Medicare Advantage Plans - Buyers Beware!

On Monday, the New York Times ran a great storyviolations are of substantially lower severity than in
about Medicare Plans. Medicare Advantage Plans are aprevious marketing periods." Medicare programs can
type of health plan sold by private insurancehelp some consumers to finance their care, but these
companies. The plans are associated with Medicare. Itplans are not for everyone. There are factors to
seems that seniors across the country have beenconsider before signing up for any type of Medicare
duped into signing away their Medicare benefits byAdvantage Plan. Here, a few of the most essential
enrolling in a Medicare Plan. In some cases, the seniorsissues: 1. Make sure your doctor(s) and local hospital
didn't understand how the Medicare Plans worked,are within the insurance company's network of
and in others, they didn't even know that theproviders. 2. Medigap policies become null and void
insurance agents had signed them up for the plan.once you are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage Plan.
The insurance companies that sell these plans haveIf you already have a Medigap policy, cancel it once
been accused of several bad practices, including: *coverage begins with a Medicare Advantage Plan to
Deceptive marketing strategies that don't make aavoid paying twice. 3. Medicare Advantage plans vary
clear distinction between Medicare and Medicaregreatly. You are giving up all rights to your existing
Advantage * Targeting of uninformed seniors inMedicare policy-so pick a plan that will meet your
low-income areas by pushy agents with hard-sellfuture care needs as well as your current ones. 4.
techniques * Outsourcing customer service toRead the fine print. This is an important decision-don't
overseas call centers, whose employees haverush it! We live in a society where the buyer must
substandard knowledge of the complex Medicarebeware. Call your parents tonight! Make sure they
system Insurance agencies with Medicare Plansknow about the issues surrounding Medicare
undergo a greater amount of scrutiny than theyAdvantage Plans. That phone call could be the one
have in the past-and it seems to be helping at least athing that saves them from making-or worse yet,
little. Kerry N. Weems, the acting administrator of thebeing pushed into-a decision that isn't right for them.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, says,You don't even want to think about the alternative!
"There are substantially fewer violations, and those