Healthcare Navigation's Blog
- February 22, 2012
- More At Stake with Medicare
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We want everyone to know about a service we’ve been offering for several years and about which we’ve received extremely and uniformly positive feedback, our Medicare Essentials Consultation.
We have historically provided this educational and basic advisory service to individuals and couples. Recently we’ve also been engaged by larger companies and have received inquiries from a wide array of professional firms who want this information for their staff and retirees.
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- January 24, 2012
- Comments on “What We Give Up for Health Care,” Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Sunday, 1/22/2012
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Ezekiel Emanuel wrote an important op-ed piece for Sunday’s New York Times. He notes that when employers’ cost of healthcare benefits increases, wages rise more slowly. As a result, worker’s wages stagnate over time relative to inflation. Also, as the portion of the U.S. economy devoted to healthcare spending increases, other worthy sectors where public funds are spent, like education, are negatively affected. Unfortunately, as with so much of the healthcare debate today, Emanuel’s discussion is “politicized.” Hence, Emanuel states “to protect education and workers’ pay, liberals must start to care about costs” and “liberals are wrong to ignore costs.”
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- January 1, 2012
- Maura Carley's New Book "Health Insurance: Navigating Traps & Gaps" is available for pre-order on Amazon
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"Maura Carley has written an important book for anyone who has to navigate our nation's fractured, fragmented, inadequate health insurance system. Case studies, drawn from years of experience helping individuals and families, provide insight into how these defects can affect us. No one will emerge from reading this book without a deepened understanding of how today's insurance model leaves us vulnerable to tragic medical and economic consequences."
David M. Lawrence
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Chairman and CEO (retired)
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Inc.
San Francisco Bay Area, California- By Healthcare Navigation, LLC
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- December 6, 2011
- Maura Carley on 3 Ways to Make The Most of Your Health Benefits - Oprah.com Blog
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My brother-in-law, an orthopedic surgeon in New Hampshire, tells me that he's expecting some long nights at the hospital and the clinic this month. His appointment book is jam-packed with patients trying squeeze every last benefit from their health insurance plans before the new year starts. That inspired me to call Maura Carley, president and CEO of Healthcare Navigation
Read More- By Corrie Pikul
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- September 21, 2011
- Medicare Part D Open Enrollment
If you are on expensive medications that take you into the donut hole or gap in coverage (like a deductible in the middle of your benefit), you should consider changing plans. Remember, like Medicare Part A and B, Part D is a government benefit but unlike Medicare Parts A and B, Part D is administered by private, for profit companies competing fiercely with one another. The Plan can matter. There are typically forty or fifty plans to choose from in a given geographic area. You want to know that the Plan you are in is a good, reputable Plan but not over-priced.
Read More- By Healthcare Navigation, LLC
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- June 3, 2011
- Medicare’s Annual General Enrollment - January 1 through March 31, 2011
Medicare enrollment rules are strict, unforgiving, and punitive. If you have to enroll during the General Enrollment Period you may pay Part B premium penalties for life and most have a gap in coverage, typically to the following July 1st. Since Part B premiums are calculated back to the year you turned 65 and as of 2008 are income indexed, these premium penalties can be very, very expensive. The premium penalties tend to be levied on professionals who worked beyond age 65. This is counter-intuitive since this group often paid Medicare taxes throughout their entire careers and postponed using Medicare but it is the reality.
Read More- By Healthcare Navigation, LLC
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- July 27, 2011
- Paul Krugman and the New York Times – All Wrong about Medicare
Monday’s New York Times carried an extremely misinformed editorial by Paul Krugman, Messing with Medicare. If you’re looking for an intelligent column on the subject, read, David Brooks’s column, Medicare Survival Guide which appeared on May 27, 2011. Links to both are below.
Paul Krugman: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/opinion/25krugman.html
David Brooks: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/27/opinion/27brooks.html
The most significant public policy issue facing this country today is how to manage the ever increasing cost of healthcare. The fact is that with private insurance and Medicare we largely have two extreme opposite models for managing coverage, both with undesirable attributes.
Read More- By Healthcare Navigation, LLC
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- July 15, 2011
- Planning for Long Term Care Needs
I committed in a recent letter to write about planning for Long Term Care Needs. I was prompted by an extremely negative experience filing my mother’s recent long term care claim although that experience was likely unusual for the reasons noted below. At Healthcare Navigation, we have worked with clients who needed long term care services since our beginning in 1999. We also have extensive experience filing long term care claims for clients and have always been successful in getting our clients reimbursement under their policies.
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