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CT Medicare Advantage and Supplements

There are many choices when it comes to CT Medicare Advantage and Supplements.  These choices can confuse anyone. We can help you feel comfortable not only with your choice of health care plans but the cost as well.  Crowe and Associates is one of the region’s leading Medicare brokerages.  Are you looking for CT Medicare Advantage and Supplement information in Connecticut?  We can help. Crowe and Associates is an independent brokerage agency that works with all major Medicare Advantage and supplement plans.  We work with clients everyday to help them understand the difference between Advantage plans and supplements. We use that knowledge to choose the best plan and company for them.  The insurance companies pay us so you will never receive any type of bill or fee for our services.

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 Aetna Medicare Elite Plan Connecticut

We are giving clients some information about the Aetna Medicare Elite Plan Connecticut.  The Aetna Medicare Elite plan is a Medicare Advantage Plan. This plan offers prescription drug benefits in Connecticut in both Fairfield and New Haven Counties for 2015.  This plan replaced the Aetna Medicare Value plan which was available throughout 2014.  Below is an outline of plan benefits along with links to benefits summaries. Read more

Sell Medicare Plans From Home

You might be interested to know you can have a great home based career. If you are willing to do the work this can be great opportunity for you. If you like helping people and providing people with the coverage they need.  You can learn to Sell Medicare Plans From Home.  Insurance agents traditionally sell Medicare plans on a face to face basis.  They usually hold meetings in either clients homes, a public venue or their own office. If they have one.  This is how a majority of our agents write Medicare plans.  Although, our top producers rarely if ever go out to meet with new prospects or current clients.   They write and retain Medicare plans from their home every day without the need to travel and are consistently our best producers.  While Medicare supplements are often the most popular plans to sell online, some agents do also offer Advantage and part D plans.

Through trial and error we have learned the most efficient and effective way to sell Medicare from your home or office without face to face meetings.  With hard work and dedication our strategy is a fantastic way to build a big book of business quickly. We work with both new and existing agents.  Let us help you start to build a  good client base and become a successful agent.  We provide a 100% free Medicare lead program. In fact, we provide training  both via webinar and in person. In addition, we will pay licensing costs for new agents.  We offer all our agents full support.

Getting Started

Existing agents should either contact us or start with our here.  Those individuals that do not have a license and who want to become an agent, should start with our Becoming a Life and Health Agent blog.  Please  either call our office at 203-796-5403 or email admin@croweandassociates.com with questions.  We are here to help you succeed and are happy to do so!

In order to sell from home, you need to enroll members online and over the phone.  Our online enrollment platform called Connect4Medicare allows agents to enroll members online.  Click here for recorded webinar!

Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Connecticut 2015

Crowe and Associates wants to make sure all our clients are aware of the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Connecticut 2015.  This is a great opportunity for both uninsured individuals as well as families to get much needed health coverage. Medicare Advantage plan companies are able to make plan and benefit changes to existing plans every January, during open enrollment. There will be major changes this year for many plans in Connecticut.  These changes include premium increases, plan terminations, as well as the introduction of referral based plans and more.

Medicare Advantage plans are currently offered in Connecticut by United Healthcare (AARP and  non AARP branded), Aetna, Connecticare, Anthem BlueCross BlueShield and also Wellcare.  Most of these companies will be making major changes to existing plan holders benefits.   Please note:  Medicare Supplement plans such as the AARP Medicare supplements (also called Medigap) do not change benefits.  They are only subject to rate increases.

The Medicare Open Enrollment Period

(OEP) is your opportunity to review your plan and make changes if necessary.  The OEP period runs from October 15th to December 7th.  If you apply for any changes during that period  they will be in force as of January 1, 2015.   OEP is the only opportunity during the year to change plans or companies. (Unless you have a special election).  Crowe and Associates works with all MAPD plans offered in Connecticut for 2015.  As a result, we are able to review all available plans to help you find the best option.  Plan reviews can be done by phone, at our office in Brookfield, our various library seminars or even in the home.

Please feel free to contact us if you would like to schedule a review for the open enrollment period.  You can contact us by either calling our office at 203-796-5403 or emailing us at admin@croweandassociates.com.

Medicare Advantage Plan Connecticut

This post is for Medicare Advantage Plan Connecticut –  A Medicare Advantage plan is an insurance plan offered by a private insurance company.  Advantage plans are also called Part C plans as they are filed under Part C of Medicare.   When someone enrolls in a Medicare Advantage plan, they are taking a plan that replaces original Medicare A and B.   This means that when they receive medical services, the providers will bill the Medicare Advantage plan and not Original Medicare.   If the member discontinues the Advantage plan, they will go back to original Medicare A and B.

Medicare Advantage plans are copay plans.

The member would need to pay copays for medical services received from providers.  Copays vary in amount depending on the type of service received.   Some examples based on plans in Connecticut…

Primary doctor visits- copay ranges from $10 to $30 a visit depending on the company

Specialist doctor visits- copay ranges from $30 to $50 a visit depending on the company

Major Radiology- Can be a 20% cost share or copay ranging from $100 to $275 depending on the company.

This is just a quick example.  (There is a link below to all the plan benefit summaries for Connecticut plans below. )

Medicare Advantage plans also come with drug coverage (They include a Part D drug plan with the coverage).   These Part D plans are very similar to many of the Part D drug plans you would purchase on a stand alone basis.

Bottom Line:  With a Medicare Advantage plan you include your medical as well as your drug benefit in one package.  In fact,  in Connecticut, there are 5 companies that currently offer Medicare Advantage plans.  Finding the right one can take some time.

CLICK HERE FOR BENEFIT SUMMARIES AND APPLICATIONS

CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW AN ADVANTAGE PLAN IS DIFFERENT THAN A MEDICARE SUPPLEMENT

Aetna Medicare Value Plan Connecticut 2014

In this post we will explain some things about Aetna Medicare Value Plan Connecticut 2014.  The Aetna Value plan is an HMO based Medicare Advantage Plan.   There is not a monthly premium for the plan. ($0 monthly premium MAPD plan)  The insured is still going to pay the Medicare Part B premium of $104 however.   The plan is offered to residents of Fairfield, Litchfield, New Haven and Hartford counties.

Aetna value has very competitive benefits compared to the other companies plans in Connecticut.  They have co-pays for outpatient surgery and Major Radiology instead of a percentage cost share that many of the other companies have started using.  They also have built one of the larger provider networks in the state.

The plan does have some areas where it lags compared to competitors such as lab work copay and primary office visit co-pay.  The differences are fairly small however and would not be a reason to choose a different plan.  One area to pay attention to is the drug formulary which seems to put drugs in less desirable tiers compared to some other plans.

Like any Medicare Advantage plan, the Aetna Value plan is subject to benefit changes every January 1st.  As a result, it is important to compare offerings from all companies during the Annual Election Period.

CLICK FOR BENEFIT SUMMARIES AND APPLICATIONS

PLEASE CONTACT US IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS.  You can reach us either by phone at 203-796-5403 or  by email at Edward@croweandassociates.com.  Please note, we are here to help you, don’t hesitate to contact us.