What to Look For in a Medicare Advantage Plan.
The Insurance Coach, LLC is a Greensboro North Carolina independent insurance agency. One of our specialties is Medicare Advantage Plans and other retiree health care plans.
Medicare Advantage Plans are healthcare plans offered by private companies that contract with Medicare to provide all Part A and Part B benefits. Many plans also provide prescription drug coverage too (Part D). Many Medicare Advantage Plans add other benefits and services like Dental.
How The Insurance Coach Looks For In A Medicare Advantage Plan
The first thing I look for with a plan is if your Doctors are all in Network and your drugs are all covered by the plan’s Formulary.
The next thing I look at is the maximum out of pocket for the plan and I also look at the size of the network the bigger the better. Does it include all the major hospitals in the Triad area, like Cone, Baptist, UNC, and Duke.
The next thing I look for is to see what type of plan it is, is it an HMO, HMO-POS, or PPO. HMO requires to use network doctors only. These plans are fine if it has a large network and all your doctors are in the network. HMO-POS allows the lower copays of an HMO but allows you to use outside providers at a higher cost to you.
The PPO allows you to use doctors in or out of network, but you will pay more if you use out of network doctors. These plans offer the most flexibility. I generally prefer a PPO that lets you use in or out of network providers but if the plan is an HMO with a large network and all your providers are in the network then an HMO is fine.
If you are looking into Medicare Advantage plans and how they can benefit you, click here to schedule a consultation.