Voss Speros, Medicare Insurance Broker

Answer: Voss Speros here, the God of Medicare. Medicare is all Greek to you? You're in luck, I am Greek. So, the question today is: my girlfriend says the new drug plans that came out in '25, not '26, help her save money on her prescription drugs. Will they do the same for me?

Yes. So, if you're using your Part D plan and your drugs are covered enough in your plan's formulary, they're covered, then yes, you are. You probably have a deductible you pay, and then your max out-of-pocket is $2,000 or $2,100 for your drugs. So yes, it will help you save money.

And then you can always set up a payment plan for this. So, at the beginning of the year, or if you get a new drug, call and be like, "Hey, can we spread this out over the course of the rest of the year so I don't have to pay all upfront?" Yes, yes, you can do that. It will help people save a lot of money. $2,100 for drugs is a lot less than, you know, $5,000 a month.

So yes, absolutely. If you have any questions, give us a call. Well, they are more than happy to answer them.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. The question today is, what role do annuities play in retirement planning? Annuities play a crucial role in retirement planning, I think. Depending on the advisor, you put your money into an annuity, and that safeguards it from other financial issues. Then you can also turn that annuity into a personal pension plan for yourself. If you set it up on a life basis, it will pay out for your entire life. You will have money coming in every month like clockwork, just like your Social Security would be. So it's a personal pension plan that you create yourself.

If you set some up as joint life, it'll be a little bit less upfront. But then if you pass and your spouse lives longer, it keeps going for them. So there are different options to set up an annuity. Annuities are great. Well, through a mutual company, the money inside is protected. Companies like New York Life, MassMutual, and One America ensure that the money inside is protected from creditors. That's always a plus.

It grows depending on the type; it can grow at a fixed rate or a variable rate based on market shares. The fixed rate is great for security purposes in retirement, at roughly 4 to 5%. That's good growth, and it's safe money. If you need it, you can call it out as a pension plan for yourself. You can always buy a pension plan later with an asset. You can move some of your retirement money into a pension and create a personal pension plan for yourself.

So I feel that annuities are very beneficial for retirement planning. There are a lot of financial strategies built around annuities. I hear there are some guys out there dogging annuities these days, but maybe I haven't read all the books. I don't know, maybe they're too young. It could be anything.

But yeah, keep in mind to always start revising to see what's the best thing for you. If you don't want to outlive your money, a pension plan is always good. Roll some in there and then have that. If you have any questions, reach out to us. We’d be more than happy to answer any questions within our scope, which is still pretty big. Have a good day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. Medicare is all Greek to you. You're in luck, I'm Greek, so the question is, can you help me better understand the MOOP, maximum out-of-pocket limits with Medicare Advantage plans?

Yes, so the maximum out-of-pocket is not a deductible. Don't look at it like that. You have deductibles, and you pay that amount first, and then the plan kicks in. So the maximum out-of-pocket is the most you pay in copayments over the course of the year. A lot of people show that when I was like, "Oh, you're gonna have to pay all this first before the plan really does anything." No, no, that's false. It's the copayments over the course of the year.

So your MOOP could be anywhere from $2,500, as low as that, up to $10,000, depending on the type of plan you get. So there's a lot of different options. There's always going to be a look at the MOOPs as your criteria. The majority of the time, your doctor visits are, you know, $0 to $10, or your specialists are $10 to $50 to go see doctors.

So if you're at a $3,000 or $4,500 MOOP, you're not really taking off a lot. Where it comes into play is the hospitals. If you go to the hospital, you know that could be anywhere from $150 to $400 a day, plus the ambulance ride, you know. And then you come home and you get doctors to come see you. But still, you know, that's maybe a hospital visit. If you stay a full five days, maybe close to $1,000. That's still not hitting it, but it's a safety net for just in case you do.

So, you know, if you all, you know, and you do go to the hospital a lot and you want to get a low MOOP, boom, get like a $2,500 MOOP, and then you got covered for the rest of the year. Then your already copayments past that, the rest of the year is nothing. There's nothing saying you can't get a lower MOOP because you're unhealthy. No, there's nothing saying you can't.

So do it. I think that's about it on that. Oh, the drug plan has a MOOP, a maxed out-of-pocket for about $2,000. So keep that in mind. That's different from your medical side. So on the medical side, it's whatever it is on the max out-of-pocket. But once you reach that, then the plan steps in to pay for everything 100%. Pass that, boom.

So that's always good. You could cover the rest of the year if you hit that mark. If you have any questions, send us in, and we'll put them up for you.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. But if it’s all Greek to you, you're in luck, 'cause I'm Greek. So the question is, how do discount cards and resources affect my prescription Medicare prescription drug plans?

If you use a good old Rx card when you're going to a pharmacy instead of your prescription drug card or your Medicare Advantage drug plan card, there are a couple things to consider. If you're not using your Part D, then that dollar amount is not getting counted towards your deductible or your $2,000 out-of-pocket maximum. That's not going towards that. At that point, you're going private pay.

The good thing about this card is that it has a deal made between the pharmacy from the cash side and the discount code on that. So then you pay the difference between the contracted rate and the discount. It could be less. Go to the good old Rx, then your Medicare.

But once you reach that $2,000 threshold—$2,100 this year on the Part D—then there are no co-payments past that. So really, you kind of weigh those options out to see if you're not going to pay the $2,000. If you go this route, it may be a little less, but if you're going to pay to get it and hit that mark, then you won't have any co-payments for the rest of the year.

I mean, you just kind of weigh out those options. If you have any questions, give us a call. We're more than happy to answer them.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. Medicare is all Greek to you, and you are in luck, I'm Greek. So the question today is, why do doctors not like Medicare Advantage plans?

Okay, so there's probably a few reasons built into this one. One, doctors have to give pre-authorizations at times. No one likes that. Two, there's a lower reimbursement rate than Original Medicare for doctors, so they're getting paid less.

Three, I'd have to say is the paperwork on the back end to get approvals in versus denials. So there's a lot of, well, there's more work because this insurance company is trying to oversee the care to see if somebody needs it. So it has to be medically necessary to get it. Doctors can't just willy-nilly bill for anything like they can for Medicare. Now, not saying that they are, but some do.

So there's some oversight on these vendors' client side for the insurance companies not to have a bunch of fraud and wasted abuse, you know, to save Medicare. There's a lot of that going on because doctors can just bill for it. And then there's not a lot of paperwork, and they just kind of get paid. So, and you pay it even more.

So the reason they don't like it more, I would have to say the top thing is the reimbursement rate because at the end of the day, it's all about money. And everyone lies, like I've heard before. Like my wife says, it's all about money, and everyone lives. So it's the reimbursement rate, a lot of back-end paperwork, and pre-authorizations.

If you have any questions, give us a call. We'll be happy to answer them online. Have a great day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. Medicare is all Greek to you? You're in luck, I'm Greek. So the question today is, are caregivers and home health aides usually included in dementia care? Yes, yes. If you have dementia and you're taking care of somebody, or someone's being taken care of, then there's a lot of caregivers involved and home health aides to do the things that they can't normally do. So, assistance with living.

Now, it's not really covered by Medicare. Is home health covered? Home health aides are, but it's tied in with home health on the medical side. On the non-medical side, just caregivers coming in and helping, that's not covered. So that's usually covered by Medicaid or private pay. If you have long-term care insurance, some advantage plans have a little bit of time built in, but not a lot. Eighty hours a year is not a big chunk, not when you need help every day.

I hope that helps. Give us a call if you have any other questions.

Answer: Voss Speros, Greek god of Medicare. Medicare for all, Greek. You're in luck, I'm Greek. So the question is, my mom's looking to switch to a Medicare Advantage plan. A friend says it's better, and she's worried about losing her doctors. How do we check for that?

So as brokers, we double-check. We get our list of all your doctors and all your drugs. Then we cross-reference all those plans for your drugs to find what works best for you.

Now, how can you do it? Medicare.gov has a lookup tool where you can enter your drugs and your doctors to find plans that fit those criteria. Now, if you hit a back button on that, you gotta start all over every single time. It gets a little annoying. At that point, I just call a broker. We put it in our system one time, and then it pulls up all the plans. We can look to see what's going to work the best. It'll tell us which ones have the doctors and which ones don't.

So you gotta make sure you know the doctors you want to keep. Maybe not all the time that they're in there, but you never know. They might be in there under their name or maybe under the practice name. So it's always good to double-check everything on that one.

When you're making the switch from a supplemental to an Advantage plan, I saw an orb go by. But then again, we are in a funeral home. Hope that helps.

Yeah, how many questions? Give us a call. We're more than happy to send out an agent. Have a great day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. Medicare's all Greek. You're in luck, I'm Greek. So the question today is, "I missed my Medigap window by a few months. Now I can't get coverage without underwriting. Why isn't this more well-known?"

Well, you're right, it's not. After you turn 65, you have six months to go on a Medicare supplement plan with no underwriting. Do you know you missed this? The advertising on TV talks about the three months before your birth month or three months after you go on Medicare, and then you can go on an Advantage plan. There's a lot of marketing for that one. The Medigap one is not. It's not bad. It's talked about a little bit, but not as much as the other one. And that's probably the reason.

But there are insurance brokers that do talk about that. So at 65, that's when you need to call a broker. Now, if you waited eight months to talk to a broker, well, I mean, let's be honest here, that's on you. That's not anybody else's fault. You turn 65, you know you gotta go on Medicare. Call a broker, call a carrier, ask a question. There are people everywhere offering information. So just ask.

I get it, you're busy. Life is stressful. Things are going on. We got work to do. Always just stop and ask the question, though, because you don't want to get to that point in that seventh month and then ask, and be like, "Oh, now I gotta go through underwriting. I have this existing thing. It's not gonna work."

So if you have questions, give us a call. We'll send a broker out. Always, always, always. You know, when you're getting close to 64, then start asking those questions. Hope that helps. Talk to you soon.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare, because I beat you. You're in luck, I'm Greek. So the question is, does Medicare cover Ozempic and other types of drugs for weight loss? Yes and no. It won't cover Ozempic or Wegovy or whatever those are for weight loss specifically to allow you to do that. But it will cover those drugs if there's a medical necessity for it. So if you're diabetic and you lose weight, yes, it will cover that drug. But just as it was a cosmetic type thing, or are you... No, it's not. It's doctor-prescribed in a sense because it's more, "I want to do this," not medically necessary. Then no, they won't cover it. So if it's medically necessary, yes. If not, no.

A lot of people think losing weight is medically necessary. Yes, it is, so you can stay healthy. But they haven't come that far yet. Eventually, maybe. I believe that could happen, but for right now, no. Doctor, see if there is something physically wrong that you can get a prescription for, and then you're good. If you have any questions, give us a call. I'm more than happy to send out an agent to help.

