Helping someone who needs to choose the right Medicare solution is a great service to provide through your practice. You can help them yourself, OR, you can send them to your state’s SHIP program. (see below)

I live in a 55+ community in Florida (God’s waiting room) and the amount of advertising we see for MA plans is astounding!

Neighbors…[Read more]

I always advise those who can afford the premiums to go with original Medicare and a supplemental plan. Unfortunately, the plans are more expensive than MA plans so many beneficiaries have no choice but to go with an MA plan. Others are just plain seduced by the low or no premiums and all the bells and whistles, not realizing that their decision…[Read more]

Agree with Adria and Patrick! When it’s my time, I will be signing up with regular MC. I know here in Illinois you can indeed switch. Terrible to hear that some states have plans that do not allow you to do so. I can’t imagine!

Great comments, all. Gail, agree about the possibility of MA initially being a decent fit for younger seniors in good health. Unfortunately, actuarial probabilities catch up to all of us. We all will need more care as we continue to age. Today’s healthy seniors eventually will feel the bite of greater OOP costs with MA plans.

Thanks Gail.

If you do not reside in CT or NY and you have an advantage plan and now you would like to apply for direct Medicare with a supplement, you might never be able to purchase the supplement. There is major underwriting in states other than NY & CT.

Hi, you may have this resolved by now, but I had a business attorney help me set up my LLC in CA four years ago.

On the Statement of Information for the CA Sec of State filing he listed the Registered Agent’s address as the Street Address of Principal Office.
The Mailing address is my P.O. Box.
The Street address of CA Office is again the…[Read more]

One thing I have learned-via my client’s hard times, unfortunately, is that everything Rick stated above is correct. One simple way to remember is this: If you are a “young” Medicare recipient, relatively healthy and do not require much regular care, testing, services, treatments, then a Medicare Advantage may be worth it for you. If you have any…[Read more]

Thank you Trisha!

Good memory, Ann Marie!

I think the ICOPA sponsor you’re referring to is Roger Shindell. His company is Carosh Compliance and his email address is: rshindel@carosh.com

Io – I’m on a road trip, so I don’t have access to all my records, but if you need more help identifying the right person, let me know.

Thanks AnneMarie. Hopefully someone will remember who that was!

Io,

I don’t recall his name, but one of the vendors at last year’s Advocacy meeting in Chicago was just what you are looking for. I don’t recall his name, but I am sure someone in this group will.

AnnMarie McIlwain
Patient Advocators

Hi Rick,

Thanks for your letter you sent to your congresswoman.

I am not only lecturing and writing on this topic but am receiving referrals from attorneys and financial planners when their clients had an advantage plan and are/or have been being refused coverage by their commercial insurer after being in a rehab for 2-4 weeks. I used to be…[Read more]

MA commission is $601. I think Supplement commission is about $300. You can see all commissions here: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Health-Plans/ManagedCareMarketing/AgentBroker

Hi Gail, can you elaborate on the differences in the commissions? I always wondered about that!

Thank you Rick for sharing this. I will send to my Congressman and Senators too. I was recently on a networking group call where an insurance agent – invited by the group moderator (an aging life care specialist) – was talking up how great MA plans were… I was the only one to raise some. uh, issues about MA plans and I think I annoyed a couple…[Read more]

The rules for this vary by state. In Maryland, I was able to use my UPS mailbox as both my physical and mailing address. HOWEVER, a few years later when I registered my business on SAM.gov in order to receive payment for a speaking engagement with a federal agency, my application was initially rejected and they required the actual physical address…[Read more]