so many people are surprised to find out that there are some pretty routine
things that medicare doesn't actually cover so it's important to know what
these things are ideally before you get onto medicare or
before you go and seek these services so that you can avoid surprise medical
bills in today's video i'm reviewing five things that medicare doesn't cover
and i'll be sharing some tips and solutions on how you can actually get
coverage for some of these things so stay tuned
hi everyone stephanie abt here it's been a couple months since i made
one of these videos i actually had another baby i took a little bit of time
off from making videos but i am back here today and sharing some tips with
you and if you haven't already please
subscribe to the channel if you find value in these videos go ahead and like
the video definitely leave all of your questions
comments for me below and i'll be sure to apply to those so as you may already
know traditional medicare is made up of parts a and b
and part a is your hospital insurance coverage part b is your medical
insurance coverage and between parts a and b most all medically necessary
services are covered so your er visits your doctor's
office visits your hospital stay diagnostic testing and even most
non-self-administered medications are going to be covered by either parts a or
b of medicare now unless you have a medicare supplement plan you typically
will be responsible for some cost share for these services so
you'll either be paying into a deductible or you'll be paying a form of
co-insurance for most of these covered services and this video up here
explains a little bit more about how medicare supplement plans work with your
traditional medicare and what they cover so be sure to click on that watch that
video also linked below if you'd like some more information there but today
what we want to focus on is what medicare just doesn't cover so that you
can be aware of these things before you go and seek these services and we'll
also talk about how to actually get some of these things covered one of the big
things that medicare doesn't cover is eye exams so while traditional medicare
does cover things like cataract surgery and glaucoma treatment
it does not cover routine eye examinations or glasses or contact
lenses in general some medicare advantage plans do include
some vision benefits however so for some people it will make sense to buy a
vision insurance policy to help offset the cost of your eye exams glasses or
contacts but you'll want to be aware that most vision plans do have a cap or
an annual maximum benefit a total amount that the plan will pay
per year towards your glasses or contacts and
that's usually around 150 to 200 a year so you want to go ahead and weigh your
expected vision expenses to see if a plan like that would be worthwhile for
you another big thing that medicare doesn't cover is hearing aids now
medicare does cover ear related medical conditions
but traditional medicare does not cover routine hearing tests or
hearing aids now if you have a medicare advantage plan you will want to go ahead
and check your policy benefits to see if it covers any of your hearing related
needs if it doesn't or if you just have traditional medicare then you can look
into purchasing a discount plan that may help reduce the cost of your hearing
aids also there are some programs and i'll link more information
below that help lower income individuals with their hearing needs additionally
congress passed legislation a few years back that allows some hearing aids to be
sold over the counter or you can pay as you
go another one and this is a big one that medicare doesn't cover
are dental services medicare does not cover dental exams or dental work i have
another video that i will link up here as well as in the description below that
goes into more depth on what your options are if you're on medicare and
you need dental coverage and in general some
medicare advantage plans will include some dental benefits you can also
purchase a standalone dental plan there are dental discount plans available that
are really popular with many seniors and there are also dental vision hearing
combo plans and those are becoming more and more popular to help cover some of
these big expenses related to dental vision hearing what we just
covered so be sure to click the link in the description below to learn more
about those options another thing that traditional medicare has limited
coverage for is a full routine annual physical examination that includes blood
work and a lot of people are surprised to learn this when they get onto
medicare medicare instead covers what they call a medicare wellness exam and
this is kind of a par down version of a routine physical examination now i
cover this in more depth in a video that i will also link below and you can see
on the screen right now some of the differences between a routine physical
examination which is not covered by traditional medicare and an annual
medicare well check which medicare does cover at 100 percent so in order to
avoid unexpected medical bills you'll want to be sure that when you are going
into your doctor for your annual checkup that you're telling your doctor's office
that you want your annual medicare wellness exam
not a full routine physical examination now if you do want a full routine
physical exam that includes the blood work then you may be responsible for
some or all of the costs depending on your plan and additionally the medical
community has recently questioned the value of these full routine physical
examinations in recent years and this is due in part to over testing false
positives and unnecessary medical costs so you will need to decide if you want
to get a full routine physical examination based on your needs your
plan your budget but it is important to take
advantage of your medicare benefits and at least get your medicare wellness exam
each year because that is covered at 100 and finally medicare doesn't cover
nursing home care or long-term care so medicare will cover a limited stay in a
skilled nursing facility so let's say for example you break a bone or you have
a hip replacement and you need inpatient rehabilitation
medicare will cover your stay in a skilled nursing facility in general
however when you need just help with the activities of
daily living custodial care they call it help with your bathing
toileting dressing etc that's going to be considered long-term care and that is
not covered by medicare or medicare advantage plans and in many parts of the
country the average annual costs in a nursing home are going to be about 90 to
100 000 per year so it is a big expense so
planning for your nursing care is a pretty big deal whether you are
budgeting and saving or looking to purchase maybe a long-term care
insurance policy for many people with limited income and savings medicaid is
really going to help to fill in those gaps but i recommend speaking with a
financial advisor to help you plan out for these potential future expenses so
while these aren't the only things that medicare doesn't cover these are five of
the really big ones that we get asked a lot about in my office and it's
definitely important to be aware of these potential out-of-pocket costs that
you may be responsible for before you start using your benefits additionally
you're going to want to be aware of the different types of plans available to
you in your area medicare advantage plans medicare supplement plans and how
they work and this is where we can definitely help you can jump on over to
aptininsuranceagency.com that's linked below for free no obligation quotes on
medicare supplement plans in your area and my team and i are here to assist and
answer your questions our service is 100
free of charge so we work in almost every state and we specialize in helping
people decide if they should go with traditional medicare perhaps purchase a
medigap plan or if they should choose a medicare
advantage plan and we do this by conducting a needs analysis reviewing
your needs your budget so that you can find the solution that best fits you we
are independent brokers so we are truly able to take an unbiased approach to
helping our clients please feel free to give us a call shoot us an email again
we'd be happy to help thank you so much for watching today
and we'll see you soon
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