Answer: You're in luck, I'm Greek. The question is, what's the process for signing up for Medicare if I'm already on disability? So if you're on SSDI, Social Security disability for at least 24 months, on your 25th month, in theory, they automatically enroll you in Medicare. Now, sometimes you don't. So it's always good on the 25th month to call in to Social Security and say, "Hey, I want to go on Medicare." That way, you know it's going to roll in. But usually, they will enroll you in Medicare and send you your package with your card in it in about three months. But it's always good to double-check that one after you get your card.

Then you have to look into an advantage plan, but you also have a guaranteed issue at 65 to get a Medicare supplement plan. You have disability, but you can get a supplemental plan, guaranteed issue Plan G at 65, no matter what you had prior. Boom! We have questions? Give us a call or send an agent out to help.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. Question of the day: My friend got cataract surgery covered by Medicare but didn't get the lenses that she wanted. How does that work?

So, that works as follows: Medicare will cover the basic version of cataract surgery. You'll get a prescription from the doctor for the surgery, and Medicare will cover what's medically necessary to get you to see again. But if you want something specific for a lens that will help better than the basic option, Medicare only covers the basic. Then you're responsible for the difference.

The supplemental company pays what Medicare pays. Medicare Advantage pays what Medicare pays too. If you want that extra bit, then you gotta work that one out with a doctor to get the basics covered. After that, you pick up the rest.

Hope that helps! Give us a call. We'll send an agent out to answer your questions. Have a great day!

Answer: Vos Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. The question of the day is a little long and might read a little bit from the computer, but I'm 67 years old, work full time, and previously had a four-month gap in my job. I enrolled in Medicare Part A and B so I wouldn’t get the penalties. But I got another job, and Social Security won't release me from Part A. I don't need it because it blocks me from my HSA. What do I do?

So at that point, you have to write into the Social Security department using form CMS 1763. You’ve got to give them handwritten information on what you really want to do. You can't get out. So you can get back to your age or say yes. And that was smart to pick it up for that gap so you wouldn't get hit with the penalties of not having coverage in between jobs.

That is a tough one. If you're not taking Medicare at 65 and working, then losing your job and picking another one up, there's a lot that goes into all that. So if you guys have questions, give me a call. We'll be more than happy to send an agent out to help.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek God of Medicare. You're in luck, I'm Greek. So the question is, what are the six things Medicare doesn't cover?

Original Medicare doesn't cover some things. Various plans will cover them. So the first one is long-term care. If you need assisted living or long-term skilled nursing for more than 100 days, that's not covered. That's private pay or Medicaid. So there's some long-term care insurance to cover that.

The next is dental, vision, and hearing. They're not going to cover routine check-ups. If it's medically necessary, then yes, but just the basic routine, like getting checked out, getting hearing aids, and glasses, Original Medicare is not going to cover that.

The next one is cosmetic surgery. If it's not medically necessary and you're just getting implants done, Medicare is not going to cover that. So keep that in mind when you're going to get some work done. Make sure it's medically necessary if you want the insurance to cover it.

Also, the last one is international travel. I know I touched base on this a little bit a while back, but regional Medicare doesn't cover services like doctor's visits and things like that outside of the country. Emergency coverage is covered in some plans and things in supplementals and Advantage plans, but routine healthcare? No, not outside the country.

So those are the six things you need to know that Original Medicare is not going to cover. Now, those plans cover the majority of that, so you're good on that. Supplementals have some of that built in, but it's straight Medicare. Now, if you have any questions, give us a call. We'd be more than happy to send out an agent. Have a great day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. Medicare's all Greek to you. You're lucky I'm Greek. So the question I got was, how do you know the Medicare Advantage benefits that are advertised are legit? The only way to really do that is to find the evidence of coverage. All the plans have a summary of benefits and an evidence of coverage. The big list at the end shows what is covered. You can pull those up and look at a lot of Medicare DIY sites. We have one for you where you can cross-check plans and things. At the bottom of it, you'll find the summary of benefits and evidence of coverage. You can look up those exact benefits and go to a broker, or give us a call. We'll take a look, see what it is, and let you know if it is.

A lot of the Advantage companies put a general ad out there, like up to $2,000 a month back in your check. So it depends on the county, the state, and what the benefit is for like a Part B give back. It could be $2,000 a year, but it's broken down on a monthly basis. But the yearly amount sounds better. $3,000 a month in savings on dental, $5,000 a month on this. And it's just a general number because they're advertising in more than one county. So it's always best to look to see what it is in your county and the average for coverage.

So call a broker, double-check before you switch. Don't call the carrier or the number on the TV, because they're just going to switch you and not really tell you what's going on. If you have any questions, give us a call. Send an agent out to help you out. Have a good day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. Medicare's all Greek to you. Your luck, I'm Greek. So this guy, the question is, how does losing my spouse affect my Medicare plan if I was through their employer plan? Okay, so that's a big one, right? You have to contact the employer, the retirement plan, the HR, let them know that your spouse passed. Then they're gonna determine if they're going to keep you going on it or it'll probably end right there. Then you need to go out and get your own Medicare plan.

So instead of going through a retirement plan or a benefit, or you paying them, now it's gonna be through you. You're gonna have to do it. If you're on A and B and already on an advantage plan or a supplemental plan, but it's being paid through there, now you gotta offset it. Move from the group to your own personal supplemental plan or benefit plan and then cover those costs.

So there is a little bit of a process. It's always good to work with a broker. Give us a call. We'll send somebody out to help make this process a little easier after a passing. If you have any questions, let us know.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. Medicare is all Greek to you, your luck. I'm Greek. So the question is, I want to switch to a Medicare Advantage plan this year. How do I go about doing that?

So the thing is, right now from January to March, there's Medicare open enrollment for Medicare Advantage. So if you're on it, you can switch to another one. But if you're on a supplement and you want to switch to an Advantage plan, you kind of need to wait till open enrollment unless there's some kind of major special election that happens. You move counties or maybe you're dropping your work coverage and coming on to an Advantage plan or something. But always go to check with a broker to see what election periods are available to you to make that change over.

If you're going on Medicaid for some reason, that'll give you a window to go to an Advantage plan. But generally, from a supplement to an Advantage plan, it's at the end of the year during open enrollment time. All you do is sit down with a broker, find a plan that works best for you, that covers your doctors and drugs, and you apply for it. That will drop your Part D plan and enroll you in a Medicare Advantage plan with a prescription drug plan.

If you're getting a drug plan, then you'll have to call the supplement company and say, "Hey, my new plan, my Advantage plan is starting on this date. I need you to drop my supplemental plan on this date." So you gotta cancel your supplemental plan. Just remember that it's not going to drop off automatically. If you have any questions, give us a call. Be more than happy to send out an agent. Have a great day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. Let's talk about Medicare.

So, the question is, I'm interested in nutrition counseling to help manage my diabetes. Does Medicare cover this as preventative care? Yes. Medicare Advantage has preventative care built into their plans where they will cover you to stay healthy and to stay on top of things. Nutrition counseling to help you eat better is preventative care, and that is covered. Yes.

So, always double-check with your plan to make sure. But yes, in general, if this is covered, you're ahead of the game. Medicare will give you a couple of hours a year. Medicare Advantage will just cover it as preventative, up to a certain point. So, make sure to see what is available for that.

I was going to call customer service a month back and say, "Hey, how much counseling can I get and what do I get it from?" If you have any questions, give us a call. We’d be more than happy to send out an agent to help answer your questions. Have a good day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. If Medicare's all Greek to you, you're in luck. I'm Greek. So the question is, why do people still get large medical bills if they're on Medicare? Well, it depends on the plan you're on. If you're on straight Medicare, which is an 80/20 plan, that 20% can lead to a large medical bill. Yes, if you want a supplemental plan, like a Plan G, then you really only have the deductible of $280 for Part B. So it's not a lot. And you have some co-payments mixed in there.

With the Advantage plans, you don't pay anything for the plan, but you have co-payments at the time of service. For a supplemental plan, you pay for the plan itself. They will show co-payments at the time of service. If you have a hospital thing happen and an ambulance picks you up, that's about $250 for the ambulance, depending on the plan. The hospital stays can range anywhere from $100 to $400 per day for the first 5 to 7 days, depending on the plan.

So if your plan is $250 a day for five days, that's a big bill, and you're going to get billed for that later. So yes, some people still have bigger bills with Medicare, depending on the plan you're on. If you're not paying anything monthly for it on the Advantage plan, you're saving a bunch of money. But then you're going to get hit with co-payments. With a supplemental plan, you pay monthly for it, and you don't get any co-payments.

So it just depends on what you're looking at. That's why, if you have any questions, give us a call. We're more than happy to send out an agent.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare Talk, about Medicare. So the question is, I'm confused about all the different Medicare costs, premiums, copays, deductibles, and how do they all work together? That is a confusing topic, I'm not gonna lie.

So there are the premiums for the plans, the supplemental, and a premium for that advantage. No premium for Part A, and Part B has a premium. There are copayments and the deductibles. The deductibles come out on the Medicare rate. There is a deductible for a hospital of about $1,600 and a Part B deductible of about $100 to $200.

So you gotta pay a deductible first before the plan will kick in and pay anything else. And then this plan says no deductibles, not really. This maximum out-of-pocket, the most you pay in copayments over the course of a year, when you reach that number, the plan pays 100% past that. So deductibles are what you pay upfront, and then the plan kicks in.

Usually, you get a supplemental with a high deductible, or you get a lower premium but you pay the deductible of $2,800. You gotta pay the $2,000 first in copayments, all at the time of service. The insurance company covers so much, and you're responsible for so much. So that's a copayment.

There is a cost of insurance, a cost share on some things where you're gonna pay your share of the total cost, and the insurance will pay to share the total cost. It's like a copayment. A lot of plans offer up to a certain amount, so sometimes the copayments are 20% to 40%, depending on the plan. So keep that in mind.

Premiums are pretty easy. It's just what you pay for the plan. So how does it all work together? Depending on the plan, you get a supplemental plan, you pay a premium for it, and for Part D, you pay a premium for that. The Part D has a deductible of about $600. You pay first for your drugs before the plan steps in, and then you pay your copayment.

The supplemental plan doesn't cover Part B's deductible by $280. So you're gonna come out of pocket for the first two things when you go to a doctor. And then it pays off past that. So that's premiums and deductibles.

And then it is generally no premium, no deductible, and just copayments for service. When you go see the doctor or a specialist, you pay $5 or $20. You're gonna naturally pay $120, whatever it is. So that's how they all work down.

