Tag: Plan

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Health

Do not like your Medicare Benefit Plan? Now’s the time to swap or drop it

Don't like your Medicare Advantage Plan? Now's the time to swap or drop it

Female doctor works with elderly patient in a modern office clinic / hospital

momcilog | E + | Getty Images

When it comes to Medicare benefit plans, they don’t have to be as permanent a choice as you might think.

Your 2021 plan, which you have either selected or re-enrolled, can be changed or canceled between January 1st and March 31st. That said, you can swap your benefit plan for another or drop it and return to basic Medicare Hospital (Part A coverage and Part B Outpatient coverage).

The most common reasons beneficiaries make changes are because their doctors aren’t on the plan’s network or drugs aren’t included in their insurance coverage, said Danielle Roberts, co-founder of insurance company Boomer Benefits.

Also from January 1st to March 31st, if you missed your first Medicare registration period and do not qualify for an exemption, you can register during that time. If this is your situation, coverage won’t start until July 1, said Elizabeth Gavino, founder of Lewin & Gavino and independent broker and general agent for Medicare plans.

Of the 63 million or so Medicare beneficiaries, around 25 million are enrolled in a benefit plan that includes Parts A and B, and usually Part D for prescription drugs, as well as extras such as teeth and eyesight.

The current opportunity to change or drop your benefit plan is only a few weeks after Medicare’s annual fall enrollment ended, when a variety of options became available to those looking to change their coverage.

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In contrast, the upcoming window related to the benefit plan has limitations.

For starters, you can only do one switch. This means that the change will generally be locked in 2021 as soon as you switch to another benefit plan or delete it for basic Medicare (unless you meet an exclusion that qualifies you for a specific registration period).

Additionally, you cannot switch from one standalone Part-D prescription medication plan to another in that three month window.

In the fall, if you selected a Part-D plan based on inaccurate or misleading information, anytime during the year you can call 1-800-Medicare to see if your situation allows you to make changes.

In the meantime, deleting a benefit plan in favor of Basic Medicare often means losing drug supplies – which means you have to sign up for a standalone Part-D plan. This is important because if you remain uncovered for 63 days, you face a life penalty for late enrollment that will affect your monthly premiums.

If you switch back to Original Medicare and want to get supplementary insurance (also known as “Medigap”), be aware that you may not be eligible for guaranteed coverage. These guidelines cover all or part of the cost sharing of some aspects of Parts A and B, including deductibles, co-payments and co-insurance. However, they have their own rules for signing up.

“If someone plans to go back to Original Medicare and get a Medigap plan, be aware that they will likely have to answer health questions and go through the underwriting,” said Roberts.

She recommends starting the process by applying for the Medigap plan and getting approval before leaving the benefit plan or signing up for a standalone Part-D plan.

“If you sign up for the Part-D plan, you will be removed from the Medicare Benefits Plan, so it’s important to wait for that part as well,” said Roberts. “We encourage people who need to make changes to do so at the beginning of the legislature.”

Categories
Politics

Stimulus checks, jobless help and extra in $900B coronavirus aid plan

Stimulus checks, jobless aid and more in $900B coronavirus relief plan

The U.S. Capitol building after a rainstorm on Capitol Hill in Washington, December 4, 2020.

Tom Brenner | Reuters

The deal by Congress for a $ 900 billion plan to fight coronavirus includes more aid to small businesses, another round of direct payments to Americans, an additional unemployment benefit, and funding to streamline the distribution of Covid vaccines.

Legislators wanted the package to be passed by Monday evening along with a government funding proposal of $ 1.4 trillion. The much-needed help comes from the fact that millions of Americans are struggling to pay for food and housing, and face possible loss of unemployment benefits and eviction protection in the days ahead.

Many economists and lawmakers say the measure will help, but it won’t go far enough to contain the damage that households and small businesses have suffered during the pandemic.

The more than 5,000-page bill, which the legislature released Monday afternoon, would cover a number of topics.

