Quote:
Originally Posted by thompsonjn1949
I also recommend you talk to SHINE. As I recall, once you are eligible for Medicare Part B, FEHB alone will only cover what Medicare Part B would cover (80%) - for more money (thanks to Congress). If you have both Medicare Part B and BCBS Standard supplemental, there are no co-pays or co-insurance and generic drugs are 15% of BCBS costs. Also if you decide later that you want Medicare Part B, there is a 10% cumulative penalty for each year you don't have it. Medicare Part B has no overseas coverage and most FEHB supplementals do. We keep BCBS Standard vice Basic because of out-of-network coverage. If you can afford it, I recommend to do both Medicare Part B and a FEHB supplemental. With an August birthday, you can sign up for Medicare Part B on the Medicare website starting the first of May
|
If you are talking about the FEHB Blue Cross standard plan, it is not true that it only covers 80 percent of covered Medicare Part B costs. FEHB has totally separate rules for what percent they cover. For example, office visits have flat rate copays and surgical procedures have a percentage which is often higher than 80 percent of the cost. But, to me, the most valuable FEHB benefit is the catastrophic limit, which is a benefit that Medicare Part B does not offer. And, the FEHB catastrophic limit applies to all out of pocket expenses, including copays, coinsurance payments, prescription drug costs, and hospital costs. With the Blue Cross plan, once you have spent $5,000 out of pocket in a calendar year, everything else is covered at 100 percent.