Posts

Medicare issued a memo that granted additional time for eligible fire victims to enroll or switch their Part D prescription drug plans or Advantage plans.

Typically the annual open enrollment period is Oct.15 through Dec.7 to review the new 2018 plan options and make changes.

A Special Enrollment Period was granted until March 31 for all Medicare beneficiaries and their responsible parties who were affected by the fires and live in the counties of Napa, Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino.

 

Some Medicare beneficiaries will receive direct contact from Medicare to conduct either a phone or in-home, in-person interview. To informed beneficiaries, this may sound like fraud. In fact, recently the CMS Regional Offices received a few inquiries from SHIPs and SMPs on behalf of beneficiaries contacted to participate.

With the new Medicare cards coming out in 2018, it's important to do the following:

Click play button for article and video.

Have you heard you’ll be getting a new Medicare card? Wondering when or why? This isn’t happening until April 2018 but scammers are already jumping on the confusion as an opportunity for fraud. That’s why we’re sharing some facts.

Effective March 8, 2017 hospitals must begin providing the Medicare Outpatient Observation Notice (MOON) to patients in observation status for more than 36 hours.

Having Inpatient status versus observation status determines whether a beneficiary qualifies for Medicare coverage of Skilled Nursing and Rehab services.