay a monthly premium for Part D coverage to a private insurance company that offers the prescription drug plan in your area. No one yet knows what the monthly premium will be because no insurance company has ever offered a standalone drug policy before. Some have estimated it will be about $35 a month ($420 a year) in 2006. However, the premiums could be substantially higher. Different companies will likely charge different premiums and cover different drugs. Q: My 78 year-old sister broke her hip last year, and has been in a skilled nursing facility for almost three months now. How much skilled nursing care or skilled therapy services will Medi-care pay for? -Carla Dear Carla, As long as it is medically necessary, Medicare will pay the full cost of the first 20 days and up to $109.50 daily for another 80 days of care in a Medicarecertified skilled nursing fa-cility (SNF) each benefit period. A benefit period begins the day you enter the SNF and ends when you no longer receive SNF care for 60 days in a row. Medicare Answers is a service of the Medicare Rights Center (www. medicarerights.org), a national, notforprofit consumer service organization that works to ensure that older adults and people with disabilities get highquality, affordable health care. To speak with a counselor about your Medicare questions, call (800) 333-4114 -X1.
|
for larger version       |
||||
