Husband is a patient in Veterans Home. He is a paying patient in this home. The home has requested that we buy additional secondary insurance. At present he has Medicare plus Government Wide Blue Cross and Blue shield and a Medigap policy costing an additional four thousand dollars. The home insisted we needed the Medigap policy. What has bothered me the most is this policy has not paid any of the billing so far and has cost us the additional four thousand dollars. Help !!!
The last year of my mom’s life her supplement policy was about $4,000 but she was 97 and there was no deductible. But she had the same supplement for over 30 yrs so maybe that made a difference.
She never had to pay anything except her premium. Medicare paid the 80% and her supplement paid the rest.
However, my mom lived at home. Medicare doesn’t pay for long term care. If you are expecting it to kick in on that, it won’t.
Im sure you know that the medigap plan only pays for the things that Medicare approves and pays 80% of. So, I guess you are saying that your husband has charges that aren’t covered by Medicare that he is paying? Those charges would have nothing to do with the supplement.
Thats how I understand how the supplement works. Do you understand it differently?
Perhaps you could give us a bit more information about what you are expecting from the supplement.
You might want to talk to a Patient Advocate and get all the details as to what they need, what is paying for what. If there is no patient advocate ask to talk to a Social worker they may also figure out that is going on.
Another course of action would be talk to an Elder Care attorney and see if they can navigate the VA quagmire.