But it's a breakdown of everything. You gotta look at both sides, all the players, and then understand how to break it down. I'm asked, try it out. Have a good day. Hope that helps. Give us a call.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. The Medicare question of the day is, can I just be enrolled in A and B and nothing else and still have good coverage? Yes and no. So you're just enrolled in A and B, you have Medicare hospitals and doctors. You're covered. Boom, you're done. That's an 80/20. So it covers 80% of your health care in general. You're responsible for 20%. That's great coverage, but now you gotta come out of pocket for 20%. And then you don't have a drug plan either. Just A and B, no drug plan. So there's no help with drugs. You got to come out of pocket for all your drugs unless you have to restart. You can use that. Let's say later in life you need help with drugs and you want to get a drug plan. Now you have a penalty for not taking a drug plan back when you first got Part A and B. And that's basically 1% of the average cost on a monthly basis, which is about 33 cents a month for 20 months. If you don't have it, just add that up. That'll be your lifetime penalty. So don't do that. And the only great thing is if you could afford the 20%, sure, by all means do it. But if you're going on A and B, you might as well get a supplemental plan. Pay that 150 a month, whatever it is. So you have that 20% coverage or an advantage. I mean, if you're really healthy and you're like, I just want coverage just in case, yeah. But just A and B, yeah, it's amazing coverage. You're just paying a lot out of pocket for that. Hope that helps answer the question. If you need any help, give us a call. Send an agent out. Have a great day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. The question of the day is, does Medicare cover emergency coverage in U.S. territories like Puerto Rico? So yes, U.S. territories, all of us basically. Medicare does cover Part A and B, and that’s as normal. So if you have a supplemental plan, you're covered on an advantage side. It would be yes, in a network or out of network.

So if you have a PPO plan, you're covered on the PPO plan as an active network provider. If you're there on the HMO, if there are people over there on the HMO, then yeah, you're covered. So yes, you are covered outside of U.S. territories in the U.S. on the foreign level. No, Medicare really doesn't. There's some savings put in there forward on the advantage plan. There's some money set aside for emergency care in other countries. But yeah, it's Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories. You do have coverage built in.

Always good to double-check your current plan to make sure before you travel that everything is covered. Hope that helps! Give us a call if you have any questions. We'll send an agent out to you right away.

Answer: Voss Speros, the Greek god of Medicare, talking about Medicare today. So, the question is, why do some agents push Medicare Advantage over Medigap? I'd be skeptical. Yeah, I mean, you can be skeptical about anything, honestly. Why do agents push Medicare Advantage plans?

So here's the thing. There are two types of agents for Medicare. There's the full-fledged Medicare insurance brokers that are contracted with CMS and all the carriers to offer benefit plans and to help with supplemental plans and prescription drug plans. And then there are the Medigap brokers that don't have all the compilers that go with it. They only sell Medicare Medigap, Medicare supplement plans. That's it. They'll knock on your door, bring it down, and try to sell it. This is the best thing since sliced bread.

The other brokers, like me and my team, we can do both. It's not like I'm pushing invented plans. It's just we can offer Advantage plans. So if you ever run into somebody who's pushing the supplemental plans, ask them if they can offer benefit plans. If they can't, then I would find somebody new and just look at both sides.

We're gonna break down your doctors and drugs. This is what Advantage plans offer. Supplemental plans are great because you just pay monthly for it, and you get everything covered. But you pay your monthly $170 to $200, whatever it is, plus your part D plan. You pay 30 bucks a month for that, and you're paying your part B. Everyone pays for part B.

And then if you want dental, vision, hearing, you gotta pay a little bit of money for that. And for some other stuff, you pay some stuff for that. So it's got all the cards set up. Medicare Medigap, all the cards. Medicare Advantage, all-inclusive, A, B, C, and all wrapped in one, no premium. And then you know, co-payments for service.

How often do you go to the doctor? I don't know how often you're gonna use a plan. What do you need? What do you need to do? Let's break it down. So they're not pushing your dentist plans. They're just offering it and offering supplemental plans. But a lot of people can't afford the supplemental. Once you break it down, you're living on a fixed budget. You're retired now.

So I'd always be skeptical of any broker you talk to. But make sure they can do both, not one or the other. So I hope that helps. Give us a call if you have any questions with Paul. I'm happy to help out and answer questions. Have a good day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. Got a question, and the question is, what advice do you give seniors who are completely overwhelmed with all the Medicare choices?

So I get it. There are a lot of choices depending on where you live. Like in a populated area like Arizona, Maricopa County, there are hundreds of plans and options. In a rural area, say Lake Havasu, there's only a couple. So there's not a lot to work with, but you know, popular areas have a lot of cities, so there's hundreds of choices.

And then there's supplement supplements, and there are different carriers that offer supplements. Then there's prescription drug plans. You've got to go through all that. I would say, hey, let's slow this down and listen and go through it.

So who are your doctors? Break that down, and your drugs, break that down. These are the most important things. What's your lifestyle? What's your budget? Do you need glasses? You know, hearing aids? Can I go through a little bit of a needs assessment and see what they need?

Because then, as a broker, we can plug it into our system and pull up plans that fit that need, which narrows it way down. So I would say, hey, let's sit down with a broker. As always, sit down with a broker and narrow things down to fit your specific need.

There's lots of options, but not all of them fit your specific need. So I just say slow it down. Hope that helps. Give us a call if you need some help on that, and we'll slow it down and whittle it down to something specific for you. Hope you have a good day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. If Medicare is all Greek to you, you're in luck, I'm Greek. So the question is, how do you educate clients that are completely new to Medicare?

In this scheme, when someone is turning 65, we run through what's called the Medicare one-on-one. It's a breakdown of how Medicare works, what parts A and B do, how much they cost, what Part C is, what Part D is, and then how that all comes together. Then we discuss the options because Medicare is an 80/20 plan, meaning Medicare covers 80% and you're responsible for 20%.

So then we go into the options to cover that 20%, either a supplemental or an advantage plan. Then we break down how the supplemental plans work, and then we break down how the advantage plans work. We also listen and ask questions. They ask a lot of questions back and forth to make sure the client understands what's going on.

It usually takes a good couple of hours to really dive deep into this, maybe a couple of days depending on the person. But we really want to make sure everyone is comfortable and knows exactly what they're talking about. This way, they're going to make an informed decision on what they want their health care to be.

Now, this is important: when you turn 65, you have an opportunity to get a guaranteed issue of a Medicare supplemental plan. Keep that in mind. So we do a lot of Medicare one-on-one. When we're first starting out, I generally try to do a Medicare one-on-one with everybody. I sit down with everyone just to give them an overview of how Medicare works, and then we figure out what plan's best.

Hope that helps! If you have questions, give us a call.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare.

So the question is, I travel a lot. What plan would work best for me? Traveling both nationally and internationally.

A good Medicare supplement is good anywhere in the country, right? And Medicare does cover a little bit of out-of-the-country stuff on a limited basis. So that's good. Medicare Advantage plans have emergency coverage built in, so you have the country covered in case of an emergency. Most of those plans have a dollar amount, so it goes up to $50,000, $90,000, whatever it is, for out-of-country coverage.

Original Medicare has, I think, about $20,000 built in. So really, if you're traveling a lot, I would say go with Original Medicare supplements. That way, you know you have coverage anywhere in the country if you need to see a doctor. You can make an appointment to see a specialist anywhere in the country because anywhere that takes Medicare can get you an appointment without a referral.

And then out of the country, if they have an office there, that's good. They can go that way. But you do have emergency coverage outside of the country. So honestly, this would probably be the best for you if you're traveling. But you can always get an Advantage plan for that low or no monthly premium and then co-payments at the time of service. If you're really healthy, that would be good too because then you just use it for emergency coverage as you go.

But there's a lot of variables in that. Once you actually sit down and look at everything, where you're traveling through, what's going on, then you can find a plan that works best for your situation. Hope that makes sense. If not, give us a call. Happy to help you out. Have a good day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, the Greek god of Medicare, discussing Medicare with questions. So, the question is, I got a bill for $300 from an emergency transport company, and I thought it was covered. Am I the only one that didn't know that emergency transport wasn't covered?

So, the answer to that is emergency transport is covered. The ambulance probably didn't get your billing information. So, you take that bill and submit it back with your Medicare card and your supplemental card. Then that covers it. If they're billing outside of the hospital emergency room, then you have to do that. If so, it's because you got picked up from somewhere and you didn't show them your cards and say, "Hey, run this for me real quick and get that in your system."

So, it's covered. But no, emergency transport is covered. Non-emergency transport is not covered unless you have an advantage plan. Some of those plans have transportation built in for specific things like going to the doctor or the dentist. But emergency transport is covered, so you're not alone. It's okay. It happens. You just have to submit for reimbursement, and you'll be okay. Hope that helps. Have a good day!

Answer: God of Medicare with another Medicare question. The question is, what happens to my Medicare if I enter a skilled nursing or rehab? But then, what if I need long-term care? So, if you're on a Medicare Advantage plan, what's the other advantage plan for a strong advantage plan? You go from a hospital to a skilled nursing facility, and you're there for 20 days. But maybe you need more than that. Who knows? Maybe you're gonna have to move into long-term care. Then you're only gonna get a max of 100 days out of your plan.

So, the first 20 days are covered. Then you pay a co-payment for the next 40 to 60 days. And then from there on, there's a little bit more covered. So, on original Medicare, you're just covered because someone picks it up for the 100 days if you need longer than that. After that, you either go to assisted living or you stay in a skilled nursing facility. Then you're gonna need to pick up state Medicaid or pay for it out of pocket.

So, you gotta pull your wallet out and pay for the care you need because Medicare covers your health care needs, but it doesn't cover your assisted living needs. So, that assisted living or long-term skilled nursing needs to be covered out of pocket, private pay, or through a long-term care insurance policy or state Medicaid. I hope that helps. Give us a call if you need me. We'll send an agent out there and get you going. Have a good day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek God of Medicare, talking about Medicare. So the question is, is it okay to work with an agent in another state? Yes, it is okay to work with an agent in another state. Now, a couple of things. A local agent would have more knowledge of the local Medicare conditions and plans available and things going on. Brokers in other states probably have a general understanding of what's good in your state, but they're probably not the most qualified for having the information for that state.

So it's more of a contractor all over the country, and I help people in other states. Yes, and I can look up plans in those states, but it's not my home state. In Arizona, I got to cover—we got all the contracts. The majority of them, we know the plans, know the ins and outs, what's good, and what they're good with the providers and stuff. So it's always good to go with an in-state broker.

But you know, our team has brokers all over the country. So if there's something you need, we got you covered in another state. So yes, it's okay to work with an out-of-state broker because we are licensed in those states and we are licensed to sell and offer products in those states. So yeah, we have access to that. So yeah, we can definitely help you out in other states.

And say brokers, I just—it's always good to have the same broker, just saying. All right, thank you. I hope that question helps. Have a great day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, the Greek god of Medicare, talking about Medicare today. So, the question I got is, "I've been in America for about four years. I'm a green card holder and I'm turning 65 soon. Am I eligible for Medicare, or when am I eligible for Medicare?"

Well, you're not eligible for Medicare unless you've been in the country for at least five years. So that's the first thing. Second thing, once you turn 65 and you've been in the country for five years, you can apply for Medicare. You have to pay your Part A premium. It's like $550 plus. And then your Part B premium is about $202 right now.

