YOUR INSURANCE Seniors Are Seeking HMO Alternatives (NAPS)—Health Maintenance Organizations were once thought to be the answerto the healthcare needs of older Americans. For manyseniors, however, that dream has become a nightmare. ree A growing number of finan- cially-weakened HMOs have cut back on services they offer to seniors by withdrawing from the Medicare program and dropping older Americans from theirrolls. As a result, approximately 700,000 Medicare beneficiaries were dropped by their HMOs since 1988 and more than 900,000 were dropped at the end of 2000. The HMOshavetakenthis step because they believe the federal A growing number of seniors are shopping for Medigap insur- ance programs. Weiss suggests that seniors government’s reimbursement rate is too low to keep pace with med- need to be aggressive shoppers whenit comesto selecting a Medi- Published comments attributed options and economy. For example, a Medigap pro- ical inflation. to Martin Weiss, chairman of a company that issues safety rat- ings on financial institutions, state that the Medicare HMO industry is in overall poor finan- cial condition. He says seniors should think twice before entering another Medicare HMO. Instead they can chooseto: * receive what Weiss describes as the substandard healthcare offered through public welfare programs, such as Medicaid, accept the burden of covering the out-of pocket expensesfor services that are not covered by Medicare, or purchase supplemental in- surance—also known as Medi- gap—tocoverservices not covered by Medicare. Unfortunately, Medigap coverage can be expensive. gap program that offers both gram called MedSupOne Direct offers four Medicare Supplement plans with a range of benefits including: * assistance in paying for inpatient hospital services, coverage for skilled nursing facilities, and * coverage for medical emer- gencies while traveling. MedSupOneDirect is offered directly to consumers without additional middleman costs and allows consumers to chose which medicalfacilities they want to use and what doctors they want to see at prices that are said to fit a range of budgets. To learn more, visit the site at www.medsuponedirect.com or call toll free 1-888-MEDSUP-1.
