Recently, Hobby Lobby filed a lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act (ACA) aka ObamaCare, regarding the Birth Control Mandate. The Mandate required all companies must provide contraceptive coverage to their employees. This may cause some concerns, as the ACA preventive services mandate is designed to promote wellness and to protect employee rights. Nevertheless, here is the result: (more…)
Great news! Read below for the facts about the Birth Control Mandate. The Federal government just updated the rules and regulations in your favor. Initially, it specified legally state health insurance companies would be required to cover 1 form of contraceptives, but NOW the requirement is to cover all 18 FDA-approved types of contraceptives without cost sharing. This means the costs of the contraceptives must be paid in full by the health insurance company and cannot be applied to co-payments, deductibles, or co-insurance. In other words, there is no patient responsibility. (more…)
Are you still wondering how to get health insurance? There may be an opportunity for individuals and families, who still need to enroll. The healthcare exchange is having an open enrollment session starting March 15th to April 30th.
The benefit to the health insurance special enrollment period is this positively affects your 2015 tax return. For those who were unaware of the tax penalty for not previously enrolling in health insurance in 2014.
You can find out more about the health insurance special enrollment through your states Federally-facilitated Marketplace, Hurry!
Are Freestanding Surgery Centers better for patients or doctors?
WHAT ARE ASCs?
Are all cost reduction options in healthcare beneficial to you? During the past 20 years, the burgeoning cost of medical care has contributed to the rise of the Freestanding Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC). These facilities provide low-cost surgical procedures, mostly in the areas of ophthalmology, orthopedics, and/or pain management, outside of the confines of the hospital. ASCs or “surgicenters” are scattered throughout the U.S., located in urban and rural areas. These are small community facilities, where surgeons can quickly conduct services. ASCs serve as an alternative solution to using a hospital for most patients, possibly even you.
According to the Texas Ambulatory Surgery Center Society, in 2014 there were roughly 23 million surgeries performed in ASCs, which was the equivalent of 1/3 of all surgeries nationally for that year. Numerically, ASCs are quickly outpacing hospitals. There are several reasons for this. ASCs are more centrally located in the community, meaning ASCs are more abundant. Patients can more conveniently access these facilities, allowing for surgeries to be scheduled and performed faster. Surgeons operating in ASCs are often specialists in a few procedures, which are performed in high volumes. The patient cases are usually less complex, so services can be administered within a few hours. Conversely, Hospitals are more diverse, offering the full range of services with higher costs. Theoretically, the ASC model allows for patients to avoid hospital admission and receive similar care, all while keeping money in their pockets. Problem solved, right? Not quite. A closer look at the data provides a more nuanced picture of the costs and benefits of ASCs for patients. (more…)
Hello,
We are about to start tax season for the 2014 on January 20th. For this reason, tax companies have been showing countless commercials about Obama Care affecting you tax return this year. Here is what you really need to know about your tax return and Obama Care. The truth is more than 80% of Americans will NOT be impacted at all by Obama Care on their taxes. It is just a neat advertising trick to bring in new tax business. So how do I know?
There are only 3 categories of individuals who could be affected:
If you’ve had medical insurance throughout 2014, then you have no need to worry. Your taxes will not be changing, except for checking a new box on the form to declare you have medical insurance. I think checking a box is rather easy, especially if you can start ignoring all the advertising from tax companies. You don’t need to worry, you can continue as normal.
However, if you meet any of the above 3 categories, we will need to discuss further. This may be a disruption both to your filing process and your wallet.
Hello,
This is an interesting story about my grandparents’ experience with Medicare enrollment. To start, my grandparents are in their 70s now, both in relatively good health. They are currently participating in Medicare Part A and B with prescription coverage. My grandmother kept complaining about the cost of the prescription coverage on their social security statement, premiums are automatically deducted from their check. The premium was a little over $100 per period. The larger issue is they were paying out of pocket mostly for their prescriptions. Basically, the plan wasn’t really covering much of anything. My grandparents, probably similar to yours, only had the paperwork for the coming benefit year, not their initial enrollment documents. They originally enrolled in 2006. In 8 years, my grandma watched the premium change without saying anything, until she finally had enough.
This just happened to be with 3 days left in the enrollment period. All changes to insurance coverage adjustments have to be made during this period or you are locked in for another year. She sent me an entire binder of documents to read though in 2 days. While I managed to read the material rather quickly, there was no documentation to discern what the deduction should have been this entire time.
Social Security is stating the amount is the premium from their prescription plan. The prescription plan notes the premium as $36 dollars. So my grandparents must have enrolled in another plan. It turns out they are enrolled in 3 different plans….
My grandma is enrolled in a discount prescription plan, while my grandpa participates in a traditional prescription Medicare Advantage plan. However, they are both enrolled in another prescription plan that neither of them is currently using. I’m not even sure how this happened. The paperwork must have been similar. They’ve been paying for multiple prescription plans the past few years, approximately. My grandma as a discount plan, so she at least has part of her drug costs covered at each visit. However, my grandpa pays roughly $900 a year in premiums, deductible, and cost sharing. While their out of pocket cost without insurance is roughly $800 a year. He is paying more to get less. This might seem strange, but truly this happens all the time.
My goal is to bring some consistency to their lives this year. I’m reviewing all the paperwork for medical, vision, dental, and prescription. While I was only able to resolve one problem before the end of open enrollment, next year I’ll be ready on day 1. Have you had any similar experiences? Should Medicare enrollment be so finite?