medicare
Medicare’s hospital-at-home program
You may have heard of the “hospital-at-home program,” but do you know what it means? Hospital-at-home enables some patients who need acute-level care to receive care in their homes rather than in a hospital. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid…
About Medicare Advantage and Prior Authorizatons
Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, often referred to as Medicare Part C, are healthcare insurance plans that replace “original Medicare,” often doing so at little to no additional cost, while simultaneously offering additional services. The combination of additional services at low/no…
Avoiding Medicare’s Late Enrollment Penalty
Just as Social Security is the nation’s foundational retirement financial program, Medicare is America’s foundational healthcare program for seniors aged 65 and over. Medicare, however, can be tricky, especially if you miss the Initial Enrollment Period which starts 3 months…
Be Smart About Your Social Security Benefits
Let’s face it – Social Security was never meant to be your sole source of income in retirement. In reality, Social Security provides only about 40% of what you’ll need to retire comfortably, so having an additional source of income…
Important information about your Medicare Eligibility
This article is written by Diane Omdahl for Forbes and published on May 23,2024. Depending on your situation, you may not automatically qualify for Medicare, especially premium free Part A. As Diane points out it is important to think about…
Will Medicare Part B premiums wipe out COLA
After the government released the inflation rate for April, Social Security analysts began to estimate the cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) for 2025. As you may know, the Social Security Administration bases its COLA each year on average annual increases in CPI-W from…
Is it worth it to take early retirement?
We all dream of early retirement, but what if someone told you the financial benefits of working just one year longer? Would you do it? Or would you say, I want to retire; I’ve been working for forty years. Jordan…
Ask Rusty – Shocked Because Medicare Increase Results in Loss of Social Security Benefits
Dear Rusty: My wife and I have taken a Social Security “Cut” — no 3.2% raise for us, due to something called “IRMAA,” based on our income. We actually took, together, a $400 a month cut. As far as I…
Thoughts on Meeting Retirement’s Financial and Healthcare Challenges
Nobody said it would be easy, and the closer many soon-to-be retired folks get to the goal line, the larger the challenges seem to loom. With savings levels down and the estimates of wealth required to retire comfortably steadily drifting…
The Social Security/Medicare Funding Picture in a Nutshell
Quite a bit of rhetoric is surfacing on the media airwaves about the operation and financial stability of America’s primary senior benefit programs, Social Security and Medicare. With much of the commentary dealing with the issue of the insolvency projections…