Two NJ Hospitals Get 5-Star Rating
CMS has recently released updated Hospital Star Ratings, and two NJ hospitals received 5-star ratings: Morristown Medical Center and Saint Clare's Hospital.  You can search for other hospitals ratings using this link: https://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/search.html If you are interested in the Rating Methodology, you can find more information here: https://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/About/Hospital-overall-ratings.html Seminars at Morristown Medical CenterI am excited that I had the opportunity to present multiple Medicare Workshops at the Morristown Medical Center over the last couple of years, and look forward to additional seminars later this year. Also, we wanted to extend an invite to a FREE seminar on a very important topic - Finding your Social Security Sweet Spot. The speaker for this Seminar is one of my close colleagues who is a Social Security expert, Ash Ahluwalia. If you haven't made your Social Security elections yet, I am certain you will find this Seminar useful and engaging. Details and registration can be found below. Finding Your Social Security Sweet Spot with Ash Ahluwalia Thursday, March 5, 2020 I 12:00 to 1:30pm Executive Conference Room, Third Floor 475 South Street Morristown, NJ 07960 Navigating social security in our ever-changing financial climate can be daunting. Our guest speaker Ash Ahluwalia will break it all down to help you maximize your benefits. As president of National Social Security Partners and the 2016 National Social Security Advisor of the Year, Ahluwalia has helped over one thousand clients make the most of their social security benefits. Ahluwalia is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and a Chartered Accountant (CA) with two designations in social security planning and an MBA from Wharton Business School. Lunch will be provided for all attendees. Register Now
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Are you paying more than the base Part B Premium of $144.60/month?
If so, this is most likely because your income is above the base level amounts for the Part B Premiums ($87,000 / year for single, or $174,000 /year for joint filers). These Income Related Monthly Adjustment Amounts (IRMAAs) are intended to have higher income earners pay a higher portion of their Part B (and Part D) expenses to the government. Here is a short video that helps explain the IRMAAs as well. Since we haven't filed our 2019 Tax Returns yet, the government uses the 2018 Tax Return to determine the 2020 Premiums. For some individuals, they may be eligible to appeal the IRMAAs if they had a qualifying event since 2018. The types of life events that could qualify for an appeal are below:
Here is a link to the form SSA-44 that you can use to Appeal the IRMAAs if you had one of the key qualifying events in a prior year's income that was used to determine your IRMAA. You must start the appeal process within 60 days of receiving the letter from the government about the IRMAA, so if you received the IRMAA letter in December, your appeal window may be running out. You can give us a call if you have any questions and/or if you would like to review your Medicare Supplement Plans to make sure you have the most cost-effective options. Call now - 908-272-1970 (Cranford Office) or 856-866-8900 (Moorestown Office)  2019 was another great year for us at Senior Advisors. We continued to help thousands of Medicare Beneficiaries with the Medicare Planning Needs and we look forward to making 2020 our best year ever! Each year, we like to give back with our Holiday Charity Challenge. This year we have tried to simplify the rules a little to hopefully raise more money for some important charities.  The rules (above) are pretty straightforward - basically it's a simple matching program.
We will match up to $100 per person or $2,500 overall for the Challenge this year. That means if we get $2,500 in donations sent to us, we will submit $2,500 in matching donations for a total of $5,000 raised for these important charities. The Challenge starts now (December 17, 2019) and will run through 12pm EST on December 24, 2019. If you want your donation matched, you need to send me the receipt before we reach the $2,500 match amount.  Nancy Pelosi recently introduced a bill to lower the cost of drugs in the United States.
There are several key section to this bill.
The $2,000 out of pocket limit would be great for Medicare Beneficiaries since there is currently No out of Pocket Maximum. However, we do have some concerns with the proposed solution which would put most of the financial burden on the Part D Plans. The concern is that the Part D Plans will need to increase Part D Premiums to offset the increased financial burden above the $2,000 maximum. Currently about 4% of Medicare Beneficiaries reach the Catastrophic Phase of Part D. This $2,000 cap on Part D would definitely help those individuals, but the concern is that the other 96% of beneficiaries would see significant premium increases to their Part D Plans to offset this new Cap. Conceptually we are fully supportive of reducing drug costs and a cap on Part D would be great, but we believe it should be more of a shared burden with the Government so it doesn't negatively impact the other 96% of Medicare Beneficiaries. This bill will likely go to a Vote in the House in the next 1-3 weeks.  Since the government released the new Medicare Plan Finder on August 27, our frustration and stress level has been very high.
As a member of the Medicare Advisory Group of National Association of Health Underwriters, I was given an opportunity to have twice weekly calls with the CMS Requirements & Technical teams to discuss a list of key open items with the new Medicare Plan Finder. In the last couple of weeks there have been significant improvements to the new Medicare Plan Finder including the addition of the Total Cost Calculator & Sort, and the fix for Mail Order Pricing Costs as well. Click here to listen to the NAHU Happy Hour Podcast where I joined as a Special Guest discussing the ongoing process working with CMS. I will continue to work with CMS to review key open items for resolution. When the new Medicare Plan Finder was launched on August 27, 2019 we had several concerns with missing functionality. Our biggest concern was the fact that the new Medicare Plan Finder tool did not include the Total Cost Calculator and Sort function (Premium + Drug Cost). The function allows a user to quickly understand the Total Projected annual cost for each of the ~30 different Part D Plans available in each state, and thus enroll in the most cost-effective option. On October 10, 2019 the Total Cost Calculator and Sort was added to the new Medicare Plan Finder. This is a significant milestone which allows us to complete the Part D Plan Analysis for our clients. Below is a short video that shows how to use the new Medicare Plan Finder. As you may have read from our prior Blog posts and videos, the government has released a new Medicare Plan Finder tool for 2020 and will be shutting down the existing Medicare Plan Finder tool, which limits our ability to review Part D Drug Plans for 2020.
