Original Medicare Enrollment
Original Medicare Enrollment in parts A and B is automatic for those drawing Social Security. Those people who are not that are not will need to enroll.
If you’re already collecting Railroad Retirement Board or Social Security retirement benefits when you turn 65, you will automatically be enrolled Medicare Part A . If you are under 65 and you receive Social Security or Railroad Retirement Board disability benefits, you will automatically be enrolled in Medicare Part A and Part B after 24 months of disability benefits.
You will need to sign up for Medicare part B, if you are not receiving retirement benefits before age 65 or if you qualify for Medicare through disability. Please note, you can sign up during your Initial Enrollment Period (IEP). This is the seven-month enrollment period that begins three months before you turn 65. This enrollment period includes the month you turn 65, and ends three months later.
Click here to visit the Medicare.gov site to learn details.
CLICK HERE TO REQUEST MEDICARE QUOTE INFORMATION.
Still have questions? We are Medicare specialists. Please call if you have questions or need help navigating the Medicare enrollment process. You can either call the office at 203-796-5403 or email us at admin@croweandassociates.com.
We are a full-service brokerage and offer clients not only guidance with Medicare, but all health plan needs. We offer dental insurance, both long and short term care policies. Crowe and Asscoiates can help with estate planning by offering several types of life insurance as well as investment opportunities.
Medicare Part D Premiums
Medicare Part D premiums range from between $10 and $100 per month. The amount depends on what plans are available in your area as well as the particular plan you choose. The maximum deductible in 2016 is $360. This is the amount you must pay out-of-pocket before Medicare will contribute to your prescription costs.
The charts below show your estimated prescription drug plan monthly premium. These numbers are based on your income as reported on your IRS tax return from both 2 years ago and last year. If you receive income that is above a certain limit, you will have to pay an income-related monthly adjustment amount. This amount will be in addition to your plan premium.
| If your filing status and yearly income in 2014 was | |||||||||||||||||||
| File individual tax return | File joint tax return | File married & separate tax return | You pay (in 2016) | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $85,000 or less | $170,000 or less | $85,000 or less | your plan premium | above $85,000 up to $107,000 | above $170,000 up to $214,000 | not applicable | $12.70 + your plan premium | above $107,000 up to $160,000 | above $214,000 up to $320,000 | not applicable | $32.80 + your plan premium | above $160,000 up to $214,000 | above $320,000 up to $428,000 | above $85,000 up to $129,000 | $52.80 + your plan premium | above $214,000 | above $428,000 | above $129,000 | $72.90 + your plan premium |
Click here to access Medicare.gov for more information regarding Part D.
CLICK HERE TO REQUEST A NO OBLIGATION MEDICARE QUOTE.
Ready to explore plan options? Let us help you navigate. Please either call us at 203-796-5403 or email us at admin@croweandassociates.com for more information.
Medicare Part B Premium Costs
When turning 65, individuals need to understand the Medicare Part B Premium costs.
Individual Medicare recipients pay a premium each month for Part B. If you receive either Social Security, Railroad Retirement Board, or Office of Personnel Management benefits, your Part B premium is automatically deducted from your benefit payment. If you do not get these benefit payments, you will receive a bill and can submit your payment from there.
Most people will pay the standard premium amount. However, if your modified adjusted gross income is above a certain amount, you may have to pay an adjustment. In fact, this amount is determined by what is on your IRS tax return from 2 years ago. This fee is called an Income Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA). IRMAA is an extra charge that Medicare adds to your premium.
The standard Part B premium amount is $121.80. The amount may be higher, this depends on your income.
| If your yearly income in 2014 (for what you pay in 2016) was | You pay (in 2016) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| File individual tax return | File joint tax return | File married & separate tax return | |
| $85,000 or less | $170,000 or less | $85,000 or less | $121.80 |
| above $85,000 up to $107,000 | above $170,000 up to $214,000 | Not applicable | $170.50 |
| above $107,000 up to $160,000 | above $214,000 up to $320,000 | Not applicable | $243.60 |
| above $160,000 up to $214,000 | above $320,000 up to $428,000 | above $85,000 and up to $129,000 | $316.70 |
| above $214,000 | above $428,000 | above $129,000 | $389.8 |
Click here for the Medicare.gov income requirements and information.
Click here to request a no obligation Medicare quote.
