Medicare plan choices

These are your options under your Medicare plan: The Original Medicare Plan, Medicare Advantage Plan and Medicare Prescription Drug Plan.

The Original Medicare Plan-This is a fee-for-service plan that covers many health care services, supplies and certain drugs. However, it doesn’t pay all of your health care costs. There are costs that you must pay, like coinsurance, copayments, and deductibles. These costs are called "gaps" in Medicare coverage. You might want to consider buying a Medigap policy to cover these gaps in Medicare coverage. You can also add prescription drug coverage by joining a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan.

Medicare Advantage Plans– Available in many areas. If you have one of these plans, you don’t need a Medigap policy. These plans include:

• Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO),
• Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO)
• Private Fee-for-Service Plans
• Medicare Special Needs Plans
• Medicare Medical Savings Account Plans (MSA)

These plans may cover more services and have lower out-of-pocket costs than the Original Medicare Plan. Some plans cover prescription drugs. In some plans, like HMOs, you may only be able to see certain doctors or go to certain hospitals to get covered services.

Medicare Prescription Drug Plans– These stand-alone plans add prescription drug coverage to the Original Medicare Plan, some Medicare Cost Plans, some Medicare Private Fee-for-Service Plans and Medicare Medical Savings Account Plans.

Source: http://www.medicare.gov

Related Articles:

• Understanding Medicaid
  
• Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage
  
• Medicare Advantage Plans
  
• Understanding Medicare

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