Managing Medicare Advantage
Medicare can get a bit pricey at times when you factor in all your deductibles, premiums, co-pays and services specific to your health. Some of you might prefer to sign up for a Medicare Advantage Plan. This plan offers a privatized alternative to Original Medicare and requires that you see certain doctors that operate within the network. Within the Medicare Advantage world, there are methods to keep your spending to a minimum to make sure you aren’t paying any more than you need to while keeping a solid healthcare foundation. We’ve compiled a few tips to keep in mind for lowering your Medicare Advantage Plan costs before you jump the gun.
6 Tips to Lowering Medicare Advantage Plan Costs
- Work with your doctor to make sure you’re getting the medical attention you need but aren’t being charged for anything unnecessary that’ll boost your out-of-pocket costs.
- Make sure you’re staying in the predetermined network of approved doctors. If you go to a care provider that works outside this network, you won’t be covered at all and might have to pay a great deal of money. Also, if your doctor recommends you to a specialist, make absolutely sure that this specialist works within the network as well. The doctor will not tell you this up front, so it’s important that you ask.
- Be wary of titles like “zero premium” when it comes to Medicare Advantage Plan costs. These are also referred to as Medical Savings Account (MSA) plans. Yes, you might not have to pay a monthly premium to have healthcare which sounds really ideal. However, through cost comparison analyses it turns out you could pay more for having this zero-premium plan than having a regular Medicare Advantage plan because you’ll have a higher deductible.
- Read the fine print on these plans. It’s ideal to make sure you have a comprehensive list of all co-pays and deductibles you may have to pay before you say yes and are surprised by a huge bill.
- When you’re charged a premium and if you meet the requirements, you can finagle a way to fix your payments to come out of your Social Security benefits. This is not an automatic process. By doing this, you can guarantee lowered Medicare Advantage Plan costs.
- If you meet the requirements for low-income, disability, or certain chronic health conditions, you can also get help paying for the Medicare Advantage Plan costs through Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs).
What should you do now?
Contact a licensed broker today to get quotes from different insurance companies for plans available in your region. Agents know insurance providers inside and out, and it’s their job to find you the right plan. We can make sure that your Medicare Advantage Plan costs are as affordable as possible, so you aren’t paying a boatload of money to have the benefits you deserve.