Happy New Year! As I do every new year, I wanted to post the key, new Medicare numbers that will be in effect for 2024. These are the key changes to Medicare’s premiums and coverages.
• Part A deductible – Will be $1632 up from $1600 (per 60 day Benefit Stay)
• Part B Deductible – Will be $240 up from $226 (Annual deductible)
• Part B Premium – Will be $174.70 up from $164.90 (for most people)
• Part D Maximum Deductible – Will be $545 up from $505 (Some plans don’t have a deductible and most have a “hybrid” deductible.)
• Part D Premium National Average – Will be $34.70 up from $31.50 (Is used to determine Part D Penalty)
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need assistance with selecting a Medicare Plan. I don’t charge any fees nor increase your cost.
Based in the Richmond, Va. area, David Higgs of Choices In Medicare, LLC specializes in helping seniors transition to Medicare. He can be reached at email: dwhiggs@gmail.com or go to website: www.ChoicesInMedicare.com
Tag Archives: cms changes
Medicare to Negotiate Part D Drug Prices
You may have seen the recent news that Medicare has announced the first 10 drugs they will begin negotiating drug prices directly with the drug manufacturers. While this sounds like good news, it has some limitations. Firstly, they won’t announce the prices until September 2024 and won’t be in effect until January 2026! That is a long time to wait and for only 10 drugs. But, I guess we have to start somewhere. Also, a recent improvement has already been introduced that caps many diabetic related drugs to $35. This has already had a big impact on drug costs for the millions of diabetics in the US. The other factor is that most people don’t know that drug prices are already being negotiated by the Part D drug plans (and PBM’s). These are some very large national companies with significant negotiation leverage. The way the government makes it sound is that there are no negotiations or competitive environments, allowing the drug manufacturers to charge whatever price they want. That is not the case. Because of the complications involved with drug pricing in today’s world, there are some who think we will be unpleasantly surprised by the outcome, or at least be underwhelmed. The biggest feature that will help people who have high Part D drug costs will be the $2000 out-of-pocket maximum that will be a part of Part D drug plans beginning in 2025. That is good news!
If you want to read more about the new Medicare drug negotiations, I have linked an article below:
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need assistance with selecting a Medicare Plan. I don’t charge any fees nor increase your cost.
Based in the Richmond, Va area, David Higgs of Choices In Medicare is an independent insurance broker who specializes in helping seniors transition to Medicare. He can be reached at email: dwhiggs@gmail.com or go to website: www.ChoicesInMedicare.com
We do not offer every plan available in your area. Currently we represent Anthem, Aetna, Humana, UnitedHealthcare, Wellcare and SilverScript organizations which offer 58 Plans in your area (Richmond Metro). Please contact Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE , or your local State Health Insurance Program (SHIP) to get information on all of your options.
Finally, CMS Fixes Late IEP Part B Request Effective Date Determinant
One thing I have complained about and blogged for a long time was CMS’ arcane formula for determining the Part B effective date for people who requested it during their IEP (Initial Enrollment Period) when first eligible for Medicare. The old system had multi month delays in Part B effective date if requested during the last 3 months of their initial 7-month IEP window (after their birthday month). It had a weird schedule of delayed effective dates and even eliminated one month from contention. Finally, they have fixed it with a common-sense approach. For someone making their request in the first 3 months of their IEP, it is still the first of their birthday month. But now, if they make their request in the last 3 months of their IEP (after their birthday month), the effective date will be the first of the following month. Very simple, easy to understand and common sense.
That is one less thing I now have to complain about and explain to clients. Am looking for a new demon, perhaps the Irmaa income surcharges. Nobody likes that. Oh well.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need assistance with selecting a Medicare Plan. I don’t charge any fees nor increase your cost.
Based in the Richmond, Va area, David Higgs of Choices In Medicare specializes in helping seniors transition to Medicare. He can be reached at email: dwhiggs@gmail.com or go to website: www.ChoicesInMedicare.com
New 2023 Medicare Costs at a Glance
Happy New Year! As I do every new year, I wanted to post the key, new Medicare numbers that will be in effect for 2023. These are the key changes to Medicare’s premiums and coverages.
- Part A deductible – Will be $1600 up from $1556 (per 60 day Benefit Stay)
- Part B Deductible – Will be $226, down from $233 (Annual deductible)
- Part B Premium – Will be $164.90, down from $170.10
- Part D Maximum Deductible – Will be $505, up from $480 (Some plans don’t have a deductible and most have a “hybrid” deductible.)
- Part D Premium National Average – Will be $31.50, down from $33.37 (Is used to determine Part D Penalty)
As previously blogged, the Part B premium and deductible decreased this year
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need assistance with selecting a Medicare Plan. I don’t charge any fees nor increase your cost.
Based in the Richmond, Va area, David Higgs of Choices In Medicare specializes in helping seniors transition to Medicare. He can be reached at email: dwhiggs@gmail.com or go to website: www.ChoicesInMedicare.com
MEDICARE REDUCES COST OF PART B PREMIUM AND DEDUCTIBLE FOR 2023
As predicted a few months back, Medicare has just announced there will be a rare reduction in the Part B premium cost and the Part B deductible effective Jan 1st, 2023. The Part B premium will reduce from current $170.10 to $164.90 and the deductible from current $233/year to $226/year! While both of these factors tend to increase over time, some years they remain flat and are now seeing a reduction. As previously noted, one of the big reasons for the reduction is lower than expected Alzheimer drug costs to Medicare.
