MEDICARE PATIENTS WATCH WHAT YOU SIGN ON TO!
One of our many Medicare patients called recently to ask about what SECONDARY policy to sign on to. As it is not appropriate for us to tell them which policy to select, we tell our patients which plans we have participation in and advise them to make sure the plan they select meets their health care needs. We asked the patient to let us know once they had a more specific set of plans to select as their secondary. The patient indicated one of the plans he had in mind, none the less, it was not a SECONDARY or SUPPLEMENTARY policy, it was a MEDICARE ADVANTAGE plan. We didn’t ask the patient the details of how they were advised about the policy, but as it has happened to many of our patients, they might have been misinformed.
We get many patients who inadvertly sign on to MEDICARE ADVANTAGE policies while filling out “information forms” at shopping mall booths, or on their neighborhood when some of the insurance place promotional kiosks. Unfortunately for many of these patients who hold medicare, the representatives at most kiosks will promise many benefits so they will fill up the forms. The insurance, though, will be a restricted network which might not provide benefits for doctors that the patient normally visited.
While we have to agree that there are many good MEDICARE ADVANTAGE policies, we have to advise our patients and any MEDICARE member to be watchful and ask questions so they do not get signed up in something they didn’t want. Also, DO NOT fill out forms at the mall or at street kiosks. If anything, take the information home and ask MEDICARE (1800-Medicare) if they recognize these plans and how will their benefits be affected.