5 Things Medicare Doesn't Cover (and how to get them covered)

so many people are surprised to find out that there are some pretty routine things that medicare doesn't actually cover so it's important to know what these things are ideally before you get onto medicare or before you go and seek these services so that you can avoid surprise medical bills in today's video i'm reviewing five things that medicare doesn't cover and i'll be sharing some tips and solutions on how you can actually get coverage for some of these things so stay tuned hi everyone stephanie abt here it's been a couple months since i made one of these videos i actually had another baby i took a little bit of time off from making videos but i am back here today and sharing some tips with you and if you haven't already please subscribe to the channel if you find value in these videos go ahead and like the video definitely leave all of your questions comments for me below and i'll be sure to apply to those so as you may already know traditional medicare is made up of parts a and b and part a is your hospital insurance coverage part b is your medical insurance coverage and between parts a and b most all medically necessary services are covered so your er visits your doctor's office visits your hospital stay diagnostic testing and even most non-self-administered medications are going to be covered by either parts a or b of medicare now unless you have a medicare supplement plan you typically will be responsible for some cost share for these services so you'll either be paying into a deductible or you'll be paying a form of co-insurance for most of these covered services and this video up here explains a little bit more about how medicare supplement plans work with your traditional medicare and what they cover so be sure to click on that watch that video also linked below if you'd like some more information there but today what we want to focus on is what medicare just doesn't cover so that you can be aware of these things before you go and seek these services and we'll also talk about how to actually get some of these things covered one of the big things that medicare doesn't cover is eye exams so while traditional medicare does cover things like cataract surgery and glaucoma treatment it does not cover routine eye examinations or glasses or contact lenses in general some medicare advantage plans do include some vision benefits however so for some people it will make sense to buy a vision insurance policy to help offset the cost of your eye exams glasses or contacts but you'll want to be aware that most vision plans do have a cap or an annual maximum benefit a total amount that the plan will pay per year towards your glasses or contacts and that's usually around 150 to 200 a year so you want to go ahead and weigh your expected vision expenses to see if a plan like that would be worthwhile for you another big thing that medicare doesn't cover is hearing aids now medicare does cover ear related medical conditions but traditional medicare does not cover routine hearing tests or hearing aids now if you have a medicare advantage plan you will want to go ahead and check your policy benefits to see if it covers any of your hearing related needs if it doesn't or if you just have traditional medicare then you can look into purchasing a discount plan that may help reduce the cost of your hearing aids also there are some programs and i'll link more information below that help lower income individuals with their hearing needs additionally congress passed legislation a few years back that allows some hearing aids to be sold over the counter or you can pay as you go another one and this is a big one that medicare doesn't cover are dental services medicare does not cover dental exams or dental work i have another video that i will link up here as well as in the description below that goes into more depth on what your options are if you're on medicare and you need dental coverage and in general some medicare advantage plans will include some dental benefits you can also purchase a standalone dental plan there are dental discount plans available that are really popular with many seniors and there are also dental vision hearing combo plans and those are becoming more and more popular to help cover some of these big expenses related to dental vision hearing what we just covered so be sure to click the link in the description below to learn more about those options another thing that traditional medicare has limited coverage for is a full routine annual physical examination that includes blood work and a lot of people are surprised to learn this when they get onto medicare medicare instead covers what they call a medicare wellness exam and this is kind of a par down version of a routine physical examination now i cover this in more depth in a video that i will also link below and you can see on the screen right now some of the differences between a routine physical examination which is not covered by traditional medicare and an annual medicare well check which medicare does cover at 100 percent so in order to avoid unexpected medical bills you'll want to be sure that when you are going into your doctor for your annual checkup that you're telling your doctor's office that you want your annual medicare wellness exam not a full routine physical examination now if you do want a full routine physical exam that includes the blood work then you may be responsible for some or all of the costs depending on your plan and additionally the medical community has recently questioned the value of these full routine physical examinations in recent years and this is due in part to over testing false positives and unnecessary medical costs so you will need to decide if you want to get a full routine physical examination based on your needs your plan your budget but it is important to take advantage of your medicare benefits and at least get your medicare wellness exam each year because that is covered at 100 and finally medicare doesn't cover nursing home care or long-term care so medicare will cover a limited stay in a skilled nursing facility so let's say for example you break a bone or you have a hip replacement and you need inpatient rehabilitation medicare will cover your stay in a skilled nursing facility in general however when you need just help with the activities of daily living custodial care they call it help with your bathing toileting dressing etc that's going to be considered long-term care and that is not covered by medicare or medicare advantage plans and in many parts of the country the average annual costs in a nursing home are going to be about 90 to 100 000 per year so it is a big expense so planning for your nursing care is a pretty big deal whether you are budgeting and saving or looking to purchase maybe a long-term care insurance policy for many people with limited income and savings medicaid is really going to help to fill in those gaps but i recommend speaking with a financial advisor to help you plan out for these potential future expenses so while these aren't the only things that medicare doesn't cover these are five of the really big ones that we get asked a lot about in my office and it's definitely important to be aware of these potential out-of-pocket costs that you may be responsible for before you start using your benefits additionally you're going to want to be aware of the different types of plans available to you in your area medicare advantage plans medicare supplement plans and how they work and this is where we can definitely help you can jump on over to aptininsuranceagency.com that's linked below for free no obligation quotes on medicare supplement plans in your area and my team and i are here to assist and answer your questions our service is 100 free of charge so we work in almost every state and we specialize in helping people decide if they should go with traditional medicare perhaps purchase a medigap plan or if they should choose a medicare advantage plan and we do this by conducting a needs analysis reviewing your needs your budget so that you can find the solution that best fits you we are independent brokers so we are truly able to take an unbiased approach to helping our clients please feel free to give us a call shoot us an email again we'd be happy to help thank you so much for watching today and we'll see you soon [Music] you

Channel: Medicare Specialist - Abt Insurance Agency

Views: 1,252,309

Keywords: medicare doesn't cover, 5 things medicare doesnt cover, medicare explained, medicare part a b c d explained, medicare advantage plans, medicare advantage, medicare 2022, medicare advantage vs medicare supplement, medicare supplement plans, abt insurance agency, abt insurance medicare, stephanie abt medicare, stephanie abt insurance, long term care, medicare coverage, retirement planning

Id: b-_Yrm2w4Ao

Length: 10min 17sec (617 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 12 2022