So if you want those four years, that will go towards your ten years, your ten years, 40 quarters of paying for your Part A. The more you build, the less you pay for Part A. Keep working and build those, and then get that Part A covered. But you gotta wait five years before you can apply for Medicare here in America.

All right, hope that helps, and we'll talk to you soon.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. The question today is, what's one piece of advice that you wish every senior knew before picking a Medicare plan? That's a big question. They laid that one on me, and I was like, the advice I would give is there's a few things.

So there are different kinds of Medicare agents out there in the world. There's the Medicare agent that's certified and contracted with all the carriers to offer both supplemental plans and Medicare Advantage plans. Prescription drug plans are off the board these days, except for a couple, but the dentist plans in supplemental plans. We are bound by a lot of compliance not to reach out to you.

What's a good thing to know is if an agent is calling you to sell you on the plan, they're most likely a supplemental plan. No compliance, and they can just harass you. So just keep that in mind. They can always sell. They always sell one thing: supplemental plans, no matter what. No matter what your situation is, that's what they sell. And that's what you're gonna get.

So a piece of advice is to look to see who's working with you. What plans do they offer? How many carriers can you represent? Well, I'm a broker. We're Broker Spirits Financial. We don't try to approach every carrier in town and a bunch of carriers across the country. We can offer a bunch of different things.

So another piece of advice: look to see who you're working with. There's a lot of us out there. You can pick through it. Another thing is to do your research. Advantage plans are great. You gotta see if you want to go that route, get all the doctors and drugs in the network to make sure that plan works best for you.

See what your income level is. See what your health is. Do you need glasses, dental, vision? Hearing? Do you go to the chiropractor? Some plans cover acupuncture, which is kind of cool. All those things.

On the supplemental side, if you can afford it and go that route, then do it. A piece of advice is to look at everything first. See what's gonna work best for you. Don't listen to your friends and your kids or whatever the TVs say. Really listen to it all. Take it in with a grain of salt, and then see what's gonna work best for you.

You know, maybe what works best for your neighbor isn't what's gonna work best for you. Probably not, because I imagine you are different than your neighbor. I would just say that I would like to think everyone's different, and everyone needs to take a little initiative on finding something that works best for them.

And don't jump into it and then watch out for those agents. So if you have a question, give us a call. We're here to help you find a plan that works best for you. Have a good day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. If it's all Greek to you, Medicare's all Greek to you. You're in luck, I'm Greek.

Hey, the question today is, does Medicare Part A and B cover urgent care? I'm gonna say yes on that one. So it does cover urgent care. There is a cost for that. If you're on a supplemental plan, then there's no cost. Pay your monthly premium and you're covered. You go into the urgent care and then you're done. It's the same as the emergency room.

But on the Advantage plan, there's a co-payment. So there's a co-payment for the time of service on the Advantage plans. Usually, the urgent care cost is less than the emergency room costs. It's anywhere from $50 to $100, depending on the plan. But yes, urgent care is covered. If you're on a Medicare Advantage plan, go to the urgent care, boom, you got it.

It's like a doctor's visit in the sense that if you get transferred, if you go to an urgent care just tied to a hospital and they transfer you over and you have to stay, then they're all kind of flowing into the staying of the hospital. Depending on the plan, depending on the carrier, depending on the company, the provider.

But yes, urgent care is covered, and it's covered. Emergency care is covered nationwide for most plans. So if you have a plan and you're in another state and you need to go to urgent care, boom, go. Or, you know, emergency room, boom, you're covered in any state with emergency care and out of the country.

You have some plans that cover out-of-the-country emergency care. So just so you know, if you have Medicare and you need to go to a doctor or go to an urgent care, boom, you’re set.

I hope that answers your question. If you need help, we'll send out an agent and we'll help get you straightened out. Have a good day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek God of Medicare. If Medicare is all Greek to you, you're in luck. I'm Greek. So the question is, my kids keep telling me to go on a Medicare Advantage Plan, but my friends say stick with Original Medicare. What do I do?

That's a good question. I love hearing this one. That means people are thinking about it, reaching out, and looking. The best thing is you gotta sit down and review your doctors and your drugs and see if an Advantage Plan is gonna work for you. Do you live in multiple states? Do you travel a lot? What's your income level?

My main thing is on that one. Original Medicare is great, and the supplement is awesome. If you have that and you can afford it, do it. If you only live in Arizona or one state and you see the same doctor all the time, and your doctor recommends you go to another doctor, do you follow that recommendation, or do you just say, "I'll Google it and find somebody else that I think is good?"

Most people say, "Well, I go to the doctor my doctor recommends," and that's great. So you see, if you're going to the same doctor, you go to the recommended doctors. The doctor is gonna recommend people in your network regardless of the plan you have. They will look at what you have, and they'll find people that work with that network.

If you're on a different plan or a supplemental plan, at that point, you know you got a Ferrari in the garage and you're paying insurance for it. It's just sitting there doing nothing. I mean, that's your plan. That's the supplement plan. It's a great plan. It's awesome. You have it. If you ever want to use it, when you're not using it, you know, go to the doctor, get everything done. It's covered on the supplement side. Everything's covered.

Now, if there's something that goes up in value, every year the premium goes up like 5 to 10% or more. So if your premium is at $300 or $400 and it's between that and food, or you're just not using it, yeah, maybe the Advantage is the way to go. At that point, we look at the Advantage and where you're at.

In a rural area, the supplement is far better. In a not-so-rural area, in a big population, metropolitan area, then it's probably great. Like you said, it’s in Arizona. You know, 8 million people here. Boom! They got a ton of Advantage plans because the networks are gigantic. So you're gonna save money. You're gonna pay for your Medicare, your health insurance one way or the other.

You're gonna pay a premium every month to have coverage, or you're gonna pay a co-payment at the time of use. So if you're going from a supplement to an Advantage, I say, "Hey, take that money and put it into a supplement." You pay for the supplement or in a separate account and use that card, that account card for your debt, your co-payments for service once it reaches your max out-of-pocket. Anything past that is vacation money.

I hope that answers your question. Let us know if you need some help. We'll send out an agent to help you out. Have a great day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek God of Medicare. That's all Greek to you. You're in luck, I'm Greek. So the question today is, what is the Medicare Advantage Part C open enrollment period?

So that period is, it's a real thing. It is a real thing. Medicare Advantage has its own open enrollment after AEP, the annual enrollment period. It's called open enrollment. I know it's crazy, but it's from January 1st to March 31st. If you're on an Advantage plan, you can change to another Advantage plan. If you're under an Advantage plan, you can go back to original Medicare and do a drug plan, so you can change. If you're on original Medicare and on a supplement, you can't change to it.

Also, January through March is the general election period. If you didn't go on Part A or B and you're already retired and just hanging out there, and you need to go on it, that's when you go on one of those parts. But January to March, so if you made a mistake during open enrollment, boom, you can correct it one time here, January to March. If you missed open enrollment, boom, you get another, you get a secondary chance for your Advantage to change your Advantage.

So that's Medicare Advantage open enrollment period, January 1st to March 31st. After that, it's a special election period. So you got to be cautious if you need to make a change. Make a change now. All right, hope that helps. If you have any questions, we'll send out an agent to help you out. Have a good day.

Answer: Voss Speros here, the Greek God of Medicare, talking about Medicare.

Hey, the question is, what is a five-star Medicare Advantage open enrollment? Is it different than OEP or AEP?

So, AEP, the Annual Enrollment Period, is from October 15th through December 7th. During that time, anybody can change their plan. OEP, the Open Enrollment Period, is from January 1st through March 31st. Anyone with an Advantage plan can make a one-time change to their Advantage plan, either to another Advantage plan or go back to Original Medicare.

So if you miss the AEP, there's always OEP. The five-star is if there's a plan in your area that has a five-star rating. The ratings usually come out at the beginning of the new year. If they have a five-star rating, it gives you a one-time opportunity to change to that plan.

So if you're on a three-star or four-star plan and there's a five-star plan in your area, you can change to it anytime during the year. The special election periods are generally from January to the end of September. October 1st starts the Annual Enrollment Period, and there are only other election periods through that, like if you move or if you're going on Part B for the first time.

So, five-star rating, if there's a plan in your area that has a five-star rating, jump on that. It's one of the best plans in the area. I hope that helps. Give us a call if you need some help, and we'll send out an agent. Have a wonderful day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek God of Medicare, talking about Medicare today. The question is, do I have to answer questions when switching from one supplement Medigap plan to another? Yes or no? It depends on the situation. Most times, you have to go through underwriting. Annual enrollments at the end of the year, we just got out of. You’ve got to go through underwriting unless you have a guaranteed issue to change from one to another, or a birthday, or a special election period. If it's your birthday year, you can change without it. But most of the time, yes, you have to go through underwriting and answer health questions.

Supplement is not insurance; it's just coverage. It should cover the 20% Medicare doesn't cover. So it's not Medicare insurance; it's just trade insurance. They're picking up the responsibility for your 20% of your health care. So you are paying them a monthly premium to assume your health care risk. They're in insurance; they don't want to assume any risk if you're sick.

So if you're moving from one to another and you have to go through underwriting, make sure you're healthy doing it. All you're going to get rated. And if you get rated, maybe it's less than what you're currently paying, but it's worth looking into. So yes, most of the time, you're gonna have to answer questions. Hope that helps! If you have any questions, give us a call. Have a great day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, the Greek god of Medicare. The question today is, does Medicare cover home health care? Yes, Medicare covers it. Medicare Advantage covers home health care, medical home health care. They cover medical home health care. So, like a skilled home health need, physical therapy, occupational therapy, things like that. When you're coming out of a skilled nursing facility, going home, and you need therapy, it covers that.

Non-medical home care, like custodial care, most mainstream Medicare doesn't really cover. They have a billing code for someone that oversees that. So there's a little gray area mixed in on that one. Some Advantage plans offer hours a year for non-medical home care. So yes, depending on your need and depending on your area, we can find a plan that works and has some of that coverage. But the non-medical side, it's only like 80 hours a year. It's not a lot if you need that kind of home care. Someone to come in and watch over your folks or you, you're gonna need more than 80 hours a year or an hour or a couple of hours a week.

As for medical home care, yeah, usually that's about 6 to 8 visits a month is what Medicare pays for. And then physical therapy passes through home health. If you go the physical therapy route, you can probably get about one session a day, depending on the plan. Occupational therapy, about the same thing on that one. Keep in mind, if you're on an Advantage plan and a provider says you need to drop it and go back to original Medicare for more benefits, they're lying to you. The only reason they're saying that is because they're getting a higher reimbursement rate from original Medicare than an Advantage plan. They still can do it. They just don't want to contract with it.

