Today your Plymouth insurance agent at EnviZion Insurance is going to talk about the secondary benefits that are part of Medicare plans. When I say secondary benefits, I’m talking about those benefits that are more of icing on the cake including dental hearing, vision, health reward programs, fitness memberships such as silver sneakers and any sort of additional benefits that come with the plan that are not specifically for coverage for medical doctors or prescriptions.

As your Plymouth insurance agent. We want to make sure that it’s clear that not only are you paying attention to your doctors and prescriptions and medical coverage, but also to some of these secondary benefits as well. Now it is very important to make sure that all your doctors are in network in a plan. If you are choosing a Medicare advantage plan and that you have proper coverage for any prescriptions you are on before you look at secondary benefits because as I like to say, they are more of the icing on the cake sort of benefits, but they can make a big difference for certain people who are going to specifically use. Some of these benefits. For example, someone who knows they’re going to get or need a root canal next year and are looking to have some added dental benefits on the plan. 

Taking a closer look at some secondary benefits such as dental vision, hearing, fitness reimbursement programs such as silver sneakers and also any sort of rewards programs that a plan may offer. Each of these types of benefits are going to vary by the insurance company that provides the plan for you.

But there are some sort of basic things that you will see and differences between the types of coverage that are offered for each of these secondary benefits when it comes to hearing dental and vision for many plans. There sort of two things that you see either our reimbursement style plan where you pay upfront and then are reimbursed by the plan benefits. And in those cases you do not specifically have an actual dental vision or hearing plan per se. You are just going to a qualified person that would be part of the benefit in your play and to be reimbursed so you’d pay upfront. Usually you have to provide your insurance company with a bill and then you are reimbursed for whatever coverage that plan offers up to the limit they offer or whatever the stipulation may be for that plan.

Second, any plans offer preventative care for dental vision and hearing as a baseline of the preventative coverage in the plans. And this is specifically something you will see for Medicare advantage plans. What that means is you usually will see some sort of routine care for each of these types of benefits where you can get, for example a cleaning done or an annual eye exam done or an annual hearing tests done just to keep on top of the preventative side of things to make sure that if anything does arise, you can then have that treated right away. Again, this is not a specific, a set in stone thing and it will depend on whatever plan in your area, um, or whatever plan specifically we’ll offer. But these are generally the types of coverage you will see for secondary benefits as your Plymouth insurance agent. Our job is to make sure that we help you get the most out of the plan that you can, that you choose. And one way that we can do that is looking at your specific needs currently and seeing if some of the secondary benefits from one plan to the next will give you more coverage for the year compared to another.

Your Plymouth insurance agent at EnviZion Insurance always take the time to do this because we understand that some people also like to go to the gym and there are many plans out there that are a part of silver sneakers or other fitness programs that will actually pay for your monthly gym membership or community center membership. Because one of the best things people can do for themselves is to stay active. And that promotes health in a lot of ways. So your Medicare plan may have some sort of reimbursement for this when it comes to reviewing your plan for the year and what to look for for secondary benefits. Again, it is always one of those things to think about in terms of your specific needs, what you think you might be facing the following year or any changes to your health that you think would then if it you to maybe finding a plan with some stronger secondary benefits.

Again, we always suggest as you’re that the insurance agent to first and foremost make sure that your plan covers your doctors and facilities that you see and prescriptions before you determine what secondary benefits are most important to you. Because having a Medicare advantage plan where you’re having out of network costs is never a position you want to be in because the whole advantage to Medicare advantage plans are the in network costs. So always pay attention to those things first and foremost and then from that point look at the secondary benefits for hearing dental, vision, fitness and healthy rewards programs to see if they fit your needs. The healthy rewards program is another great benefit that some plans offer and what this is is a sort of point system that allows you to earn points for doing certain preventative cares, screenings, immunizations, annual physicals and things like that and of those that nature and with the points that you build up, it’s usually through a website where you input it or an app on your phone that you would input it. You build up points and then can use those points to get gift cards or other sorts of rewards of that nature. For completing those preventative care screenings as your Plymouth insurance agent, we always take the time to make sure that all the boxes are checked when reviewing your Medicare plan and helping you decide which plan to switch into if it’s the annual enrollment period or if you’re a first time enrollee, making sure that again, all your boxes are checked for medical prescriptions, doctors and providers, and then taking a look at these secondary benefits as well to make sure that you are getting a plan that’s going to meet your needs and then try to get as much benefit out of the plan that you would use in terms of secondary benefits. 

To add that sort of icing on the cake for you, your Plymouth insurance agent at EnviZion Insurance is always here to help and I hope that these secondary benefits are a little more clear for you and that this helps you understand them better. You can always give us a call at 612-354-6496 to speak directly with a Plymouth insurance agent, and we would be happy to help review your plan, and help you understand it better.