  • A weekly unemployment insurance surcharge of $ 300 per week would be added by mid-March. The plan would also extend the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs, which expand entitlement to unemployment benefits and allow people to continue receiving payments until mid-March after their government assistance expires.
  • The bill would put $ 284 billion in Paycheck Protection Program loans that are available, which would allow hard-hit small businesses to get a second round of funding. It would include $ 20 billion in grants for businesses in low-income areas and money for loans from community and minority lenders.
  • The package would send direct payments of $ 600 to most Americans – up from $ 1,200 passed under the CARES bill in March. Families are also paid $ 600 per child. Individuals who earned up to $ 75,000 per year and couples who made up to $ 150,000 in 2019 will receive the full amount. Payments will expire until ceased for individuals and couples who have earned $ 99,000 and $ 198,000, respectively. Mixed status households where a family member does not have a social security number will also receive payments retrospectively under the CARES Act.
  • The bill would extend the federal eviction moratorium to January 31. He would invest $ 25 billion in a rental assistance fund that states and municipalities would make available to people for use in past due and future rental or utility payments.
  • The plan would allocate more than $ 8 billion to distribute the two FDA-approved Covid-19 vaccines. It would also set aside $ 20 billion to make sure Americans got the shot for free. It would send at least $ 20 billion to states for testing and contact tracing efforts.
  • During the worst hunger crisis the US has seen in years, the move would raise $ 13 billion to boost Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits by 15%, including funding food banks.
  • The bill would allocate $ 45 billion for transportation, including at least $ 15 billion for airline payroll assistance, $ 14 billion for transit systems, and $ 10 billion for state highways.
  • The legislation would pour $ 82 billion into education, including more than $ 54 billion for K-12 public schools and nearly $ 23 billion for higher education. Schools need additional resources like personal protective equipment to stay open safely.
  • This will spend $ 10 billion on childcare.
  • The proposal would send $ 15 billion to live venues, cinemas, and cultural museums.
  • The move provides $ 7 billion to improve broadband access.
  • It would expire the Federal Reserve’s end-of-year emergency powers established by the CARES Act and recycle $ 429 billion in unused funds. A proposal, backed by GOP Senator Pat Toomey, to prevent the Fed from setting up “similar” programs in the future temporarily sparked the last attempt to create a bailout. The parties eventually chose a language that would not allow the Fed to issue identical loan regulations.

– NBC News contributed to this report

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Categories
Health

This is what you must know if you wish to change Medicare Benefit Plan

Here's what you need to know if you want to change Medicare Advantage Plan

LifestyleVisuals | E + | Getty Images

Yes, Medicare’s annual enrollment period ended on December 7th.

No, all hope is not lost when you find that the benefit plan you have chosen for 2021 does not match.

This is because Medicare has a three-month window at the beginning of each year from January 1 to March 31 when you can swap your benefit plan for another or drop it and return to Medicare (Part A Hospital Insurance and Part B Outpatient Coverage)).

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“The most common reason people change is because they change during the [fall enrollment window] without realizing that one of their doctors is off the network or one of their drugs is not on the prescription, “said Danielle Roberts, co-founder of the insurance company Boomer Benefits.

Also from January 1st to March 31st, if you missed your first Medicare registration period and do not qualify for an exemption, you can register during that time. If this is your situation, coverage won’t start until July 1, said Elizabeth Gavino, founder of Lewin & Gavino and independent broker and general agent for Medicare plans.

Of the 63 million or so Medicare beneficiaries, around 25 million are enrolled in a benefit plan that includes Parts A and B, and usually Part D for prescription drugs, as well as extras such as teeth and eyesight.

The upcoming three-month opportunity to change or drop your benefit plan will come just weeks after Medicare’s annual fall registration ends, when a multitude of options were available for those looking to change their coverage.

In contrast, the upcoming window related to the benefit plan has limitations.

For starters, you can only do one switch. This means that the change will generally be locked in 2021 as soon as you switch to another benefit plan or delete it for basic Medicare (unless you meet an exclusion that qualifies you for a specific registration period).

Additionally, you cannot switch from one standalone Part-D prescription medication plan to another in that three month window.

In the fall, if you selected a Part-D plan based on inaccurate or misleading information, anytime during the year you can call 1-800-Medicare to see if your situation allows you to make changes.

In the meantime, deleting a benefit plan in favor of Basic Medicare often means losing drug coverage – which means you have to sign up for a standalone Part-D plan. This is important because if you remain uncovered for 63 days, you face a life penalty for late enrollment that will affect your monthly premiums.