Or you just need to find someone that's gonna be contracted with it. If you call your plan and say, I need home health, they'll find you a contracted home health care company that can bill and take that plan. So if anybody tells you you need to drop your plan because you're getting less benefits, they are lying to you. And it's all about money. It's not about patient care at that point. It's about money. So if you want patient care, say, you know what? Thank you. Thank you for the suggestion. I'm gonna call my plan and see who's contracted. And I'm gonna go work with them. Thank you very much. Have a great day.

So just keep in mind, Medicare does cover medical home care. Medicare Advantage, straight Medicare. Hope that helps. If you have any questions, we'll send out an agent, do a plan review, and we'll get you straightened out. Have a great night.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek God of Medicare. The question today is how well does Medicare cover assisted living, or does it fall short? So, Medicare doesn't cover assisted living right out of the gate. It doesn't cover it. That's two types of insurance. Assisted living is long-term care insurance, like a Genworth or John Hancock policy, or New York Life, or some of those other companies. So we offer a long-term care insurance policy. Yes. Does Medicare cover it? No. Medicare will cover up to 100 days in a skilled nursing facility. So there is that. But it's not going to cover long-term skilled nursing or long-term assisted living.

That being said, once you get into a skilled nursing facility and you do your 20 days, and you want to stay longer, and they agree, you can stay in there. Once you get up to the 100-day mark, then you need to start really planning for assisted living. So it's not like it falls short. It's just that it's not made to cover that. There are two different types of insurance there. There is Medicaid that covers assisted living. In Arizona and some other states, it's called something else. But just in general, Medicaid will pay for assisted living or long-term nursing care. Medicare only pays for your short-term health care needs. Hope that helps. If you have any questions, give us a call. We'll send an agent for review. Have a great night.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. We are in AEP, and the question today is, are some Medicare Advantage plans better than others? Yes or no? Medicare Advantage plans have networks, and they can be PPO or HMO. Then there are drugs in their formularies, and it's extra benefits built on top of that. The guide depends on what you're looking for. Not all plans have the same doctor network, and not all plans have the same formulary. Some plans get more benefits, and some plans give less benefits on the extra curricular stuff, the ancillary products.

So really, it depends on what you're looking for. Some of the PPO plans are great because they give you an in-and-out-of-network feel. If somebody's saying you need to go back to original Medicare, it's not just going from PPO to your HMO. They can bill out of network on the other side. If maybe you need more dental or maybe you need more vision, or maybe you don't want something special that's built into another plan, there's a plan coming out that covers naturopathic doctors. Maybe that's what you need or what you prefer. Then that plan would be the best plan for you if it works out the best way.

Some plans are adding in chiropractor, acupuncture, and even a day at the spa. Not a full day, but maybe a couple of nails' worth of money. Then some plans offer extra money for green fees on top of the health care. So if you're pretty healthy and you play a lot of golf, that plan might be a good plan.

So really, it depends on what's best for you, and everybody's different. So give us a call. We'll do a plan review and see what works best for you. Have a good day!

Answer: Got a call today. Someone asked me how do I avoid Medicare scams? So what's the best way for seniors to avoid Medicare scams? That's a good general question. The best way is to put your phone on the Do Not Call list. Agents aren't allowed to call you unless we get permission. So if you fill something out and send it in, that's permission to discuss something. If you fill something out online, they can show proof. On our website, there's a form that says if you fill this out, we're going to get in touch with you. But we are not allowed to call people.

A lot of those call centers are calling people and then transferring over to an agent. So how do you get off of those lists? They're just buying those lists and doing that. The best way to do it is ask for their national producer number and get their full name. "Hey, what's your full name?" "Yeah, what's your full name?" Give the full name and the national producer number. By law, we have to give that if asked. We should just give it anyways. But always, if asked, we give it.

Then ask what company they are with. Usually, they'll hang up right away because they don't want to deal with that. You know more than them. If it's an agent calling you and he gives it to you, it's probably because you gave them permission. But probably not. Take that information down. But mostly, most will just hang up right away. So you ask for the national producer number to say, "Oh, I'm not the agent, but I am going to connect you to an agent."

I know you called me. Are you going to connect me to an agent? Please, yes, connect me to that agent. That agent gets on and asks you a question. You say, "What's your national producer number?" Boom, click, hang up. Off the list. Then they're going to let the call center know not to call you back. Keep that in mind for any one moment or any time during the year. If you give me those spam calls, it doesn't matter what insurance they try to offer. Just ask for the producer number and their full name, and boom, they'll hang up.

So that's the best way to avoid scams. I mean, not really avoid scams, but kind of take your name off of scams. But never give your Medicare number out unless you call somebody or you're working with a broker. Don't just give it out over the phone willy-nilly. If you have any questions, give us a call. We're more than happy to send a broker out to help assist with any of your Medicare concerns. Have a good day.

Answer: Medicare question: If I'm on an Advantage plan and I change to another Advantage plan, can I keep my doctors or do I have to change doctors?

So that's a good question. You can keep your doctors. When we change plans for another Advantage plan, we're going to double-check to see if your doctors are in network. Now, if your doctors are in a network and you're moving for the benefits, then yes, you will have to change your provider that you're working with. Some might be in network, some might not be, but if they're not, then yes, you have to change your doctors.

And there's some plans coming out this year that are really good. They are offering great benefits. Usually, some of the newer companies that come out have decent benefits, really low co-payments, and add some extra perks, which is nice. But the low co-payments are what we're kind of getting after. If you move to one of those, you might have to change your doctor.

But most of the time, as a broker, when we sit down with you, we're going to review your current doctors to see if they're in other plans, and then we're going to find something that kind of works for you. So it's hit and miss. If you have any questions, give us a call or send a broker. We're out to help you out. Have a good day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. Medicare's all great to you, your luck. I'm Greek, so the question today is, what is the most overhyped Medicare Advantage benefit that seniors should be wary of? This is a tough one, 'cause there's a lot of benefits mixed in that seniors should be wary of. Yes and no, because there's a lot of things that help people. One thing that is the network, they should be aware of. The area of the network, Sub-1 plans don't have networks. It's great. PPO plans are in and out of network. I think what I feel is that when they're going to a provider, the benefits they'd have as an Advantage Plan, the in-network benefits keep their costs down. So seniors keep their costs down by having an Advantage Plan. They usually don't pay monthly for it, and they pay a minimal copayment for service at the time of service. So providers, depending on the provider type, I'm just gonna throw out a couple: skilled nursing, home health, wound care, and home things like that. They get a higher reimbursement rate from straight Medicare. So they're gonna come at you and say your Advantage Plan is garbage. So be wary of what providers are telling you about your plan. If they're not a Medicare certified agent, you know, an insurance broker like us that does this day in and day out and works with people to find plans that work best for them out of the hundreds of plans and options available, then telling you your plan is garbage because you can get more benefits going back to original Medicare. Well, be wary of that. Be wary of providers telling you that, no, don't do that. You need to go back to original Medicare. Just real quick, if you're 90 days out of the hospital or a skilled nursing, you can't apply for a supplemental plan to get denied. So if you go back to original Medicare, you have to pay that 20% cost share that Medicare doesn't cover. How much does a hospital cost? How much does physical therapy cost? How much do doctors cost? It's a lot when it's not a managed copayment. So be wary of those benefits. The benefits that keep the cost down for beneficiaries on the plan are sometimes not good for the provider because the provider gets paid more on the other route. So is the provider really looking out for your best interest? The more benefits? No, skilled nursing is 20 days regardless. Advantage pays 20 days, someone pays 20 days. They're in and out in 20 days. Home health, you get eight visits. Basically eight visits. You know, wound care can bill Advantage. Everybody can bill Advantage. So be wary about providers telling you that Advantage plans are garbage. If you have any questions, give us a call. We'll have a broker come out to you and help you review your plan to make sure you're on the right one for your current needs. Have a good night.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek out of Medicare. If Medicare's all Greek to you, you're in luck. I'm Greek. So the question today is, I'm on a supplement plan and I go to an MRI because I got an MRI coming up. Am I gonna get hit with a bill? No, you're not. So you're on an end plan. You might. On a supplemental plan, N and G, you have to pay the first $257 for your copay this year for the Part B deductible. So you might get hit with a bill if you haven't paid your Part B deductible yet. If you have paid your Part B deductible, then you're fine. So there are some copayments on the end plan for doctor, specialist, and emergency room. I think it's specialist and emergency room, $20, $50. It's not too terrible. If you're on, no, that's a deductible G. So just the end, you should be fine. Just make sure you pay your Part B deductible of $257 and then after that, you're covered for the year. So if you have any questions, give us a call. We'll send a broker out to you and help you out with whatever it needs to be. Make sure to always review your plan.

