Dear Angel,
I recently signed up for Medicare. What is the best place to go to find out about all of the offerings, including preventative care and chronic care management?
Thanks for your help!
Juan Stopp
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Dear Juan,
Coverage to Care initiative created by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to help people with new Medicare coverage understand their benefits. The resources help enrollees connect to primary care and preventive services that are right for them.
These are links to some of the features of this helpful resource:
- Navigate Your Coverage helps enrollees understand their coverage and make sense of their benefits.
- The Roadmap to Better Care explains what health coverage is and how you can use it to get primary care.
- My Health Coverage At-a-Glance gives enrollees a better idea of what they are paying for care and where they go for care.
- Access Care helps enrollees know where to turn for answers, which kind of provider to seek out, and provides answers to other complex questions that make accessing care a challenging task for many.
- Getting the Care You Need: A Guide to People with Disabilities describes the rights of people with disabilities and what they can do if they experience difficulties.
- Tips for Understanding your Drug Coverage & Prescriptions helps people understand their drug coverage and prescriptions.
- Get Preventive Care provides details about preventive services and screening services that are covered by Medicare to help ensure that medical concerns are caught early and taken care of.
- Put Your Health First discusses prevention and making time for physical activity, healthy eating, relaxation, and sleep.
- Adult, women, men, teen, children, and infant preventative services flyers explain the preventive care, screenings, and immunizations available for all members of the family.
- The MyHealthfinder tool offers personalized recommendations on preventive services based on age, sex, and pregnancy status.
- Manage Your Chronic Condition helps enrollees understand their coverage and the resources that are out there to help you manage a chronic condition.
- Managing Diabetes: Medicare Coverage & Resources offers ten steps to help people manage diabetes.
- The Chronic Care Management fact sheet and Introduction to Chronic Care Management Animated Video are to help those managing two or more chronic conditions.
Medicare Doesn’t Cover Long Term Care
Medicare covers a lot of preventive care and most medical services associated with illnesses. But there are things it doesn’t cover, such as most dental, vision and hearing care, cosmetic surgery and other services. Perhaps most importantly, Medicare doesn’t cover long-term care, also known as custodial care, which can take place at home, in an assisted living facility, or in a nursing home. There is a more than 70% chance that you will need some sort of long-term care in the future, but Medicare will NOT cover any of those costs. Nor does any private health insurance cover any long-term care costs because in the United States, long-term care is considered to be something completely different from healthcare, even though the need for both arise from the same underlying health conditions.
Medicare Part A provides coverage for short-term stays in nursing homes, but only for rehabilitation for people who continue to improve or for those who need skilled nursing care such as assistance with complex wound dressings, tube feedings, or rapidly changing health status. If you only require custodial care, such as help with bathing, dressing, and eating, that is considered long-term care and not healthcare, and is not covered by Medicare.
If you or a loved one is nearing the need for long-term care or already receiving long-term care, please call the Farr Law Firm to make an appointment. It is never too late to work with an experienced elder law attorney who is an expert in Medicaid asset protection planning and can help you and your family protect your assets so that you do not have to go broke paying for long-term care.
For more details on Medicare, please read Mr. Farr’s many articles on the subject.
Hope this helps!
Angel
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