Medicare supplements vs Medicare advantage plans

Welcome back everybody. This is Matt at goldhealthadvisors.com. In today’s video, we’re going to compare Medicare supplements versus Medicare advantage plans. There are four data points that I use to compare them. They are the following: monthly premium; primary care physician; specialist; and the geographic reach. First premium. As we already mentioned, your Medicare supplements all have monthly premiums. Advantage plans, at least ones in the South Florida market, have zero monthly premium. Which is really kind of nice. In reference to primary care physicians, for supplement plans, you’ll always have to remember to ask is, “Doc, do you accept Medicare?” If they say yes, that they take Medicare, then they take any one of the supplements that you have chosen. In reference to advantage plans, the doctor that you select must be contracted with the specific advantage plan that you’re enrolled in. That’s imperative to know because, if not, you can’t go to that primary.

The third point is this reference to specialists. Here we will ask the same question that we did for the for the primary: “Doc, do you take Medicare?” If they say yes, they take your supplement. And another point is to go to that specialist, you don’t need a referral. On the advantage side they must be contracted in that specific advantage plan. And most of these advantage plans require a referral from the primary or from the insurance company to go visit that specialist. The fourth and final data point is the geographic reach. So, in reference to the geographic reach for supplements, you’re covered anywhere in the United States. You want to go visit a doctor in Minnesota, New York, California, and you live in Florida. Not a problem. You’re covered as long as they take Medicare. On the advantage side, you’re only covered in your geographic reach, which typically is just the county in which you reside. Outside of that, you’re covered, but only with a limitation of emergency rooms in a hospital or at an urgent care facility. For more specific questions and more answers, feel free to reach me at goldhealthadvisors.com.