Answer: Last spirit was here, Greek out of Medicare. Medicare is all Greek to you. You're in luck. I'm Greek. The question is, I have a client who says I have rheumatoid arthritis and the medication I take is about $6,000 a month. Whoa, that's a lot. But what will the 2025 Part D drug plan change do for me? So if your medication is in the formulary for a carrier in a Part D plan or a Medicare Advantage plan, if your medication is in the formulary, the insurance company is going to cover it. The most you'll pay in Part D drug coverage is $2,000. So once you hit the $2,000 mark in copayments, boom, you don't pay any more for drugs past that. So if your drug is costing $6,000 a month, you're only gonna pay $2,000 and then the rest is covered. So make sure your drug is in the formulary. Now, some drugs aren't, some drugs get taken out. So you might have to request to see if they'll put it back in, or we'll just check across the board to see who has it. Give us a call if you have any questions, we're more than happy to help you out and send an agent to you so you can get these things taken care of. Have a great day.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. If Medicare's all Greek to you, you're in luck. I'm Greek. So the question is, can Medicare pay for groceries? Yes and no. Straight Medicare is not going to cover groceries. Medicare Advantage plans have benefits built in. Some do, based around supplemental benefits. But as of 2026, you gotta need a chronic condition to get those. So where it pays, right now it does pay for benefits. Some plans cover groceries. There are grocery benefits built in, healthy food benefits. Not junk food, not alcohol, tobacco, none of that. But healthier food. Yes, it will cover some of that up to a certain dollar amount every month or whatever, or a quarter or whatever it is. But coming up soon, it's only gonna be for chronic conditions. So if you have some kind of chronic condition, then yeah, you can probably get one of those plans and it'll cover groceries. Depending on the carrier, depending on the plan, there's more benefits spread around. But the Advantage plans have a grocery benefit built in. If you have any questions, give us a call. We'll send an agent out to you to better explain this. Have a good night.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. If Medicare's all Greek to you, you're in luck. I'm Greek. So the question is, why do people end up paying lifelong penalties for Part B and D of Medicare? You go on Medicare at 65 and you're like, "I don't need Part B. I just take A because it's free." I'm like, okay, yeah, that's fine. But if you have credible coverage through work, you don't need it. But if you just don't have any coverage at 65 and you just take A and that's it, or you take A and B and say, "I don't need drug coverage because I don't take any drugs." So later in life, when you do need Part B for some reason or Part D drug plan, there's a penalty. The government, you didn't pay the government for all those years for Parts B and D because you didn't want to. Well, they're going to get it back when you do need it in the long run. They're going to be like, "Oh, yeah, now you're stuck with a lifetime penalty for every 12-month period of Part B that you didn't do." It's 10% of the average monthly income for that monthly average premium. So $185 right now, 18 bucks for as many years as you didn't take it. Part D, they're going to be like, it's like 1% of the average cost of Part D on a monthly basis for as many months as you didn't take it. So roughly 33 cents right now a month for as many months as you didn't take it. So it's not a lot, but it adds up and then it's a lifetime penalty that stacks onto what you owe. Now you want it. Well, you're going to pay back to the government for not taking it when you were supposed to take it. So they're going to get their money back. So if you need it in the long run, there's where the penalties come in. Make sure to get on something at 65 or when you retire that covers what you need. Talk to a broker, find a plan. If you need help, give us a call. We'll send somebody out to help you out. Thank you.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. Medicare is all Greek to you. You're in luck. I'm Greek. So the question today is who qualifies for Medicare under 65? If you're under 65 years old, you can get Medicare if you're on SSDI, Social Security Disability Income. Now make sure it's the right one, not SSI, SSDI for at least 24 months. So on the 25th month, you can qualify for Medicare. Also, if you're ESD or have end-stage renal disease, if you need dialysis, you can get Medicare early. If you have Lou Gehrig's disease, yes, you can get Medicare early. I think that's pretty much it. There might be one or two more, but those are the main ones. So remember, if you're under 65 and have a disability, make sure it's SSDI. Then you can qualify for Medicare ahead of time. If you have any questions, give us a call. We'd be more than happy to help. Have a great day.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. If Medicare is all Greek to you, you're in luck. I'm Greek. So the question is, what if I miss open enrollment and I want to make a change to my plan? Well, if you miss AEP, October 15th through December 7th, there is OEP from January 1st through March 31st. Anybody on a Medicare Advantage plan gets a one-time change to their plan. They can go back to original Medicare, change to another Advantage plan, switch to original Medicare and a Part D plan, or go to a Medicare Advantage plan. If they have a supplement, they can just do that. So if you have any questions, give us a call. We're more than happy to help you out, but that's what it is. If you miss open enrollment, you have, if you miss annual enrollment, you have open enrollment, and then you have some SCPs. So give us a call, we'll help you out.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. Medicare is all Greek to you. You're in luck. I'm Greek. So the question is, what's the most cost-effective way for a healthy 65-year-old to create the best coverage? A cost-effective coverage is an advantage plan, right? You could go the supplement route. Healthy 65-year-olds could get a supplement. And if they're not going to use anything, they can get a Plan G with a high deductible. So with Plan G, you pay $150 or $200 a month, depending on where you are. Plus, you get your Part B. And if you're not using that, you can get a $0 Part D plan just to have some coverage there. But then you get the high deductible. You can actually drop your premium down to like $40 a month and have a deductible of $2,800 first. There is a carrier that has a special, but it's not in every state. They have a high deductible Plan G that you can go on for three years. After three years, the deductible will drop and go straight to Plan G. You stay at that low rate. Plan G premiums go up about 5% to 10% every year, so just remember that. If you're starting at $40, that's a lot better than starting at $200. Keep that in mind. That's a good cost-effective way for someone going on Medicare that's healthy. They get an inexpensive Plan G and an inexpensive drug plan. The other way is Medicare Advantage. There's no cost to that. You would take whatever money you were going to put towards the Plan G, put it in the savings account, and just use that for your co-pays. Once that account gets up to the maximum out-of-pocket level of the Medicare Advantage plan, then you're covered for the most out-of-pocket costs on the Advantage plan. And you have a nice little chunk of change over here. It depends on what you're looking for, where you are in the country, rural or not rural. There are a lot of variables that go into that one. But there are ways to keep costs effective as a healthy 65-year-old. If you have any questions, give us a call. We'll send out a broker, and they'll discuss all these things with you. Have a great day.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. If Medicare is all Greek to you, you're in luck, I'm Greek. So the question is, I found out my preferred hospital isn't in my Medicare Advantage's network. And I'm like, did you meet with a broker? We checked doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and drugs to make sure that what you use is in network with the Advantage Plan. So that one kind of threw me off a little bit. Then we had to go and look into some things. But if you're in the middle of the year and you need help, you're gonna have to go to another hospital, sorry to say. But once you go to the hospital and then if you go to a skilled nursing facility, that does create a small window to change. So you could go back to a different plan that has your hospital network. But it's probably better just to wait till the next open enrollment and meet with a broker, sit down, and make sure everything's in order first before you jump on it. Don't just jump on Medicare.gov and sign up for a plan because it gives a couple extra bucks back towards a different benefit. Give us a call. We'll send a broker out to you to help you figure things out. Hope you have a good day.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. Medicare is all Greek to you. You're in luck. I'm Greek. So the question is, what Medicare decision do people regret later? That's a tough one. There are lots of people who make decisions and have regrets if they don't like it. The biggest one I would come into, I guess, would be people listening to their friends and not talking to a broker. Your friends are like, "Well, I'm on this great plan. This is fantastic. You gotta get on this." And they're like, "Yes, that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go to Medicare.gov and sign up for it." No questions asked, nothing. And then down the road, they're like, "Well, my doctor doesn't take that. Now my drugs aren't in this and I'm paying so much." So I guess it's not talking to a broker because then when you talk to them, it's like, "Oh, I just went with what my friend said." I'm like, "Well, that's good. It's good that you have friends that you can talk to about this." Every plan is different based around every person because every person is different, right? I mean, I don't see a lot of twins of me running around. This guy's pretty cool. But if everybody's different, then that means all the different plans are different. There are different provider groups in different plans. The Medicare Supplement Plan, that's great. One size fits all. Down the road, like I'm paying so much money for this Medicare Supplement Plan and I didn't realize that there was this Advantage plan that didn't cost anything and still had great coverage. So there's some regrets mixed in there. It's always good to talk to a broker to make sure you're on the plan that works best for you, physically, mentally, health-wise, and financially. So reach out to us. We'll send out an agent and we'll be more than happy to help you out. Have a great day.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. If Medicare is all Greek to you, you're like, "I'm Greek." So the question is, what does Part B cover and is it enough? Part B covers doctors, providers, some outpatient things, ambulance services, some injections, and different procedures inside a doctor's office, as well as durable medical equipment. Is it enough? No. It doesn't cover facilities like Part A does. So you're gonna need Part A and Part B when you go on Medicare. The Medicare 80/20, they say Medicare is 80/20. It covers 80% and you're responsible for 20%. The 20% is based around the Part B coverage. You need to have Part B to see the doctors, but you need to have Part A to go to the hospital. If you have any questions, give us a call and we'll have one of our agents reach out to you. Have a good day.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. If Medicare is all Greek to you, you're in luck, I'm Greek. So the question today is, does Medicare Advantage really save seniors money in the long run? Yes or no? I'm gonna have to say yes on that one, depending on how people look at it. Everyone's ideas are different.

But if you're turning 65 and you have the option to go on a supplement that costs $200 a month for a G plan, the standard plan, plus about $30 a month for a Part D plan, plus maybe $15 or $20 for a dental, vision, hearing plan, okay, so that's $230, $20, $250 a month. You pay $250 a month for your secondary stuff or the Advantage plan is zero. You can take that $250 and put it in a bank every month, save it.

Say your Advantage plan has a $5,000 maximum out of pocket. There's no deductible on Advantage plans. Your drugs have a little deductible, but on the healthcare side, there's no deductible. So you build up $5,000 in this other account. At $200 a month times 12 months, that's $2,400. So you're looking at about two years' worth of putting money aside in that. When you get up to $5,000, then that's covering your maximum out of pocket and you use this card here to cover your co-payments for that.

This money is just gonna build. If you just keep putting the $250 aside every month for years, then when you need the healthcare in the long run, you could have $10,000 to $15,000 saved, but your maximum out of pocket is only $5,000. So you're really never gonna go past that. So is it gonna help in the long run? I say yes, it does.

Now, if you look at it from the standpoint of getting to the long run and you didn't put it away and you just spent it willy-nilly on your retirement and then you needed care, yes, the supplement would be nice because you don't have any money to back up for all those co-payments. So at 65, set money aside like a health savings account, but not bad. Set money aside in another account, like $200 a month, basically paying for the supplement.

Give it up to $5,000 so you have that coverage, and yeah, it will save you money in the long run. If you have any questions, give us a call. Thoughts, concerns, let us know. Have a good day.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek out of Medicare. If Medicare is Greek to you, you're in luck. I'm Greek. So the question is, does Medicare fully cover nursing home care? And if not, are there other alternatives?

Medicare covers skilled nursing up to 100 days. Your plan will cover the first 20. For the next 40, there's a copayment anywhere from $150 to $200 a day. From there on, depending on the plan, it could cover the rest, but up to 100 days. If you're talking about assisted living, nursing home, or long-term care nursing, then no, it's not going to cover past 100 days.

The alternative to that is you'd have to get a long-term care insurance policy. They make them either just straight long-term care insurance or a hybrid with a life insurance policy. That way, if you don't use it, the benefit comes back to the family. If you do use it, you have a nice big pool of a couple hundred thousand dollars for long-term care insurance.

In Arizona, there's Arizona long-term care insurance, and that's Medicaid. State Medicaid will pay for your assisted living or long-term nursing. But that's Medicaid and not Medicare. I hope that helps. If you have any questions, give us a call.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek out of Medicare. If Medicare is Greek to you, you're in luck because I'm Greek. So I'm gonna break it down a little bit. The question is, is occupational therapy covered by Medicare Advantage? Yes, it is. It's usually categorized with physical therapy and speech therapy, and it's either a certain number of times a month or a dollar amount per visit. So usually it has anywhere from zero to forty dollars a month or zero to forty dollars per visit with an occupational therapist.

