Medicare Solutions

What is Medicare anyway, and how does it work? What Does Medicare Cover? Is Medicare insurance? Though these may seem like simple questions, the answer is complex. However, you’ve come to the right place for Medicare information. Let’s define Medicare coverage.

What's Medicare?

Medicare is the federal health insurance program for:

People who are 65 or older
Certain younger people with disabilities
People with End-Stage Renal Disease (permanent kidney failure requiring dialysis or a transplant, sometimes called ESRD)

Whether you’re new to Medicare, getting ready to turn 65, or preparing to retire, you’ll need to make several important decisions about your health coverage. If you wait to enroll, you may have to pay a penalty, and you may have a gap in coverage.

Medicare Advantage Plan

A type of Medicare health plan offered by a private company that contracts with Medicare. Medicare Advantage Plans provide all of your Part A and Part B benefits. Medicare Advantage Plans include:

Health Maintenance Organizations
Preferred Provider Organizations
Private Fee-for-Service Plans
Special Needs Plans
Medicare Medical Savings Account Plans

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Medicare Supplement Insurance

A Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap) policy helps pay some of the health care costs that Original Medicare doesn't cover, like:

Co-payments
Coinsurance
Deductibles

Medigap policies are sold by private companies.

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Drug Coverage (Part D)

Medicare Part D, also called the Medicare prescription drug benefit, is an optional United States federal-government program to help Medicare beneficiaries pay for self-administered prescription drugs through prescription drug insurance premiums (the cost of almost all professionally administered prescriptions is covered under optional Part B of United States Medicare). Part D was originally proposed by President George W. Bush in 2003 and enacted as part of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 and went into effect on January 1, 2006.

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Medicare Enrollment: How and When to Enroll in Medicare

You have several options when the time comes for you to enroll in Medicare. For some people, Medicare enrollment is automatic, while for others, it may depend on when and how they become eligible.

How to enroll in Medicare

You can enroll in Medicare Part A and/or Medicare Part B in the following ways:

Online at www.SocialSecurity.gov.
By calling Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY users 1-800-325-0778), Monday through Friday, from 7AM to 7PM.
In-person at your local Social Security office.

If you worked at a railroad, enroll in Medicare by contacting the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) at 1-877-772-5772 (TTY users 1-312-751-4701). You can call Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 3:30 PM, to speak to an RRB representative. https://www.medicare.gov/

Medicare Information Disclosure

This is not a complete listing of plans available in your service area. For a complete listing please contact 1-800-MEDICARE or consult www.medicare.gov (TTY users should call 1-877-486-2048), 24 hours a day/7 days a week or consult www.medicare.gov.
NorthWest Benefits Solutions is not affiliated with Medicare.gov or CMS.gov. Medicare.gov and CMS.gov have the .gov domain because they are official web sites of the Federal government. Medicare has not endorsed this information provided on this web site by NorthWest Benefits Solutions.

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