If you have questions regarding Medicare Part B costs or are ready to investigate plan options, please either call the office at 203-796-5403 or email us at admin@croweandassociates.com. We are Medicare specialists and will be happy to help you navigate the both the options and process.
Medicare Part B Penalty
Crowe and Associates wants to make sure that you are aware that there is a Medicare Part B Penalty. In most cases, if you don’t sign up for Part B when you’re first eligible, you will have to pay a late enrollment Medicare Part B penalty. Medicare will be charge you this penalty for as long as you have Part B. Your monthly premium for Part B may go up 10% for each full 12-month period that you could have had Part B, but didn’t sign up for it.
Click here to access Medicare.gov for more information regarding the Part B penalty.
How do you calculate your premium penalty? Let’s say you turned 65 in 2009, and you delayed signing up for Part B until 2016. If you did not have employer insurance that allows you to delay enrollment. Your monthly premium would be 70 percent higher for as long as you have Medicare (7 years x 10 percent). Since the Medicare Part B premium in 2016 is $121.80, your monthly premium with the penalty would be $207.06 ($121.80 x 0.7 + $121.80).
Note: Although Medicare calculates the penalty you pay by using the standard Part B Premium. Your Part B premium amount is based on your income. Medicare then adds the penalty amount to your actual premium amount.
To learn more about avoiding the Medicare Part B penalty, or how to navigate the Medicare enrollment process, call the office at 203-796-5403 or email us at admin@croweandassociates.com. We are leading Medicare specialists and are here to help. There is never a fee for our advice.
Click here for a free Medicare quote.
Who Should Enroll in Medicare Part B?
Deciding when and if you should enroll in Medicare Part B can be a daunting task. Getting or maintaining the best coverage depends on your understanding of Medicare enrollment requirements as well as your current situation.
If you or your spouse are still working and receiving employer or union coverage, maintaining that coverage may be the best option. You have 8 months to sign up for Part B without a penalty. If you or your spouse (or family member if you’re disabled) are still working and you have insurance through that employer or union, contact your employer or union benefits administrator to find out how your insurance works with Medicare.
Your military or veteran status also plays a role in deciding the right coverage for you.
Click here to visit the Medicare.gov site to learn details.
If you are ready to enroll in Medicare Part B, need more information or have questions, please call the office at 203-796-5403 or email admin@croweandassociates.com for an appointment. We are Medicare specialists and will be happy to help you navigate the process.
Click here for a free personalized Medicare quote.
Single Premium Life Policies
The primary benefit of life insurance is to leverage money to create an estate. This benefit can provide for survivors or to leave something to an organization or charity. Single premium life policies (sometimes called SPL) are a type of life insurance. In this type of policy you pay a lump sum of money into a new policy in return for an instant death benefit. This policy is guaranteed to remain paid-up until death. There are many different versions of single pay policies available. These policies offer a wide range of investment options as well as withdrawal provisions.
With single-premium life policies –
The cash you invest applies immediately. In Fact, this enables the policy full funding. The size of the death benefit depends on the amount invested, insurance company used, type of underwriting, age and health of the insured. With these policies, a younger person is normally has a longer life expectancy. This gives the funds you pay for the premium more time to grow before the insurer expects to pay out the death benefit. The larger the amount of money you initially contribute to your policy, the greater your death benefit will be. For example, a 65-year-old female might use a $25,000 single premium to provide a $55,000 income-tax free death benefit to her survivors/beneficiaries. Whereas a 50-year-old male’s $100,000 single premium might give a $400,000 death benefit.
Many companies have provisions in the policies which allow for a partial withdrawl of cash value in the event that you need money. Other policies guaranteed a full refund of cash value at a certain point (often 6 years ). A policy can always be surrendered for cash value but policies surrendered prior to maturing may have surrender charges. Single premium plans should not be used with money that you may need to spend or to live off of. If you have a lump sum of cash that you don’t need right now and you want guaranteed life insurance protection for your family or your favorite charity, single-premium life insurance can be an ideal solution.
However you choose to use a single-premium life insurance policy, remember to consider your personal financial situation. You also want to think about other retirement vehicles already in use. This way you can select and shape your policy to best match your needs.