Occupational therapy is rearranging your house and helping you move around in your occupation to get you back moving into the occupation of work or just living in your house, moving around, and doing things. Physical therapy gets your body up and running and strong enough to go out and do those things. Occupational therapy helps you reorganize and get you to move around and find out what you need to do to be able to function in your own house again. So yes, it is covered by Advantage plans. Depending on the carrier, there's a different copayment for service. If you have questions, give us a call. Hope you have a good day.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek out of Medicare. If Medicare is Greek to you, you're in luck, I'm Greek. So talking about Medicare today, the question is if someone enrolls in a C-SNP plan, a MAPD C-SNP chronic special needs plan, and doesn't get their doctor to sign off on it in the first 60 days, does it create another open enrollment period? So yes, when you enroll in a C-SNP plan, you need a doctor, your doctor, to sign off saying you have a chronic special need for this plan. If they don't sign off in the timeframe, then the plan drops. If a plan drops, that creates a new special election period. If you drop a plan or you lose a plan, it creates an election period. So yes, if you're in the middle of the year and you have a chronic special need, if you have diabetes or heart failure or something going on that's a chronic condition, and there's a list of them, then you can enroll into a C-SNP plan, chronic special needs plan, anytime during the year. That creates a window to enroll in one of these plans because they want you to get the help you need. If the doctor doesn't sign off on it in time, then that creates another window to enroll back into the plan you had or another plan that's gonna work best for you.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare, talking about Medicare today. The question is, are preventive screenings covered by Medicare? Yes, they are covered by Medicare. Medicare Advantage has a nice big list at the beginning of the summary of benefits of what screenings are covered. The Medicare insurance companies want to make sure you're healthy. So get on a plan and get the screenings done. Some Advantage plans will actually pay you money to do the preventive screenings every year. A couple dollars here, a couple of dollars there, it adds up. It adds up over time. So yes, preventive screenings are covered under Medicare. If you have any questions on that, give us a call. We'll see what your plan covers. And if you want something else, we'll take a look at it. Have a good day.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare, talking about Medicare today. The question I got from a client earlier was, "Can I show my original Medicare card to the doctor if the doctor doesn't accept my Advantage plan?" You can, yes. You can show them the card all you want, but it's not going to do anything because you're on an Advantage plan, so that is your Medicare plan. If your doctor doesn't take it, you should have looked into that before you went on that plan. If your doctor dropped the plan, then we should look into another plan. If you got referred to this doctor, then the referring doctor that did that didn't do you right. So, if you want to see the doctor, then you gotta look into updating your current plan or you're going to have to find a different doctor inside your network of your Advantage plan. But yeah, give them the card, let them put it on file, but you still need your Advantage. Give us a call if you have any questions.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare, talking about Medicare. So it came up again. Why not just call the carrier instead of an agent to sign up for Medicare? By all means, call the carrier. The carrier knows their stuff. The inside broker of the carrier knows their stuff, yes. But the carrier only knows their stuff. So if you're looking for a plan, you might want to talk to a broker to see which plan is actually best for you. If you look through the plans and you think this carrier is it, then do it. But call a broker and double-check to see if that plan is the one right for you. Because we do this on a daily basis. This is it. This is what we do. We're out there cross-checking plans for everybody. And if you did a couple online, that's great. But maybe you want to double-check your work before you get locked into a plan for a year. Give us a call.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare, talking about Medicare. Someone called and said, "Hey, I lost my card. What do I do?" Well, first off, you gotta know which card you lost. Is it your red, white, and blue card? That's a big one. So you gotta call the Social Security Department and have them replace that. Or you can go on to your socialsecurity.gov account and ask for a replacement. If it's your Advantage Plan card, you gotta call the carrier or go on to your portal that they gave you to request a replacement card. If you know your broker's number, if I'm your broker, call me and I'll get you a replacement card. It's not a problem.

And then if it's a Supplement card, you gotta call the carrier. Most of the time, it's the carrier or the Social Security Department to get your card replaced. But just call a local broker and we'll be more than happy to help you out. So give us a call if you have any questions.

Answer: Voss Speros, Greek god of Medicare, here talking about Medicare. I got a cool new pink hat my wife got for me, probably for her more than for me, but I thought it’d be pretty cool to put it on.

The question is, do I have to sign up for Medicare if I'm still working past 65? No, you don't have to if you're working and you have credible coverage through your work. You don't have to sign up for Medicare at 65 if you're on an HSA plan and a Health Savings Account. If you want to keep contributing, don't sign up for Medicare if you're not on an HSA.

You can really just go on Part A and get that out of the way. So when you do retire, when you stop, and you want to go on Medicare, Part B is the only one you need to go on. When you stop working, you got a two-month window and a six-month window, depending on it, to go on Part B. You have a two-month window to go on Part B, and then you have a six-month window to pick a plan.

So you don't have to do it, but look into your options. Give us a call if you have questions. We'll help you out.

Answer: There isn't any Donut Hole as of 2025. Don't you fret about a thing. There is a $2000 max out of pocket for all drugs as of 2025, instead of the donut hole and an $8000 max.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare, talking about Medicare today. Got a question: how come hospitals are starting to not take Advantage plans in different places? So it depends on the hospital, the state, the county, and the Advantage plan. Some say it's the administration costs, getting procedures done, authorization. A lot of it boils down to reimbursement rate. The hospital wants a certain reimbursement rate, while the insurance companies have an average reimbursement rate for hospitals across the country. Then they try to discuss and contract with the hospital and the insurance companies. If the hospital says, "I don't want it," it's based around the reimbursement rate that the insurance companies are going to give them.

Everybody likes original Medicare and Medicare supplement because there are no contracts for that; they just bill it. On the Advantage side, the providers, the hospital has to contract with the carrier to accept that insurance. Sometimes they just can't come to terms on it, and then a hospital chain doesn't take it. So hospitals don't take all carriers. They take a handful, the ones they can contract with, come to the tables, work out an agreement, and then do that.

So when you're looking for hospitals in your plans, make sure the one you go to is in the carrier, so you don't have to go to a different hospital. If you have any questions, give us a call.

Answer: America shells out about $5 Trillion per year on healthcare.

Per person is about $15000 on average.

Answer: Vos Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. Got a little wing problem. I got a question from a prospective client. I'm retiring next year. What do I need to do with my Medicare? So next year when you retire, if you're over 65 and retiring, then yes, you're gonna need to, before you retire, the day you retire, apply for Medicare. So you need to call the Social Security Department or go to socialsecurity.gov to sign up for your Medicare plan. If you didn't go on it already at 65 and you waited till you retired, if you went on Part A already, then you know we're just going on Part B. So you retired, you go on, you request your Medicare, and then if you're gonna take your Social Security, if you're going to retire, you're probably gonna take your Social Security. So we're gonna request that too, and we're gonna go on Medicare and Social Security, and then we'll work on picking a plan to cover the 20% Medicare doesn't cover. So Medicare Advantage plan or Medicare Supplement plan, depending on your area and your lifestyle. So when you're getting close to retirement, that's when we want to sit down and get you enrolled in Original Medicare through the government so you can get a Medicare plan. I hope that helps. If you have questions, give us a call. I hope you have a wonderful day.

Answer: VOSS, the Greek god of Medicare, here. Got a little wing problem. So I had a question from a client who wants to discuss Medicare with his parents. How do you create an environment so they feel comfortable doing it? Some people don't like opening up and discussing it. We gotta work together to get them home in a comfortable setting, kind of open up, lighten the mood, have a discussion, see what's going on, and then work our way into the topic at hand about making a change because of new life situations or new health care problems. We really need to focus on what's going to work best for them, but we gotta be in a comfortable area.

Maybe we're at home on the couch having some coffee, watching a game. I don't know. It depends on the person. Some people like sitting on the patio and figuring things out. It's whatever works best for you. Some people like to meet at a coffee shop and get a slice of pie. I'm good with that. So just figure out what's good for you. Then we kind of go from there to find a good way to approach the subject. Hope that helps, and have a wonderful day. Give us a call if you need anything.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare, talking about Medicare. So a client asked if they're covered for Medicare when they're traveling overseas. Yes and no. Medicare will cover some reimbursement for that. If you go to the hospital or emergency room type stuff, there is some coverage built in for reimbursement on the Medicare Advantage plans. There is international coverage built in up to a certain dollar amount.

Basically, depending on your plan, if you're traveling out of the country and something happens, you have to go to the emergency room there. There's most likely some money built in for reimbursement, but you're going to have to pay at that time and then get the bill and reimburse it to your plan. You can call your plan and let them know you're traveling, just so they have a heads up if something comes up. It's in their book.

So it's always good when you're traveling to call your insurance company and let them know where you're going to be. That way, if something happens, they can help you out. Hope you have a good day, and let us know if you have any questions.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare. I'm getting thrown off with my bald head up there. But real quick, somebody asked about the $2,000 maximum out-of-pocket for drugs. Basically, they were saying my dad's paying $4,000 a month for drugs, which is ridiculous. I don't know about that. How it works is your drugs have to be in the formulary for it to work for the max out-of-pocket cap, the $2,000. So the most you pay in drug coverage over the course of the year and co-payments is $2,000 as of this year. But your drugs have to be in the formulary of the plan. The formulary is a list of drugs that they'll accept and they'll help cover. So if they're not in the formulary, then you need to find a formulary that the drugs are in. There's a lot of Part D plans if you're on a supplement, and there's a lot of Advantage plans. If you're not on a supplement, each plan has its own formulary. So it's always best to cross-reference all of them to make sure you're in the right plan that covers that specific need. Also, you'll be paying a lot of money out of pocket. Hope that helps. Have a great day.

Answer: Voss Speros, Greek god of Medicare, talking about Medicare today. So the question is, can I change my supplemental Medigap plan anytime during the year? Yes, in theory, but no, there are election periods and times when you can change it, and you get a couple of times during the year. But if you drop your Advantage plan and you apply for a supplement, depending on the situation, then yes, you can do that.

So I'd be aware that some states have a birthday rule. On your birthday, you can change your plan to the current or a lesser version of it. So yes, there are some ways to make changes during the year depending on your current situation, your healthcare situation, and what's going on. Really, it depends on everything. There are a lot of variables. So give us a call, call a broker, and make sure you're doing it the right way.

Answer: Voss Speros, Greek god of Medicare, talking about Medicare. So the question is, am I eligible for a special enrollment period if I lose my employer coverage? If you're over 65 and you've opted not to go on Medicare and that coverage drops, yes, you can go on. You get a special election period to go on Medicare due to loss of coverage. If you are retiring and you're going on Part B for the first time, your retirement SEP or loss of coverage is if you're dropping the plan. So yes, if you have an employer plan and you're dropping it, yes. If you move out of your plan area and you're on an Advantage plan, you get an SEP to pick a new plan. If your Advantage plan drops entirely, you can go on a supplement plan. You get an SEP for loss of coverage. So yes, there is a loss of coverage SEP, a special election period to help you pick plans. Give us a call if you have any questions. We'll be more than happy to help.

Answer: Voss Speros, Greek god of Medicare, talking about Medicare. So the question is, "Am I eligible for a special enrollment period if I lose my employer coverage?" If you're over 65 and you've opted not to go on Medicare and that coverage drops, yes, you can go on. You get a special election period to go on Medicare due to loss of coverage if you are retiring and you're going on Part B for the first time. Your retiree SEP or loss of coverage is if you're dropping the plan. So yes, if you have an employer plan and you're dropping it, yes, if you move out of your plan area and you're on an Advantage plan, you get an SEP to pick a new plan. If your Advantage plan drops entirely, you can go on a supplement plan and you get an SEP for loss of coverage. So yes, there is a loss of coverage SEP, a special election period to help you pick plans. Give us a call if you have any questions. We'll be more than happy to help.