So, we wanted to send out a couple of examples of ANOCs (Annual Notice of Changes) for two of the more popular Part D Plans in NJ. This ANOC above is for SilverScript Choice and the ANOC explains what is changing in 2020.
Bottom line, SilverScript Choice used to be the lowest premium plan with a $0 deductible. This year they introduced a deductible of $305 for higher tiered medications, but they did lower the cost sharing for basically every Tier of medication for 2020. The 2020 Formulary has not been published yet but we recommend checking to make sure your drugs remain on the formulary for 2020. As you may have read from our prior Blog posts and videos, the government has released a new Medicare Plan Finder tool for 2020 and will be shutting down the existing Medicare Plan Finder tool, which limits our ability to review Part D Drug Plans for 2020.
So, we wanted to send out a couple of examples of ANOCs (Annual Notice of Changes) for two of the more popular Part D Plans in NJ. This ANOC above is for WellCare Value Script and the ANOC explains what is changing in 2020.
Bottom line, if you have low cost Tier 1 generic medications this is probably still the best Plan for you in 2020. The 2020 Formulary has not been published yet so we can't confirm for sure, but hopefully this will become available in the next few weeks.  In the beginning of October, we will have an opportunity to review your Prescription Drug Plan for 2020. There are about 30 different Part D Plans to choose from, Medicare Part D coverage changes every year, and the Prescription plans change every year. This year, we have some new challenges. The Boston Globe released an article yesterday (with our help), which outlined some of these challenges. Also, over the last few weeks, we have sent out a few communications related to new Medicare Plan Finder tool.
There are some significant gaps with the new Medicare Plan Finder. Most notably, (1) the Total Estimated Cost Calculation (Premium + Drug Costs) is not available,and (2) there is no ability to save the drug list information using the anonymous flow. For issue #1, CMS has indicated this functionality will be added to the Medicare Plan Finder Tool by Annual Enrollment. This is absolutely critical for Senior Advisors to be able to determine the most cost effective Part D Plan. We don't want to hold up the Rx information forms any longer waiting for this fix, so we are sending out the Reminder emails so you can start to complete your Rx information. Please note, If CMS does not fix this issue by October, we will not be able to complete the Part D Plan Comparisons for 2020. For issue #2, in order to review and save Drug Lists and comparisons, we are going to need to create/use your myMedicare.gov account credentials (username/password). On our Rx Information Form, you will see additional fields and a question to authorize Senior Advisors to create your myMedicare.gov account or use your existing account if you already created one.  If you would like us to complete the FREE Part D Analysis, you can complete our Rx information form.
Please be sure to select Plan Year "2020" for Annual Enrollment. Here is a link to a short video that explains the new Rx information form. If your drug list hasn't changed, we still need you to complete the online form so we can ensure we have the correct drug information for the Part D Analysis. If you are not taking any medications, please quickly fill out the online form and answer "No" the question "Do you currently take any medications?" The deadline to submit your form to us is November 15, but please do not wait until the last minute if you are able to submit sooner. We have extended our processing time expectations this year due to the issues with the New Medicare Plan Finder tool and the unknown issues we expect to encounter with a brand new tool. Our target turn-around times are below.
Do not submit your RX Forms after November 15 - we will not be able to guarantee that we will be able to review the Part D analysis and make a recommendation in time to make the December 7 deadline. We look forward to enrolling you in the right 2020 Part D Plan for your specific situation. Thank you for your continued business. We appreciate the opportunity to serve you. CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE PART D ANALYSIS  Medicare Part D Changes Annually Each year, Medicare changes the benefits provided under Medicare Part D. These changes could impact your annual costs for your Prescription Drug Coverage. Specifically in 2020 here are some key changes for Medicare Part D.
By increasing the Out-Pocket threshold by $1,250, this could have a significant impact (several hundred dollars) on those individuals that previously reached the Catastrophic Coverage level. All of these Medicare Part D changes in 2020 will have an impact on selecting the right Part D Prescription Plan for 2020.
Prescription Plan Part D Changes Annually In addition to the Medicare Part D changes, the insurance companies change their Prescription drug plans each year. These changes could impact the formulary (which drugs are covered), deductibles, premiums, etc. It is imperative to select the right plan EACH YEAR to avoid the type of mistakes which could result in thousands of dollars of unnecessary costs! There are about 25 Medicare Part D Prescription plan options in each state, and we strongly recommend using the tools on medicare.gov and/or contacting a trusted insurance broker to assist in this process. A FREE Service offered to our clients… We feel very strongly about ensuring our clients have the correct Part D Prescription Drug Card and thus, we provide the option for all of our clients to have their Prescription Drug coverage reviewed annually. Click Here to Find out more about our FREE RX Analysis program. |
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Moorestown Office | 214 W. Main Street, Suite 101, Moorestown, NJ 08057 | Tel:856-866-8900
Servicing Moorestown, Cherry Hill, Mount Laurel, Haddonfield, Voorhees, Medford, Marlton, Philadelphia, surrounding towns, and (licensed in) 20 other states as well. Cranford Office | 15 Alden Street, Suite 8, Cranford, NJ 07016 | Tel: 908-272-1970 Servicing Cranford, Westfield, Summit, Scotch Plains, Mountainside, Berkeley Heights, New Providence, Basking Ridge, surrounding towns, and (licensed in) 20 other states as well. Email: info@senior-advisors.com (Se Habla Español -Tel: 908.441.5678) |
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Copyright © 2018 Senior Advisors, LLC | Licensing & Legal | Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2018 Senior Advisors, LLC | Licensing & Legal | Privacy Policy