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What “Extra” Benefits Does Your Medicare Plan Offer?

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VistaMutual

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Insurance plans can be difficult to read and understand. Many people don’t use, or even know about, all of the benefits their plan may include.

To get the most from your Medicare health plan, you must know what it covers. 

Know What's Covered

Some Medicare Advantage plans offer “extra” benefits in addition to their medical coverage. Some popular benefits that your plan may include are:

  • Gym memberships

  • Over-the-counter allowance

  • Grocery allowance

  • No cost Personal Emergency Response System

  • Healthy meals

  • Some even cover items for your pet, such as boarding

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Where to Start

How do you know what your plan offers? Here are some suggestions to get started.

Call Your Agent

If you enrolled in your plan with an insurance agent, this should be the fastest and easiest way for you to find out what your plan offers. Call or email your agent and ask them to go over your plan’s “extra” benefits. You can also ask them if these items are listed in any of the materials they gave you when they enrolled you in the plan. This way you will have a list for your reference later.

If you are in an enrollment period, you can ask them about other plans in your area and what kinds of “extra” benefits they offer. We never recommend you select a Medicare plan based solely on the extras, but it is good to have an idea of what each plan is offering to its members.

Plan Documents

Read over your plan’s Benefit Highlights, Summary of Benefits, or Evidence of Coverage.

The Benefit Highlights are a quick one to two-page document that covers the main parts of your plan. It is good for quick reference and is less complicated than the other documents.

The Summary of Benefits is typically a small book that goes into greater detail than the Benefit Highlights. There is often an entire section devoted to the plan’s extra benefits.

To know everything you can about your plan, you may want to read your plan’s Evidence of Coverage. This document is typically hundreds of pages and includes every benefit your plan offers. The Evidence of Coverage is long and somewhat complex. Your plan’s Evidence of Coverage should be available on their website or you can request that a copy is emailed to you. The pdf version is searchable, which helps you go straight to the section you are interested in.

Contact Member Services

You can call the customer service number on the back of your card to find out more information about what your plan offers. The representative should be able to mail or email you any of the plan documents you request. They can also explain the benefits included in your plan.

Stay Informed

Knowing what your plan offers will allow you to get the most from your Medicare health plan. Keep in mind that Medicare Advantage Plans can change annually, so it is important to stay up to date with what your plan currently offers.

Be sure to take some time to research other plans during Medicare’s Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) and the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period (OEP). During AEP and OEP you may be able to change plans. There may be other plans in your area that offer more benefits or cost less than your current plan.

Need Help?

Speak to one of our experienced Vista Mutual agents for a free, no-obligation benefit review. We will review your current plan, answer any questions you may have, and look at other plans in your area that may benefit you. Give us a call today at (800) 398-8714.

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We are not connected with or endorsed by the United States government or the federal Medicare program.
We do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information we provide is limited to those plans we do offer in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE to get information on all of your options.