We are very excited to share that we are adding Plan D to our portfolio of Medicare Supplement products in Ohio starting February 1, 2017. To view the rates, click here. Revised sales materials will be available to order starting February 1. Important: This is NOT a “Part D Prescription Drug Plan.” #goldencareagent #Aetna
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“Listed below are basic costs for people with Medicare. If you want to see and compare costs for specific health care plans, visit the Medicare Plan Finder. For specific cost information (like whether you’ve met your deductible, how much you’ll pay for an item or service you got, or the status of a claim), visit MyMedicare.gov.” LTC Comment: (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform) We’ll update these key Medicare numbers in The Zone this morning. There you can find the comparable numbers for each year going back to 1993. You’ll need your user name and password
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“The CMS currently calculates MA payments based on fee-for-service Part A spending, which covers hospital care, and Part B, which covers more routine care such as doctors’ visits. Health plans that offer Medicare Advantage cover both parts. Medicare fee-for-service does not mandate participation in both parts. That means the current formula for determining rates underestimates spending, resulting in plans potentially being underpaid. To address this issue, MedPAC is recommending that the HHS secretary alter the current formula to be based only on fee-for-service spending data for beneficiaries enrolled in both Part A and Part B. Plans, not surprisingly, lauded MedPAC’s
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Upcoming Rate Adjustments Please review information on upcoming rate adjustments in MS, NC, and SD. • 2010 Modernized Rate Adjustment – SD, NC • In-Force Only Rate Adjustment – MS, NC • 1990 Standardized Rate Adjustment – MS Wisconsin 2017 Buyers Guide Available The 2017 Wisconsin Guide to Health Insurance for People with Medicare M28286_2017 is now available to order. #goldencareagent
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In this Edition From GoldenCare: Help us improve your training experience by taking our quick survey on training topics you’d like to hear! It’s Promo Time! Double-Point January on GoldenCare Rewards for MutualCare Solutions and CareShield. That’s 800 points per approved applicant! See Newsletter for promo details. Our Guest Article is “A Little Optimism on the Future of Retirement,” by Ramesh Ponnuru, Bloomberg. Enjoy! Mutual of Omaha has been reaffirmed by A.M. Best with an A+ rating. Also, please see the Newsletter for exciting new changes to Customer Access to allow additional payment processing. Also in this newsletter, refresh your
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Transamerica Premier Life Insurance Company “TPLIC” will be implementing new Medicare Supplement insurance premium rate changes for new sales and inforce policies. The policies that are impacted were originally underwritten by Transamerica Premier Life Insurance Company. The following are the states that will be impacted. State Plan Adjusted Percentage Upload Date New Rate Effective Date Alabama A, F G N 5% unchanged 2% decrease 17% decrease 1/11/2017 3/1/2017 California A, F G N 5% increase 2% increase 5% increase 1/11/2017 3/1/2017 District of Columnbia A, F G N 5% increase 2% increase 18% decrease 1/11/2017 3/1/2017 Michigan A, C, F
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“The following 2017 planner was prepared to give you an idea of what’s coming up in Congress, federal agencies, public company reporting, health insurance regulation, data releases, and trade and professional groups that might affect agents, advisors and their clients.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): This is a useful planner to check so you don’t accidentally book yourself away on vacation during an important professional conference … as I did once. 2017 health, disability and LTCI planner #goldencareagent
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“Medicare Advantage (MA) is improving quality for seniors. And while quality goes up, costs continue to go down for taxpayers. This was further demonstrated last week, when the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) announced average payments to MA plans are now equivalent to fee-for-service (also called ‘traditional’) Medicare costs.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): This column is from an AHIP-sponsored blog. MedPAC: Medicare Advantage Payments Now Equal to Medicare Fee-for-Service #goldencareagent
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Rate adjustments have been approved for individual Medicare Supplement plans in New Jersey (AHLIC) effective February 1, 2017. New Business Guidelines for Medicare Supplement Rate Adjustments (Open Block) on Medicare Supplement plans underwritten by: Aetna Health and Life Insurance Company (AHLIC) American Continental Insurance Company (ACI) Continental Life Insurance Company of Brentwood, Tennessee (CLI) The date the applicant signs an application (application signature date) AND the policy effective date determine which rates to apply to your new business. Instructions on how to apply a rate change to NEW applications are provided in the table within the announcement. All currently marketed
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“This spotlight analyzes publicly available data to review the Medicare Advantage plans offered in 2017, with information on including plan availability, premiums, out-of-pocket limits and other plan features: The average Medicare beneficiary will be able to choose from 19 plans in 2017, a number which has been relatively stable since 2012. The average beneficiary will be able to choose from plans offered by six firms; one-quarter of beneficiaries nationwide will have a choice of plans offered by three or fewer firms in 2017. If enrollees in Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans (MA-PDs) stay in the same plan between 2016 and
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