Medigap Plan K -- A Different Type of Offering

Your first few months after your retirement, it was a big adjustment for you. For years, you had to get up and get dressed a certain time, report to work at a certain time, complete assignments at a certain time and leave work at a certain time to arrive home with your family at a certain time. You also missed your co-workers and friends you have collaborated with, laughed and celebrated with and discussed your ups and downs with each day. You never thought you would even miss the commutes and the rush hour traffic each day! Retirement was a different type of offering for you. You never thought you would get use to this new life. But low and behold, you did! Since your husband has retired too, you now enjoy doing things together like sitting on a park bench, traveling, going to the movies, spending time with your grandkids or doing whatever you want to do whenever you want to do it! Life is wonderful!

Not only do people have to adjust to a new lifestyle after retiring, they also have to adjust to receiving health benefits through Medicare and a Medigap Insurance carrier, if interested. Retirees have to get used to navigating through the different type of offerings provided through the various Medigap Plans as well.

Up to this post, all of the Medigap Benefits Plans that we have discussed, had similar types of benefits offerings--100%, 80% or no coverage. But Medigap Plan K has a different type of offering. See the following:

100% Medicare Part A coinsurance and hospital costs, and

50% coverage for the following:

• Medicare Part B coinsurance or copayment

• Blood (first 3 pints)

• Part A hospice care coinsurance and copyament

• Skilled nursing facility care coinsurance

• Part A deductible, and

0% coverage for the following:

• Part B deductible

• Part B excess charge

• Foreign travel emergency (up to plan limits)

As you can see from the highlighted blue section above, Plan K includes a 50% cost sharing feature. See the details and how it works below:

1. Plan K will pay 50% for each approved service listed. You will be responsible for paying the remaining 50%.

2. You will need to satisfy item #1 before you meet your out-of-pocket yearly limit ($6,940, for Plan Year 2023 or $7,060, for Plan Year 2024).

3. You will also need to meet your Part B deductible ($226, for Plan Year 2023 or $240, for Plan Year 2024).

4. Once you meet the requirements in #2 and #3, the Plan will pay 100% of your cost for the highlighted approved services in the blue section above for the rest of the year.

Plan K is a great offering, if you can afford the cost in items #1 and #2 above. However, very few eligible participants have enrolled in Plan K. In December 2021, 69,866 persons enrolled in Plan K. In the state of Maryland, there were

2, 336 enrollees and in the State of North Carolina, there were 1,514 enrollees.

We hope this information has been helpful to you. We look forward to discussing Plan L in our next post.

"Strength lies in differences, not in similarities". Stephen Convey