Answer: Voss Speros, Greek God of Medicare here talking about Medicare. So, I got a question about whether Medicare pays for dental implants. Yes and no. Some Advantage plans offer it in their dental coverage. Medicare won't pay for it unless it's medically necessary. If you're getting implants to put some crowns or veneers in, they're not going to cover that. If you have a medical need for it that’s going to save your life, then yeah, you have a better chance of Medicare paying for it on an outpatient event like that. But normally, that falls in the dental side and not the healthcare side. So generally, they don't cover it, but there are some Advantage plans with dental coverage built in that do have some money allocated for it. Now, implants are expensive, so you might need more than just that coverage. Food for thought. If you have questions, give us a call. I'd be more than happy to help.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare, talking about Medicare. So, question: what's the biggest disadvantage of the Advantage Plan? There are advantages and disadvantages to all plans. The Advantage Plans have networks that you have to work with. So with an HMO, you have to stay inside their doctor provider network to see the doctors. You get a referral from your PCP to see a specialist to get the ball rolling for different things. That is a disadvantage. Yes, but they also have PPO plans that kind of counteract that, where you don't need a referral from your PCP to see a specialist. You can go straight to the specialist and get things going.

Some other disadvantages might be if the insurance company is going to authorize a treatment. That one's a tough one because pre-authorization happens more for things that someone doesn't need. They go to the doctor and say, "My knee hurts. I don't need a knee replacement." Well, did you do some rehab on it first? "Well, I could, you know, this is it." There are some situations where you're right; this is what you need. But depending on the plan, if you're on an HMO, you kind of need to go through a certain step of things to make sure that this is what you need first versus a PPO. They'll just say, "Okay, well, we can go down this road and figure out what it is." The specialist will help you out. With straight Medicare, just go get it if that's what you want. Hope that helps. Give us a call. If you have any questions, we're more than happy to help you out.

Answer: Good afternoon. This is Voss, the Greek god of Medicare. A question kind of a thought from somebody: What's the difference between a Medicare broker and a Medicare agent?

So a Medicare agent is someone who helps you find the insurance plans that work best for you, depending on their field. If you have a life and health license, like we do for health insurance and life insurance, then we help with different areas on that. A broker is contracted with multiple carriers. An agent can be contracted with just a couple of carriers, and they're fine with that. Brokers work with multiple carriers.

The way I can best explain it is I'm a broker. I'm contracted with just about every carrier in Arizona that offers Medicare. We're also contracted with life insurance companies and different ACA health insurance companies. We're contracted with a lot of companies. So we broker different types of insurance, while an agent just offers the plans that they can offer.

If you have questions on that, that's a little bit of a gray area, but give us a call. We're more than happy to help you out. It's always good to work with a broker or someone with more than one or two carriers so they can find something from everybody that works best for you and not pigeonhole you into one plan or the other. Hope you have a good day. We'll talk to you later.

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare, talking about Medicare today. So I got a question: How do I get dental and vision coverage with Medicare? If you go on a Medicare Advantage plan, it’s just a quick and easy one. They have extra benefits. They have everything Medicare offers, plus some extra benefits. They're an insurance company, so they offer other types of insurance. Dental, vision, and hearing are part of the extra benefits that they include. You can pick it up that way.

If you go with a Medicare supplement, you can still get it. You get the Medicare supplement, your drug plan, and then you get another plan for dental, vision, and hearing. You can pick it up that way, and you pay for it monthly. Remember, on the supplement side, you pay a la carte. So whatever you want on the supplement side, it’s all a cart. You pay for it monthly. On the Advantage plan, it's all inclusive. So it's built into those plans.

Some of those dental plans offer first dollar dental in the Advantage. That means they're gonna pay for your dental first up until that mark, and then you pay after that. Regular dental, vision, and hearing plans, some have that built in. Mostly, it’s a percentage for the first year and a percentage for the second year. It depends on what kind of dental work you need. What kind of vision work? Do you have big glasses? Do you need glasses? What are you looking to do? Do you need a lot of coverage for that? Maybe an Advantage plan if you don’t. If you just need some coverage, maybe you're good with the a la carte. So give us a call.

Answer: Hey, Vaski Rose Creek out of Medicare here. I got a question today from a client who was signing up for Medicare. They asked if a prescription drug plan is better than a Medicare Advantage plan for Part D. Well, that depends on what you want to do and what you're looking for. Every client is different.

The Medicare Advantage plan generally has no cost to have the plan, and the Part D is built into it, so there's no monthly cost for the Part D plan. There are co-payments for services. If you get on a PPO plan, you can go in and out of networks or a broader network and see out-of-network doctors, but you will have co-payments for services on the healthcare side and on the prescription drug side.

With Part D alone, if you're with Original Medicare, you pay monthly for your supplement plan, which is about $150 a month. Your Part D plan is about $30 a month, and you still have co-payments for your drugs, just like you do on the Advantage plan. So, co-payments for your drugs mean you're either paying for it monthly or you're not. It really depends on what works for you.

Does the supplement plan work in other states? Do you live in other states? Are you just in one? Are you seeing the same doctor? You have to take a bunch of factors into account before you find out which is better, but it's all based around what's good for you.

The drug plan has a deductible, doesn't have a deductible, has a monthly payment, doesn't have a monthly payment, and has co-payments for services. Yes. And do they both have a $2,000 cap? Yes. So they're both good in their own way. It just depends on which plan and options are gonna work best for you. Thank you, and have a great day!

Answer: Voss Speros here, Greek god of Medicare, talking about Medicare today. Got a question about the OTC card. Clients ask, "How do I use the OTC card?" So basically, you get it. There are stores contracted with the carrier to offer products. You also have a catalog from the carrier; the carrier will send you out a catalog, or it'll be on your portal. You can go in and look and say, "I want this, this, and this." You enter it in, go to a shopping cart online, and submit it. They mail it to you without tax, or I mean, without shipping fees. So probably without tax too, because it's yours.

If you go to the stores, you can use it. Sometimes they have a healthy food card mixed in, sometimes they don't; maybe it's just over the counter. But if you go to CVS or Walgreens, on the labels on the price tags, it says OTC. That's when you know those products you can use for your card. So you pick those products, put them in your cart. Go up to the register, have those separated from everything else, put them on the little wheelie table, give them your card, they swipe it, and then that comes off your card as the allowed amount you can use to pay for those items. Then you put your other items on and pay for those.

So that's how you use the OTC card. If it's a healthy foods card, it's virtually the same. You go in, and they give you a list of healthy foods that you can pick from. You can't get alcohol or tobacco or junk food, but healthy food. You pick that, put it off to the side, and run your card the same way. If you have questions, give us a call, and we'll talk to you soon.

Answer: Good question, keep an eye out for anything from Medicare.gov or the Social Security Department, those are keepers.

If it is from an insurance carrier set those aside to skim through. If you call a carrier they will talk you into their products.

Skim through the rest to read up on Medicare info. Lots of companies and agents send confusing materials to get you to call. If it is confusing, trash it or shred it.

If you see something you like or recognize give them a call. Make sure ask what insurance carriers they contract with... you don't want to get pigeon holed into one thing.

Give us a call, we can help sort out the mess see whats going to work best for you.

Answer: Yes you can use your HSA to pay Medicare premiums of Parts B, Part D, and Part C.

Couple things, once you enroll onto medicare, you can't contribute to your HSA account any longer. You can't use your HSA to pay for a Supplement/Medigap plan (since these are not medicare or health plans)

Answer: You should review your options at minimum once every year. What are the sings... you ask? Here is a question for you, has anything changed in your life or health over the past 12 months or since your last review?

If not then you're probably good. If something is different then you need to give us a call and review your plan. There are hundreds of plan options available to you.

Make sure to utilized everything that is available to you and double check to be sure.

Answer: It really depends on the person. I'm licensed to offer both Med Adv & Med Sups

OM is the OG... it gets things done.

Part A is no cost as long as you worked 10 years and paid in.

Part B cost in 2025 $185 month

OM is an 80/20... covers 80% of your healthcare your responsible for 20%.

Two options to cover the 20%:

A Supplement/Medigap plan can cover the 20% at a monthly cost.

(Supps/Medi is not a Medicare Plan. It is straight Insurance to cover the 20%)

You'll also need a Part D Drug Plan at a monthly cost.

Medicare Advantage is Medicare Part C. Insurance Carriers contract with Medicare to offer Medicare. It generally costs $0 month, turns the 20% into minimum co-payments for service at time of use. It usually includes the Part D It also includes other non-Medicare Covered Benefits.

It really comes down to what each person's healthcare is like and what they can afford. There are lots of other variables past those... That's why it's good to meet with a Broker

Answer: Yes something did change. This year 2025, CMS put a cap on out of pocket drug costs for all beneficiaries, a $2000 annual max.

That being said, companies added in the Drug Deductible to more tier levels, Drug ties shifted to off set costs for the Carriers. Co-payments went up, drugs got dropped from formularies

The good thing is you won't pay over $2000 annually for covered drugs, and the carrier can spread the over all cost out over 12 months if you like.

If you have questions Ask a Broker

Answer: You don't have to get Medicare. IHS and Medicare are 2 different types of insurance.

You have access to both. Both pay for different things.

Medicare can be a second of IHS. You can use providers out side of IHS via your Medicare. They work together to give you more overall coverage.

Answer: Medicare covers most things that are medically necessary. Medicare has a list of things specifically it wont cover.

On this topic, if your BMI is over a certain amount and your doctor prescribes that you get the surgery preformed to save you life "Medically Necessary" then yes Medicare would cover it.

Answer: There are alot of Medicare Misconceptions, the one I face the most is, "I thought Medicare Covers Assisted Living"

Medicare covers Skilled Nursing up to 100 days through Part A. In a shortish term stay. There is state/federal coverage for Assisted Living which is called Medicaid.

Folks often get those to worlds mixed up, Medicare and Medicaid.

Answer: I would say Yes depending on the situation.

Trial Right:

When you turn 65, go on a Medicare Advantage plan then change your mind before you turn 66. you can get GI for a Supplement plan.

Same goes for if you retire after 65 and Take Part B for the first time, you can

Plan Coverage Drops:

If your Medicare advantage plan drops, is discontinued, or you move out of the plan area you can get a GI to apply for a Supplement Plan. Generally 63 day SEP window.

Answer: I love to help people. Being an insurance agent gives me the most important job of all. protecting folks and families' lives.

I work primarily in the senior space; over seeing a provider group, my wife and I own Red Mountain Funeral Home in Mesa AZ and having an insurance agency Speros Financial Group. The combination of these allows us the opportunity to help more people than ever expected.

Medicare has all kinds of options for folks to pick from, being able to spend time with folks and really find out what they need out of their Medicare plan no matter if I get paid or not. Knowing at the end of the day I truly helped someone out, find something that best suits their needs.

Makes it all worth it in the long run and keeps me going day to day. Hearing... Thank you :)