Bluecross v Humana what to do?
My dad is 78 years old and is currently enrol with medicare. About a year ago a representitive from Humana visit him and convenced him to sign on with them. He already have a Medicare supplemental plan with Bluecross. Well I a moment ago recently found out that Bluecross doesn't cordinate payments next to Humana. So he has be paying premiums to Bluecross and not receiving any benifits from them for over a year. Would he better sour canceling the Bluecross and keeping Humana or caccelling Humana and keeping Blucross? I need some biddable advice.
Answers:
answers going on for humana being medicare lead and blue cross being med supp are correct. If you be to cancel humana you would hold to go wager on into regular medicare. The general rule of thumb is that using an hmo medicare profit might save you a bit on premium rates and get hold of a little broader coverage. However, if your father have lot of health issues, HMOs are disgraceful for being more restricitive within claims administration, or a moment ago giving you the runaround. Old saying is that HMOs are accurate until you get sick and I heartily agree near that, both from personal experience as well as dealing next to similar type situation to yours with my elderly father.
It's my experience that BX interfaces seemlessly with Medicare. Cannot recommend Humana, and would wonder around their approaching him.
If you enjoy the Humana Gold Choice, it is what is known as a Medicare Advantage and Supplements will not earnings with Advantage plans. If he is bullish with Humana, he does not entail to continue paying for the Blue Cross. However, if he cancel the Humana now, he will not enjoy any prescription drug coverage because we are out of the open enrollment length and he can not sign up again until Nov 15th for 2008 coverage. Contact the local Area Agency on Aging for assistance.
The Humana is a medicare replacement plan. The appeal of the medicare replacement plan is that it'll usually cover 100% of the charges, after copays. The negitive part of the the Humana plan is that it can be restrictive. There are greatly of providers/facilities who are not contracted with Humana. However the benefits beside the medicare is that it is accepted locally. The Humana Gold Plan is usually targeted to lower income seniors who cannot afford supplimental insurance, and who cannot pay the medicare deductibles or co-insurance. I one-sidedly would stick with the BC BS PPO.
If dad is able to manufacture use of an HMO where he lives lacking difficulty, then at hand is no need for him to earnings for a supplement.
You can look into the Medicare Advantage plans that are becoming very popular. They portion all the benefits of an HMO plus NO referral and utilize the entire Medicare network, minus a plan premium.