MyMedicare.gov - Another great resource

Medicare is working hard to deliver technology solutions that will provide valuable information to Medicare Beneficiaries.

Just a couple of weeks ago, a new Mobile Application was delivered that provides information about "What's Covered" on Original Medicare.

This article is about a streamlined version of MyMedicare.gov that was released a few months ago.  This article is not an entire user guide, rather it just highlights some of the key functions that are available so you can take advantage of the tool.

If you are enrolled in Medicare, myMedicare.gov is a great resource that you can use for a lot of functions.  If you have not created an account yet, you will need to register first.

After you register / login, you will see a home page dashboard that looks something like this.

There are a bunch of neat functions and information in this Portal. I will highlight four areas that are important:

1. General Account Information
2. View, Print, Order Medicare Card
   
3. Claims Information
   
4. ​Blue Button
   

General Account Info

1. General Account information provides info about:

• Medicare Part A Effective Date 
• Medicare Part B Effective Dates
• Which Part D Drug Plan (if you are currently enrolled)
• Which Medicare Advantage Plan (if you are enrolled)

There is also information about notifications/messages that may be available in your account.

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Request new ID Card

2.  View, Print or Order a new ID Card
The Portal allows you to view your current Medicare ID card.  This is a great tool if you lost your ID card and you need your information to take to a doctor's appointment.  You can print the ID directly from the Portal.  You can also order a new ID Card to be mailed to your home.
Another nice feature allows you to print a temporary ID card for your Part D Plan too!

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3. Claims Data
This is one of my favorite features of the Portal.  You can query up to 36 months of prior Claims history which provides incredible amounts of detail about the Medicare services that you used over the last 36 months.  You can see every claim that has been filed with Medicare, how much was Charged, how much Medicare approved, etc for each service.  You can also see the diagnosis codes for every service that was billed to Medicare on your account.

Claims Results Details

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4.  Blue Button
The Portal provides a "Blue Button" function that allows you to download all the information to a PDF or TXT file.  If you are looking for a clean version of your Claims report that you can review, the PDF version is pretty nice.  If you are looking to upload your Claims data into a third-party tool / application, you can use the .txt version.

Blue Button Report - customization options

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In general, myMedicare.gov is a great tool for Medicare beneficiaries to access all the information related to their Medicare usage.

If you haven't registered yet, I recommend you take a look when you get 5-10 minutes.
https://www.mymedicare.gov/