In addition, there is expected to be a larger than normal Social Security Cola increase. The combination of these factors will lead to larger than normal net increases in monthly income for most seniors.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need assistance with selecting a Medicare Plan. I don’t charge any fees nor increase your cost.
Based in the Richmond, VA area, David Higgs of Choices In Medicare, LLC specializes in helping seniors transition to Medicare. He can be reached at email: David@ChoicesInMedicare.com or go to website: www.ChoicesInMedicare.com
We do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information we provide is limited to those plans we do offer in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE to get information on all of your options.
Make Sure You Pay the Lower Drug Cost
One thing most people are not aware of is that they should always pay the lower cost of either the copay or actual cost of their prescriptions. As an example, if the actual cost of a drug is $5 and their drug plan’s copay is $10, they should only pay the lower $5 cost. People can pay the higher cost if they are not aware of the actual cost and if the pharmacy attendant is not paying attention. It can also occur due to other nefarious reasons.
CMS (who manages Medicare) just announced a renewed effort to insure Medicare beneficiaries get the better deal. They have told Part D drug plan sponsors they will suffer compliance actions if they do not comply.
If you want to read more about this issue, you can go to an article linked here: http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/part-d-plan-sponsors-face-compliance-action-drug-gag-orders-cms-warns
Let me know if I can help with Medicare questions.
Based in the Richmond, Va area, David Higgs of Choices In Medicare specializes in helping seniors transition to Medicare. He can be reached at email: David@ChoicesInMedicare.com or go to website: www.ChoicesInMedicare.com
New Medicare Cards Beginning April 2018
As I noted last year, Medicare has been working on issuing new Medicare Cards which will begin arriving in mailboxes next month. The primary purpose for this project is security. Social Security numbers will be replaced with a Medicare Beneficiary Identifier. Finally! They have been working on this project for years and made all insurance companies make this change years ago.
Medicare beneficiaries do not have to do anything. As long as their address is current in Medicare’s system, their card will arrive without request some time over the next year. Once received, the old card should be destroyed and begin using the new card immediately.
One caution is to be aware of scammers who will try to take advantage of this event. To learn more about this issue, I have included a link to an article that describes more about the new cards and process.
https://www.aafp.org/news/practice-professional-issues/20180301medicarecards.html
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need assistance with selecting a Medicare Plan. I don’t charge any fees nor increase your cost.
Based in the Richmond, Va area, David Higgs of Choices In Medicare specializes in helping seniors transition to Medicare. He can be reached at email: David@ChoicesInMedicare.com or go to website: www.ChoicesInMedicare.com
New 2018 Medicare Costs at a Glance
With the New Year just starting, I wanted to post the key, new Medicare numbers that will be in effect for 2018. These are the key changes to Medicare’s premiums and coverages. As I noted in July, CMS did not increase the Part B premium or Part B deductible for 2018 as expected. Below are the key, new numbers:
- Part A deductible – Will be $1340 up from $1316 (per 60 day Benefit Stay)
- Part B Deductible – Will remain at $183. Yippee! (Annual deductible)
- Part B Premium – Will also remain at $134.00 for new beneficiaries. (Will not apply to many existing beneficiaries who had already taken out of Social Security) And does not apply to high income earners.
- Part D Maximum Deductible – Will be $405 up from $400 (Some plans don’t have a deductible)
- Part D Premium National Average – Will be $35.02 DOWN from $35.63. (Is used to determine Part D Penalty)
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need assistance with selecting a Medicare Plan. I don’t charge any fees nor increase your cost.
Based in the Richmond, Va area, David Higgs of Choices In Medicare specializes in helping seniors transition to Medicare. He can be reached at email: David@ChoicesInMedicare.com or go to website: www.ChoicesInMedicare.com
Medicare Part D Drug Plan Premiums Lower for 2018!
Here is something you don’t see very often. CMS who oversees Medicare has projected that the average Medicare Part D Drug Plan premium is expected to decrease in 2018! Based upon the bids by insurers for their 2018 Drug Plans, the national average premium is about $1.20 less than 2017 national average of $34.70.
This is in spite of the fact that Medicare Drug costs are rising faster than other Medicare costs primarily due to high-cost specialty drugs. So, while this is not a lot, it is a change in the trajectory which is good.
You can read more about it at the article linked here: https://www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Press-releases/2017-Press-releases-items/2017-08-02-3.html
Based in the Richmond, Va area, David Higgs of Choices In Medicare specializes in helping seniors transition to Medicare. He can be reached at email: David@ChoicesInMedicare.com or go to website: www.ChoicesInMedicare.com
2018 Medicare Part B Premium and Social Security Cola Projections
The trustees who oversee Social Security and Medicare have announced their projections for the 2018 Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment (Cola) and Medicare Part B Premium. At this point they are projecting a 2.2% increase in the Social Security Cola. They are also projecting no increase to the current $134/month Part B Premium. (High income earners pay more and some people who already had Part B pay less.)
This is good news for seniors especially compared to the last few years with little to no Social Security Cola increases. I will update this topic when the final amounts are announced. this fall.
Based in the Richmond, Va area, David Higgs of Choices In Medicare specializes in helping seniors transition to Medicare. He can be reached at email: David@ChoicesInMedicare.com or go to website: www.ChoicesInMedicare.com