Always Care Dental Insurance
Crowe and Associates is now able to offer Always Care Dental Insurance and vision coverage. Always Csre offers clients several different levels of coverage as well as one of the nation’s largest provider networks.
The Cleaning Plus Vision plan helps cover the cost of dental exams and cleanings. It also covers annual vision exams and material allowances for each person covered by the plan. Click here for an overview of the Cleaning Plus Vision Plan.
The Preventive/Basic plan gives individuals immediate access to all covered services with no waiting periods and $1,000 annual maximum for each person covered. Click here for an overview of the Preventative Basic Plan.
The new Increasing Max plan rewards individuals with an increasing annual maximum benefit as well as no increase in premium. There are no application fees as well as no administrative fees. Click here for an overview of the Increasing Max plan.
The Ultimate Max plan gives you a $2,000 annual maximum for each person covered by your plan. Additionally, there are no application fees and no administrative fees. Click here for an overview of the Ultimate Max plan.. (Currently not available in Connecticut)
Click here for a no obligation quote. In addition to dental insurance, we are able to quote and write medical, life, auto, home, commercial and annuity policies. To discuss your individual needs in detail, please call the office at 203-796-5403 or email us at admin@croweandassociates.com.
Medicare Seminars in Connecticut
Crowe and Associates is offering Medicare Seminars in Connecticut. We are an independent agency contracted with all Medicare companies in the state of Connecticut. We conduct seminars to educate consumers on Medicare Advantage plans (also called Part C or Managed Medicare), stand alone part D RX plans and Medicare supplement plans (Also called Medigap plans). Meetings run about 1 hour with the primary goal focusing on four main areas:
1)Explain how Original Medicare works as well as coverage provided by Medicare A and B. It’s important to understand how Medicare benefits work so that you can make the most informed, best decision for you and your family members.
2)Detailing the difference between a Medicare Advantage and a Medicare Supplement plan. They are distinctly different plans. Understanding the difference between them allows the Medicare beneficiary to make a more educated decision.
3)Explaining the strengths and weakness of both Advantage and Supplement plans. How a Medicare beneficiary should use their own situation to determine which is better for them. (There is not a “best plan” or “best option”.) Personal health/medical needs will be the biggest determination when it comes to finding the right plan.
4)Once the right type of plan has been determined (Medicare Advantage vs. Medicare Supplement) we will then provide a review of the company offerings for 2016. It’s important to learn the differences between the companies that offer Medicare plans. Understanding the details between companies and plans is vital to having proper coverage.
The primary goal:
will be for attendees to leave the meeting with the confidence to pick a plan that suits them best. If interested in attending a meeting, please call our office at 203-796-5403 or email admin@croweandassociates.com.
Crowe and Associates is a full service brokerage offering clients not only Medicare, but regular health, dental and life insurance. We also offer property and casualty insurance as well as investment advice. We do not charge any fees. If you have questions or need additional information, please give us a call at 203-796-5403.
United Healthcare Medicare Complete Connecticut:
United Healthcare Medicare Complete Connecticut plans are a series of Medicare Advantage plans offered by United Healthcare. Medicare Advantage plans are also called Part C plans or Managed Medicare Plans. United Healthcare offers 3 Medicare complete plans in Connecticut for 2016. They are Medicare Complete plans 1,2 and 3. Each plan has a different monthly premium and benefits. All three have Rx coverage included in the benefits.
Plan 1 is a $99 a month plan with the lowest copays of the three plans. This plan has additional extras such as vision, dental and hearing benefits. Plan 2 is a $29 a month plan with slightly higher copays than Plan 1 and comes with vision, dental, hearing and Silver Sneakers benefits. In Plan 3 there is a $0 month premium with the highest copays of the three plans and requires a specialist referral. It has the additional vision, hearing and Silver Sneakers benefits. Silver Sneakers is available on the United Healthcare Medicare Complete Plan 1 but there would be additional monthly premium to add it. Full plan summaries are available in the links below for more detailed benefit descriptions.
United Healthcare Medicare Complete plans
Participating providers can be accessed in both CT as well as NY as in network providers. The plans also come with the Passport program which allows members to access doctors in other states as in network providers (Assuming the participate with United in the other states.) UHC does have some benefits at a 20% co-insurance level which can lead to substantial out of pocket for some procedures. We include both a summary of benefits and an application for all plans in the links below.
