I think you mean Part B, not D. I know of no part D. The basics are this:
Medicare is broken down into part A, which covers diagnostic tests, hospital services, operations and MOST of the "large ticket" items EXCEPT for the "professional services" THE DOCTOR BILL! Part A is included in the Social Security package, so when you reach 65 or whatever qualification you get that benefit at no extra cost.
Part B....you gotta pay extra for, but IMHO (VERY BIASED HUMBLE OPINION) you should purchase it since this covers 80% of the Doctor's bills, which if you get pretty sick gets REALLY expensive REALLY quick. I'm not sure what part B costs these days but a total hip replacement will set you back AT LEAST $5,000 if not more. The ironic part of this whole thing if you DON'T opt in for part B coverage and are not a candidate for Medicaid, your doctors have to charge you 100% of the charge, which is usually 60% MORE than what they would receive from Medicare?!!!
WHAT?! HOW CAN THAT BE? It's worse than you think, because your doctors are REQUIRED BY LAW to BILL YOU THE FULL AMOUNT OF THE CHARGE, instead of giving you an "allowance" and CANNOT ACCEPT WHAT Medicare would give them as payment in full (if you can pay that).
Let's say you break your hip and need a total hip replacement, you would receive a bill from the hospital for the stay, hip prosthesis, laboratory, x-rays, imaging studies, I.V. fluids, Operating Room time, Anesthesia, and Medications, as well as equipment used during your hospitalization. This will be billed by the hospital to medicare under part "A". If the whole hospital bills the whole shebang as $80,000 then Medicare would probably pay about $35,000 and the mysterious $45,000 would go into the neverworld as an "allowance". Whew....dodged a bullet there
However, we haven't talked about the orthopedic surgeon who did the operation, the anesthesiologist who put you to sleep, the pathologist who looked at your specimen, the radiologist who read your imaging studies, the cardiologist who read yor EKG, and the physiatrist who planned your rehab, the internist who cleared you for surgery....GET THE PICTURE!
All those Docs are probably going to total ANOTHER $12-15,000 in CHARGES,
with the huge chunk going to the surgeon who did the operation. In reality, medicare part B will ALLOW about 40-45% of their charges, so medicare will send them checks in various amounts that will total about $6-7,000 with the surgeon getting about $5,000 and the radiologist getting about $30 to read your pre operative chest X-ray and your your pre-and postop hip films. But you were smart bought part B and a supplemental coverage policy to cover the 20% of professional services not covered by Medicare part B. So you owe nothing
Oh you didn't buy part B? You didn't get supplemental insurance? I'm sorry you owe all of the above the FULL $12-15,000
:thumbdn:
And that unfortunately is the law!
