Changes To Colorado Medicare Supplement Insurance or Medigap Plans - Effective June 1, 2010

As of June 1st, 2010, the Department of Regulatory Agencies announced changes in the Medicare Supplement (Medigap) plans offered to consumers to cover medicare deductibles and co-payments. Please read the following to learn about the changes taking place on June 1, 2010. The information below should help customers better evaluate their current Medigap plan. In the information below describing the changes, please note that "Medicare Supplement" and "Medigap" will be used in describing these plans.
Medigap is used because Medicare Supplement plans fill in the "gaps" in Medicare. The Medicare Advantage Plan s that are provided as HMO's and PPO's should not be confused with the Medigap plan. A Medigapy plan cannot be billed and will not function with a Medicare Advantage plan.

Medigap plans are stardized and regulated by the Federal Government. Previous to the changes on June 1, 2010 there were twelve plans which lettered A through L. It did not matter which company a consumer went to, the plans all had the same designation letter. An example of this would be, one company's J plan will have the same benefits as another company's J plan, there would be no difference in coverage or benefits from the policy. Most recently the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced changes to these standardized plans. The following are an overview of the changes made by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services:

Changes Made to Medicare Supplemental Insurance Plans Effective June 1, 2010

• Hospice Coverage as a "basic" core benefit to all plans has been added. This same coverage was already added as a basic benefit in plans K and L.
• Cover for "Preventive Care NOT Covered by Medicare" (as provided by plans E and J) has been removed. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has come to the conclusion that Medicare Part B now covers many more preventive services than they have in the past. So the usefulness of the Medigap benefit had been greatly reduced by only covering a portion of a yearly physical after Medicare covered the first physical.
• "At-Home Recovery" as provided in Plans D, G, I and J has been removed. This benefit was considered confusing and difficult to comprehend and implement. Once again as discussed in "Preventive Care NOT Covered by Medicare" above, with the changes that Medicare made this benefit has become less important.
• Plan G is a new plan. The new Plan G is same as the old plan except that the 80% "Medicare Part B Excess" benefit has been replaced with a 100% "Medicare Part B Excess" benefit. Again as mentioned earlier, the "At-Home Recover" benefit was removed from this plan.
• Plans E, H, I and J have been completely removed as they seemed to duplicate the new Medigap plans.
• Plan M is a new plan. It is the same as plan D; however, there is a 50% coinsurance on the Part A Medicare deductible.
• Plan N is also a new plan which is the same as plan D; however, Part B Medicare conisurance is being paid at 100% minus a $20.00 copay for every docto visit and a copay of $50.00 for emergency room visits which is unless the person is admitted to the hospital
• Companies are allowed to offer existing plan holders the opportunity to exchange their current plans for new plans without medical underwriting. Plan holders cannot be forced to switch into the new Medigap Plans.

These changes are a brief overview of the chantes to the 2010 Medicare Supplemental Standardized Plans. You can find more information on this in the "2010 Medicare and You" booklet which can be found by clicking the link provided.