If you switch back to Original Medicare and want to get supplementary insurance (also known as “Medigap”), be aware that you may not be eligible for guaranteed coverage. These guidelines cover all or part of the cost sharing of some aspects of Parts A and B, including deductibles, co-payments and co-insurance. However, they have their own rules for signing up.

If someone is planning to go back to the original Medicare and get a Medigap plan, they should be aware that they will likely have health questions to answer.

Danielle Roberts

Co-founder of Boomer Benefits

“If someone plans to go back to the original Medicare and get a Medigap plan, they should be aware that they will likely have health questions to answer and go through the underwriting,” said Roberts.

She recommends starting the process by applying for the Medigap plan and getting approval before leaving the benefit plan or signing up for a standalone Part-D plan.

“If you sign up for the Part-D plan, you will be removed from the Medicare Benefits Plan, so it’s important to wait for that part as well,” said Roberts. “We encourage people who need to make changes to do so at the beginning of the legislature.”

Categories
Business

Coca-Cola will minimize 2,200 jobs worldwide as a part of restructuring plan

Coca-Cola will cut 2,200 jobs worldwide as part of restructuring plan

Cans made for the Cola drink by Coca-Cola Co. move along the production line.

Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Coca-Cola will cut around 2,200 jobs in its global workforce as part of a broader restructuring plan accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic.

In the United States, Coke will use layoffs and acquisitions to cut about 1,200 jobs, representing about 12% of the workforce in its home market. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

At the end of 2019, the Atlanta-based company had 86,200 employees worldwide. But the pandemic has weighed on their revenues and increased costs for the beverage giant. Around half of sales are typically made by consumers who drink their beverages from home. Net sales decreased 9% in the third quarter.

Coke has responded to the crisis and accelerated its plans to restructure its business and reduce its portfolio. The production of beverages such as Tab and the Odwalla brand, which do not sell well and do not offer great growth opportunities, has ceased. The company plans to build new operational units at the regional and local levels, working closely with five global marketing leadership teams divided by category.

Part of the restructuring includes job cuts. In August, Coke announced it would offer voluntary layoffs to 4,000 workers in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Overall, Coke expects to spend $ 350 million to $ 550 million on severance costs. The employees of the bottlers are not included in the job losses.

Coke’s shares, valued at $ 230 billion, rose less than 1% in afternoon trading. The stock is down 3% in 2020.

Categories
Business

HBO Max Plan Makes WarnerMedia Chief A Hollywood Villain

HBO Max Plan Makes WarnerMedia Chief A Hollywood Villain

LOS ANGELES – When Jason Kilar took office as CEO of Hulu in July 2007, some competitors thought the streaming service was so likely they called it the Clown Co. Yet Mr. Kilar, armed with the belief that there was a better way to watch TV, and the support of two powerful corporate parents – NBCUniversal and News Corp – confiscated himself and his team from an empty Santa Monica office and got to work . He covered all the windows with newspapers and made the point that naysayers should be ignored.

“Sometimes in life blocking out outside noise is really good,” he said in a recent interview.

Hulu didn’t fail, and 13 years later, Mr. Kilar (the first syllable rhymes with “heaven”) is the CEO of WarnerMedia. Suddenly he has a lot of noise that he has to ignore.

This month Warner Bros. announced that its 17 films planned for 2021 – including big budget offerings like “Dune” and “The Matrix 4” – will be released simultaneously in theaters and on the company’s difficult streaming service, HBO Max . The move orchestrated to address the ongoing challenges of the pandemic Decades of precedents for the way the movie industry does business and drives Hollywood into a frenzy.

Powerful talent agents and theater managers have publicly blown it up. Perhaps most importantly, some of the high profile filmmakers who worked with Warner Bros. – and whom the studio plans to work with again – were harshly critical. Christopher Nolan, whose “Tenet” is just the latest of his films released by Warner, told The Hollywood Reporter, “Some of the greatest filmmakers and stars in our industry went to bed that night before they thought they were working for the biggest studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service. “

Denis Villeneuve, the director of “Dune,” wrote in Variety that “Warner Bros. may have killed the” Dune “franchise.” (“Dune” only covers half of Frank Herbert’s novel. It was planned that Mr. Villeneuve would complete the science fiction story in a sequel.) Neither Mr. Nolan, nor Mr. Villeneuve, or most of Hollywood was off been told of Warner’s plans before they were announced.

