{"id":7535,"date":"2016-04-05T10:31:59","date_gmt":"2016-04-05T14:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/?p=7535"},"modified":"2016-03-16T10:33:09","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T14:33:09","slug":"medicare-after-age-65-what-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/2016\/04\/medicare-after-age-65-what-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicare After Age 65 – What You Need to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"seniorBlue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina supports healthy living at\u00a0every age and has served the residents of NC\u00a0for over\u00a080 years\u00a0by offering quality health insurance products, to include Medicare Supplement plans,<\/a>\u00a0at a competitive price.<\/p>\n

If you are over the age of 65 and still working a job that offers you health coverage or if you are still covered by your spouse’s employer insurance, you may have chosen to delay enrollment in Medicare Part B.\u00a0 Keep in mind, however, that once you lose that employer coverage you will only have\u00a08 months\u00a0to enroll in Part B or you could lose your special enrollment and be subject to penalties.\u00a0 Your monthly premium for Part B coverage increases 10% for each full 12-month period you could have enrolled in Part B, but chose not to and that can add up quickly.\u00a0 In addition, if you miss that 8-month window, you may also find that you are unable to enroll until\u00a0the General Enrollment\u00a0period\u00a0(Jan. 1- March 31)\u00a0and your coverage will not begin until July 1 of that year, which\u00a0could lead to a gap in coverage.<\/p>\n

If you plan ahead, however, you can avoid these pitfalls and your transition into Medicare <\/a>can be seamless.\u00a0 A good rule of thumb is to start the process of enrolling in Part B two months prior to losing your group coverage.\u00a0 Keep in mind that enrollment in Medicare Part B is required if you intend to enroll in a Medicare Advantage or Medicare Supplement Plan <\/a>to help cover the health care costs not covered by Medicare.\u00a0 Once your Part B enrollment information is in the system, you can begin working on applications for other Medicare products, like Supplements.<\/p>\n

Another important note for those of you over the age of 65 who are enrolled in employer coverage.\u00a0 COBRA and retiree health\u00a0coverage do not count as current employer coverage.\u00a0 If your employer offers you COBRA coverage once your job ends, don’t wait until your COBRA expires to sign up for Part B of Medicare.\u00a0 You must sign up prior to losing group coverage or within the 8-month\u00a0window after losing the employer coverage to avoid those penalties.<\/p>\n

As you transition into Medicare, there’s a lot to learn.\u00a0 For questions about Medicare Supplements through Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina <\/a>or to discuss your Medicare options, please contact our office.\u00a0 For more information on North Carolina insurance coverage, please visit our website at www.nchealthplans.com <\/a>or call our toll free number 888-765-5400 and speak with one of our experienced and professional agents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina supports healthy living at\u00a0every age and has served the residents of NC\u00a0for over\u00a080 years\u00a0by offering quality health insurance products, to include Medicare Supplement plans,\u00a0at a competitive price. If you are over the age of 65 and still working a job that offers you health coverage or if you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,54],"tags":[867,415,868,16],"class_list":["post-7535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bcbsnc-insurance","category-medicare-supplement-coverage","tag-bcbnsc-medicare-supplement","tag-blue-cross-blue-shield-nc","tag-medicare-plans","tag-medicare-supplement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7535"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7547,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7535\/revisions\/7547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}