Volume 16, No. 2, Spring 2008
By Sheila Curtis
Do you need help with your Medicare costs?
Medical costs continue to rise and there may be a program out there that can help you.
The Medicare Savings Programs exist to help fill the gaps in Medicare, pay the Medicare Part B premium, or both.
The Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) program will pay for the Medicare Part B premium, Part B deductible and the co-insurance. The gross monthly income can be no more than $887/individual and $1,187/couple and the asset limit is $4,000/individual and $6,000/couple. Your house and car are not considered an asset.
The Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary (SLMB) and Qualifying Individual (QI-1) programs will pay the Part B premium, which is now $96.40 per month. The gross monthly income can be no more than $1,191/individual and $1,596/couple and the asset limit is $4,000/individual and $6,000/couple.
If you don’t qualify for those programs, you still may be eligible for some assistance with your Medicare Part D drug costs. If your gross monthly income is no more than $1,300/individual and $1,750/couple and assets are less than $11,990/individual and $23,970/couple, you should apply for extra help through the Social Security office. If approved, you will receive help with the Part D premium, deductible, co-pays, and coverage in the gap.
Don’t forget, if you do not qualify for that extra help, Prescription Advantage, the state drug program, can step in to assist with the cost of your drug plan. Prescription Advantage allows for a much higher income and assets are not counted.
If you would like more information on any of these programs or need assistance with the applications, please call the regional SHINE (Serving the Health Information Needs of Elders) office at 508-394-9326 or 1-800-334-9999.
(Ms. Curtis is Regional Director of SHINE, a division of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs.)
By Karin Cadwell
You visit your primary care physician for that annual checkup and find yourself referred to a specialist or two…or more if exotic tests or hospitalization are required. For each stop, medical records must be transferred and test results exchanged.
Smudged Xeroxes, labor-intensive FAXes, costly hand delivery or time-consuming snail mail that can involve postage fees and copying backups in case of loss are some of the hazards you may encounter. Until recently, these have been the sole alternatives for records exchanges among practitioners.
But now new technology has emerged to bring this process into the cyber epoch and it’s available here on the Cape and Islands.
MedUnity, a four-year-old company based in East Sandwich, has begun a project with local Cape and Island practices to introduce medical record exchange services to the region. MedUnity provides online services that allow medical practices to securely exchange medical information. The patented process, called SMREx® is like a secure electronic post office for the medical industry. SMREx is also the first (and only) public National Medical Record Exchange and is HIPPA compliant.
“We’ve been using SMREx for about eight months,” explains Janet Burns, practice manager of Cape Cod ENT. “I wish more practices were on board. It makes physician practices more efficient and saves money. It’s one way of decreasing health care costs.”
Federal programs such as Medicare have compelled medical practices to use electronic rather than paper submissions but communications involving primary care providers and specialists is still largely on paper.
The savings for SMREx users goes beyond the paper, envelopes and stamps. “It allows the physician to receive information in a more immediate time frame. It saves staff from looking around for paper,” according to Ms. Burns.
SMREx stands for Simple Medical Record Exchange and they say the process usually can be mastered within an hour.
Experts had projected that a national system like SMREx wouldn’t be ready for another five years and would have a price tag of upwards of $200 billion. “But any size practice can be up and using our system the same day and at a fraction of their current paper costs,” according to Dennis resident Joshua LH Brimdyr, President/CEO of MedUnity.
“We can operate nationally from our base here on the Cape because practices can get started with only a brief telephone and online orientation, it’s that easy to implement,” he added.
More information about this project can be obtained at www.medunity.com/cci or by calling 508-833-2272.
MedUnity, a privately held company, has launched the first National Health Information Network (NHIN) for electronic medical record exchange. The service, known as SMREx(TM) (Simple Medical Record Exchange), allows any medical practice in the country to instantly and securely exchange electronic medical records using the Internet.
In 2004, President George W. Bush called on the health care industry to create a National Health Information Network by 2014.
The Network that President Bush described ultimately would allow a practice in California to "pull" a patient's record instantly from a hospital in Maine. "MedUnity knows how vital an NHIN for electronic patient record exchange systems is to improve patient outcome while containing health care costs, so we put every effort into getting the job done ahead of schedule," Mr. Brimdyr says.
The MedUnity system overcomes many technical hurdles and uses an Internet browser and a simple "copy and paste" methodology. Mr. Brimdyr says, “None of the other regional exchange systems available today can offer that combination”
(Dr. Cadwell, PhD, is executive director of the Healthy Children Project in Sandwich and a consultant to MedUnity.)
By G. Robert King II, CFP®, AIF®
Nearly everyone knows that you can be more effective when you have a plan; and it is no different in your financial life. Some people delay creating their financial plan due to a busy life and procrastination, others simply lack the knowledge of where to start, and of course there is the fear factor–talking about your finances with a stranger.
Research shows that one of the top three goals of investors is to get their financial life organized (the other two being tax reduction and maintaining their current lifestyle). This is not surprising as the typical family has multiple insurance, investment and bank accounts scattered among different financial organizations.
Here are the basic elements of a financial plan.
Many believe financial planning is just about investing. Wiser heads also include retirement planning with the elements of income and estate planning.
There is currently a heated discussion in our field to split financial planning and investment advice into two separate disciplines. For many, this may be a regulatory issue (new rules, new forms) that only impact those in the financial services industry. I personally welcome this change, but recognize this divide will have a huge impact on clients’ future relationship with financial advisors.
We see a scenario where the financial planner would only deal with the global aspects of investing, such as asset allocation theory, assisting in the creation and tracking of goals and objectives, and the monitoring of the performance of individual investment managers, etc.
In turn, investment advisors would not include financial planning as a service, but only would handle the implementation of the asset allocation plan.
Of course, under a best case scenario the financial planner and investment advisor can be the same person, albeit with two distinct contracts and accounts.
A major impact will be to force all who provide financial planning and investment advice to accept that they are financial fiduciaries, under which they must put the clients’ best interests ahead of their own.
Financial planning is not a quick fix process; a marathon, not a sprint. And a team activity as well since it should encompass the entire family unto the generations with all the changes that involves. (One example, second marriages.) It also may require someone for whom this is a fulltime job.
(Mr. King is a Certified Financial Planner in Hyannis, 1-800-325-1099 or robert@capitalportfolios.net.