Mr. Kilar, 49, called the targeted criticism “painful” and added, “We clearly have more work to do in managing this pandemic and the future alongside them.” But he’s spent his career cracking down on entrenched systems and was somewhat prepared for the outrage.

“There is no such thing as a situation where everyone will stand up and applaud,” he said. “That’s not how innovation works. This is neither easy nor should it be easy. When trying something new you have to expect and be ready with some people who are not familiar with change. That’s okay.”

Mr. Kilar’s boss, John Stankey, the managing director of Warner’s parent company AT&T, also defended the strategy, calling it a “win-win-win situation” at a recent investor conference.

Serious and approachable, Mr. Kilar, who took over WarnerMedia in May, acts more as an avid doer than a ruthless disruptor. Both the childhood stories he tells about returning home from school in Pennsylvania to see “Speed ​​Racer” and the enthusiasm he shows for upcoming projects – he named the adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical “In the Heights ”“ life-affirming ”- seem purposeful in distracting the growing narrative that he is the evil villain at the center of a conspiracy to dismantle the act of going to the theater to watch a movie. (In the email exchange after the interview, he shared a list of films he paid to see in theaters before the pandemic stalled things and wrote, “I have a few in theaters my most transcendent experiences. “)

Mr Kilar has positioned WarnerMedia’s decision to release films in theaters and streaming in response to the fighting caused by the pandemic, which has closed the majority of American theaters and caused most studios to postpone release until next year . (A notable exception to the delay is Warner’s “Wonder Woman 1984,” which hits theaters and HBO Max on Christmas Day.) He also referred to the decision as “a” Accommodation for the audience that has got used to watching movies in their living room.

But Mr Kilar joined WarnerMedia just two months before HBO Max’s lackluster debut, and it’s his job to make the service successful.

There are serious challenges. HBO Max is more expensive than other streamers ($ 15 a month) and has been criticized for not having “must see” content. (The miniseries “The Flight Attendant” caused quite a stir recently.) Marketing has puzzled customers trying to tell the difference between it and platforms like HBO Go and HBO Now. The total number of subscribers is 12.6 million, well behind Netflix (195 million subscribers worldwide) and Disney + (87 million). Only 30 percent of HBO subscribers signed up.

Additionally, AT & T’s balance sheet has nearly $ 170 billion in debt, which leaves some in Hollywood to wonder if the company can invest enough in content to achieve its goals.

So it helps that beneath the veneer of “Ah, shit, I’m just a Pittsburgh kid” is a relentlessly ambitious manager who wrote a well-read manifesto on a Hulu blog in 2011 that criticized the television business – and most likely played it played a significant role in landing his current job. In his short time, Mr. Kilar has restructured WarnerMedia, laid off around 1,000 employees and started to free the company from decades of fiefdom.

Economy & Economy

Updated

Apr. 11, 2020, 6:16 pm ET

Some employees appreciate his clear direction and focused approach, while others rub against his lack of respect for Hollywood tradition. He has become known for sending long emails, often late at night or on the weekend, to explain his thoughts.

“If you wanted to design an executive for this time on paper, Jason Kilar is the ideal person for the job,” said Jeff Shell, executive director of NBCUniversal, in an interview. The two met last year when they signed a deal on the Warner-produced and channel-licensed series of films “Harry Potter”.

“While he is known to be a technology expert,” added Shell, “I believe he has both a respect for content and a relentless desire to follow where the consumer is going. It was refreshing to see him do such a bold thing. “

Mr. Kilar had never run an organization the size of WarnerMedia or dealt directly with talent and other artists in his previous work experience.

For example, Mr Kilar was positive when asked before Mr Nolan’s public criticism how he believed the filmmaker, a fierce defender of theatrical experience, might react to Warner’s move.

“I think he would say that this is a company that is so dedicated to the storyteller and fan that they stop at nothing to make sure they go as far as they can to both the storyteller and the fan to help, “said Kilar.

Oops.

