Saturday 20 May 2017

Medicare Part A Coverage Essential Details

By Larry Olson


Medicare is a social insurance program which the US federal government administers using different private insurance companies across the country. This is funded by general revenue, surtaxes from beneficiaries, premiums and payroll tax. Those who qualify for this are Americans 65 years old or older and those with certain disabilities.

Medicare has four different parts where each one covers specific services which you can use depending on your medical needs. The first one is the Medicare part A coverage where it covers services for hospital, skilled nursing facility, and hospice care and limited home health services. Here are some things you need to know about this coverage.

Hospital expense coverage will be received by the beneficiary that are essential in being an inpatient at the hospital. These include meals, medications, nursing service, semi private room and other related service and supplies coming from the hospital. The cost for choosing to stay in a private room is not included as well as the extra charges for other services.

Some are medically advised in staying at home to have their home health care because their conditions prohibits them to leave without help from another person, special equipment and transportation. Samples of the covered services are occupational and physical therapies. Durable medical equipment may be ordered by the doctor for home use though this will be on part B.

Staying at a skilled nursing facility will be covered if you have stayed for at least three days at the hospital not counting the day you were discharged. The coverage includes semi private room, nursing service, medications, medical supplies and equipment, dietary counseling and meals. The doctor must certify that you need to stay there because the care you need cannot be received at home.

Hospice coverage are meant for those having terminal illness and only with six months or less left for them to live according to the certification of the doctor. Relieving pain and making them comfortable is the focus here instead of curing their disease. An agreement of you abandoning curative treatment must be there so you will receive palliative treatment instead.

The services include doctor, nursing, social, and hospice aide plus medical supplies and equipment, dietary counseling and pain relief medications. There may also be some cost that are not usually covered when in hospice such as grief and spiritual counseling. You can stop anytime to be under hospice care if you plan to return to curative treatments.

Enrollment is usually automatic if you are receiving Social Security retirement benefits or from the Railroad Retirement Board when you turned 65. The benefits start at the first day of your birth month though if you were born on the first day then it will start a month before. Your Medicare card would be delivered three months before you turn 65.

If you do not have the qualifications to be automatically enrolled then do it manually during the provided period of seven months. Your month of birth is one of the seven months plus the three before it and the three after it as well. Failure to enroll during the period requires you to do it on the next coming general enrollment period.




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