{"id":6342,"date":"2017-12-01T17:51:15","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T17:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/?p=6342"},"modified":"2017-12-01T18:35:18","modified_gmt":"2017-12-01T18:35:18","slug":"whats-the-difference-between-medicare-advantage-plans-and-medicare-supplement-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/whats-the-difference-between-medicare-advantage-plans-and-medicare-supplement-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"SIMPLE TRUTHS: What\u2019s the difference between Medicare Advantage plans and Medicare Supplement plans?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Medicare Advantage<\/h2>\n<p>Medicare Part C is more commonly referred to as Medicare Advantage. Medicare Advantage plans are health plans approved by Medicare and run by private companies like Health New England.<\/p>\n<p>Medicare Advantage plans <strong>have to<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cover everything that Medicare Part A and Part B would of covered<\/li>\n<li>May cover services that Original Medicare wouldn\u2019t cover:\n<ul>\n<li>Additional benefits such as vision, hearing, dental, or health and wellness programs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>May be offered with or without Part D<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There are several types of Part C plans: HMO, HMO-POS, PPO, SNP, PFFS plans.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More about Medicare Advantage \u2013 Part C plans<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Similar to employer group plans<\/li>\n<li>Set network of providers<\/li>\n<li>Set monthly premium (must continue to pay Part B premium)<\/li>\n<li>Set copays\/cost-sharing when you use services (pay as you go)<\/li>\n<li>Yearly out-of-pocket maximums<\/li>\n<li>Pharmacy coverage (Part D) is generally built into the plan<\/li>\n<li>May offer additional benefits beyond Original Medicare such as dental, fitness, weight watchers, vision, hearing, etc.<\/li>\n<li>May offer emergency coverage when traveling worldwide<\/li>\n<li>Ease of use<\/li>\n<li>Variety of plans to choose from<\/li>\n<li>Can change plans yearly during the Annual Enrollment Period<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Medicare Supplement<\/h2>\n<p>Medigap insurance plans are also known as Medicare Supplement plans. In general, there are standardized plans (A-N) approved by Medicare. Each state chooses how many plans it will offer. Massachusetts does not follow the standard A-N Medicare Supplement Plans.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There are two Medicare Supplement Plans offered in Massachusetts:\n<ul>\n<li>Medicare Supplement Core<\/li>\n<li>Medicare Supplement 1<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>All Massachusetts Medicare Supplement plans cover the same set of core benefits<\/li>\n<li>The differences between the two Medicare Supplement plans are:\n<ul>\n<li>Premium cost<\/li>\n<li>Premium discount when newly eligible<\/li>\n<li>Additional benefits: like fitness coverage, foreign travel<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>More about Medicare Supplement \u2013 Medigap plans<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You are covered nationwide (US and US territories) and will be accepted by any Medicare approved facility or health care provider<\/li>\n<li>Not covered outside of US or US territories<\/li>\n<li>Only cover what Original Medicare covers<\/li>\n<li>Fills in the gaps to Original Medicare<\/li>\n<li>May be responsible for Part A and Part B deductibles and coinsurance \u2013 depending on which Medicare Supplement plan you choose<\/li>\n<li>Does not include Part D drug coverage \u2013 must purchase separately<\/li>\n<li>May not include additional benefits such as dental, hearing, vision, fitness, etc.<\/li>\n<li>Guaranteed renewable as long as you pay your premium<\/li>\n<li>Can switch Medicare Supplement plans anytime during the year<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Learn about Health New England plan options at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.healthnewengland.org\/medicare\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">healthnewengland.org\/medicare<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Medicare Advantage Medicare Part C is more commonly referred to as Medicare Advantage. Medicare Advantage plans are health plans approved by Medicare and run by private companies like Health New England. Medicare Advantage plans have to: Cover everything that Medicare Part A and Part B would of covered May cover services that Original Medicare wouldn\u2019t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[631,17,633],"tags":[316,653],"class_list":["post-6342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medicare-simple-truths","category-medicare","category-simple-truths","tag-medicare-advantage","tag-medicare-supplement"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/GettyImages-512009727.jpg?fit=5616%2C3744&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6ZZGa-1Ei","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6342"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6358,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6342\/revisions\/6358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}