Mr. Kilar admits the company should have been more sensitive to how its announcement would be received by actors and filmmakers. “A very important point – something I should have made a central part of our original communication – is that we are thoughtfully approaching the economics of this situation with a guiding principle of generosity,” he said. This blind spot in dealing with creative talent could indicate Mr. Kilar’s emphasis on serving the audience above all else. When announcing “Wonder Woman 1984” he wrote a memo in which the word “fan” or “fans” was used 13 times. Its most recent to announce the 17-picture deal was titled “Some Big 2021 News for Fans”.

Mr. Kilar says that commitment to the customer caught on during a childhood trip to Disney World. As his story tells, Mr. Kilar, the fourth of six children, was impressed with the company’s attention to every detail, from the pristine landscaping to the lack of gum on the sidewalk.

“It moved me in a way I had never done before,” he said.

From there, Mr. Kilar became an expert on all that Walt Disney has to offer. He read the biographies, searched the libraries for more material, and eventually got an internship with the company after drawing a comic when his letters got no response. He was most interested in Mr. Disney’s entrepreneurship, a quality that Mr. Kilar defines as “the relentless pursuit of better ways.”

He sees a direct line from this childhood obsession to his decision, as head of WarnerMedia, to take streaming to a theatrical level.

The broader film industry is not that romantic. Mr. Kilar’s main mistake, according to the city, is not the deal itself – after all, filmmakers have been doing business with Netflix for years – but rather the nerve of ignoring the other stakeholders in the company’s decision. He’s still seen as an outsider discussing revolution but maybe really just trying to endorse a stalled streaming product that needs to get subscribers quickly to get Wall Street approval.

“There are some things to talk about and talk about and talk about, but that doesn’t necessarily change the outcome,” Kilar said. “I don’t think this would have been possible if we’d spent months and months talking to every voter. At a certain point you need to lead. And run with the customer in mind and make decisions on their behalf. “

Categories
Health

It’s Not Simply You: Selecting a Well being Insurance coverage Plan Is Actually Exhausting

It’s Not Just You: Picking a Health Insurance Plan Is Really Hard

“People want advice, they want leadership,” said Lang. “And it’s pretty hard.”

The people who are most likely to make bad decisions seem to be the least likely to be able to afford them. A recent study in the Netherlands, which offers insurance to everyone through an Obamacare-like market, found that only 5 percent of Dutch customers did a better job choosing an ideal plan than choosing a plan randomly. And the people in that top 5 percent usually had college degrees and jobs in technical fields. People with lower education and incomes, who tend to be in poorer health, are very likely to opt for a plan that costs them more to cover their health care – a situation where they may save on the drugs or procedures they need.

But well-trained Dutch specialists also had problems. People who worked in the insurance industry with an advanced degree made good choices about 30 percent of the time. And only about 40 percent of trained statisticians – the best performing group – chose good plans for their needs.

In the United States, a working paper found that many professionals who help people choose health insurance are also poor at choosing plans and far worse than a computer algorithm.

“These people who are supposed to get the market going can’t do that at all,” said Jonathan Kolstad, associate professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley, who co-authored both studies. Professor Kolstad said the work made him rethink why we value the health insurance markets so highly when they are so difficult to use.

Choosing a plan is difficult, but a few simple guidelines can help a little. It is helpful to know if a particular plan covers the doctors and hospitals you use, for example. And if you’re willing to take more financial risks, you may prefer a plan with a higher deductible and lower premiums. As you evaluate more predictable expenses, a lower deductible plan may work better. However, actual health needs and insurance fine print vary so widely that these guides can mislead you. The literature shows that it is not uncommon for people to choose a plan during the year that costs them $ 1,000 more than the best plan.

Most plan selection research deals with the financial design of the plan. Researchers can look at the options, see what health services people end up using, and see the total cost of various decisions. This approach leaves out some other elements of health plans, such as the choice of doctors or whether the company provides good customer service. The study of brokers found that people whose plan selection was aided by the computer program were less likely to switch plans over the next year than people who followed the broker’s advice unaided, a sign that they were more satisfied with the overall package .

But what is the alternative to choosing? Amanda Starc, a professor of management at Northwestern University, said there was evidence that people really wanted things other than health insurance. About a third of those 65 and over are currently enrolled on Medicare Advantage private plans. That proportion is large enough to indicate that many would just be less satisfied with their choice of state Medicare.