Feel free to either call our office at 203-796-5403 or send an email to admin@croweandassociates.com with any questions.
United Healthcare Plan 1 Summary 2016
New Low Cost Plan G Medicare Supplement In Connecticut
Combined Life has released a new low cost plan G Medicare Supplement in Connecticut. This plan has a monthly premium of $202.42. The premium makes this plan the lowest cost plan G in the state. To better understand how this plan works compared to a Plan F supplement, we will take a look at the benefits provided by both
The Plan F Medicare supplement covers 100% of Medical expenses approved but not covered by Medicare. In other words, plan F pays the entire 20% of co-insurance as well as the deductibles not covered by original Medicare. Plan G works exactly the same as plan F. The only exception is the part B deductible. Because the Part B deductible is $166.00 each year and is not covered by Medicare Supplement plan G. Other than that, the plans have the exact same benefits. Due to the fact that the lowest cost plan F Medicare Supplement price is $234.00 a month in Connecticut. Plan G comes out at a lower overall cost even when the $166 deductible is added in.
Connecticut is a unique Medicare state because they do not allow underwriting. The Medicare Supplement rates are the same regardless of the client’s age. As a result, a person in CT can change from one Supplement plan to another without any medical underwriting any month they would like. In fact, insurance companies are not able to invoke a pre-existing condition clause either.
If you have any questions, you can either call our office at 203-796-5403 or email us at Edward@croweandassociates.com to learn more. Let us help you find the right plan for both your health and budget needs.
Combined Life Medicare Supplement Rates CT 2016
Combined Life Medicare Supplement Application 2016 CT
When is The Medicare Advantage Dis-enrollment Period (MADP)
Here is the answer to a question that you might like to ask. When is The Medicare Advantage Dis-enrollment Period (MADP) – It runs from January 1 to February 14 every year in accordance with the guidelines of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The purpose of the MADP is to give Medicare Advantage (MA) members an opportunity to dis-enroll from any MA plan. After they dis-enroll they can return to Original Medicare. Enrolling back in original Medicare allows members to then purchase a Medicare supplement plan and/or part D drug plan if they wish.
Important:
the MADP is not an additional enrollment period, nor is it an opportunity to switch to a different MA plan. The effective date of a dis-enrollment request made during the MADP will be the first day of the month following receipt of the dis-enrollment request. For example, a dis-enrollment request made in January will be effective February 1. Medicare considers this election period a special election plan change.
Important Warning!
Members of MA-PD plans who enroll in a stand-alone PDP plan will automatically be dis-enrolled from their MA-PD plan. Those members will return to Original Medicare. They will NOT have the option to enroll in another MA(Medicare Advantage) plan.
You can call the office if you have questions regarding your current Medicare Advantage plan at 203-796-5403. If you would like to discuss all the Medicare options that are available to you, don’t hesitate to ask us.
New Humana Medicare Plans 2016
New Humana Medicare Plans 2016 – There are some new Humana Medicare plans that clients can purchase in 2016. The new plans have many great options for members to choose from. Humana offers Medicare Advantage plans both with and without drug plans in multiple states. Please note that in some states such as NY, they only offer a stand alone PDP plan while in others they offer both the PDP and Medicare Advantage plans. They have multiple MAPD plan types with HMO and PPO plans in various states. Click the link below to review Humana Medicare plans 2016 in all states. The link will also provide PDP Rx summaries. Please call our office with any additional questions about plan designs, or benefits.
Click for Humana benefit summaries for all states 2016
Humana Medicare is also looking to fill a market void in the Long Island NY region.
This new HMO plan offers to it’s members:
- $37 monthly premium.
- $5 PCP co-pays.
- $30 specialist co-pays.
- $6,7000 Maximum out of pocket (MOOP) cost.
- This plan also includes a Silver Sneakers membership.
- It also provides preventive dental coverage.
- There is also a vision allowance of $200 toward the purchase of new glasses.
- They provide members hearing aid coverage.
- In addition this plan offers optional supplemental benefits (OSB), if you so choose.
- Travel options are built in to allow for in-network benefits in select Florida counties.
The network has been expanded to include the following:
- North Shore Lone Island Jewish Hospitals as in-network participants.
- Both Pro-Health providers as well as surgical centers are in-network participants.
- In addition, the network includes Advanced Urology.