Veterans Day

Veterans Day is approaching and here at Senior Benefit Services, we’re very appreciative of those who have served this great country of ours. 

The SBS family would like to take this moment to thank the 20.4 million veterans and the 1.3 million active duty members this Veterans Day. 

We were curious about the origins of Veterans Day and thought you might be too...
Veterans Day, formerly known as Armistice Day, was originally set as a U.S. holiday to honor the end of World War I. In 1938 United Sates Legislation approved Armistice Day, a day “dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as Armistice Day." In 1954, after World War II and the Korean War, Congress amended the Act of 1938 by removing the word Armistice and inserting the word Veterans. Veterans Day honors military veterans with parades, speeches, and other celebratory events across the nation to honor and celebrate those who have served.

Senior Benefit Services would like to recognize and thank our team members, Tom and Brett, for their service to our country:

Tom Weislocher

Tom was drafted during the Vietnam War and served in the United Sates Army from 1970-1972. Tom was a Spec4, radio and radio-teletype operator, cryptographic communications specialist.  Tom was stationed in Vicenza, Italy, and had the opportunity to return on a bicycle tour in 2011 and reconnect with the country and old friends.




Brett Winter

Brett enlisted in the Navy in 2008 and is currently enlisted in the Navy Reserves. Brett is 2^nd Class Petty Officer. Brett worked as a Plane Captain and assisted pilots in takeoff and landing, and repaired planes. Brett has worked several air shows, and has performed maintenance on the Blue Angels Fleet. Through the Navy Brett has been stationed in New Orleans, Guam, and several other locations including Naval Air Station Fallon also known as “TOPGUN.”




Thank you for all you have done for your country, families and the SBS Family!

Senior Benefit Services
Written by Olivia Helmandollar
11/10/17

Need Medical Equipment? See what Medicare Covers....

*Repost* https://www.medicare.gov/coverage/durable-medical-equipment-coverage.html?linkId=24566463&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=medicare&utm_content=071717_DME&linkId=39844787

Durable medical equipment (DME) coverage

How often is it covered?

Medicare Part B (Medical Insurance) covers medically necessary durable medical equipment (DME) that your doctor prescribes for use in your home. Only your doctor can prescribe medical equipment for you. DME meets these criteria:

• Durable (can withstand repeated use)
• Used for a medical reason
• Not usually useful to someone who isn't sick or injured
• Used in your home
• Has an expected lifetime of at least 3 years

DME that Medicare covers includes, but isn't limited to:

• Air-fluidized beds and other support surfaces (these supplies are only rented)
• Blood sugar monitors
• Blood sugar (glucose) test strips
• Canes (however, white canes for the blind aren't covered)
• Commode chairs
• Continuous passive motion (CPM) machine
• Crutches
• Hospital beds
• Infusion pumps and supplies (when necessary to administer certain drugs)
• Manual wheelchairs and power mobility devices
• Nebulizers and nebulizer medications
• Oxygen equipment and accessories
• Patient lifts 
• Sleep apnea and Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) devices and accessories
• Suction pumps
• Traction equipment
• Walkers

Who's eligible?

All people with Part B are covered.

Your costs in Original Medicare

If your supplier accepts assignment, you pay 20% of the Medicare-approved amount, and the Part B deductibleapplies. Medicare pays for different kinds of DME in different ways. Depending on the type of equipment:

• You may need to rent the equipment.
• You may need to buy the equipment.
• You may be able to choose whether to rent or buy the equipment.

Medicare will only cover your DME if your doctors and DME suppliers are enrolled in Medicare. Doctors and suppliers have to meet strict standards to enroll and stay enrolled in Medicare. If your doctors or suppliers aren’t enrolled, Medicare won’t pay the claims submitted by them. 

It’s also important to ask your suppliers if they participate in Medicare before you get DME. If suppliers are participating suppliers, they must accept assignment. If suppliers are enrolled in Medicare but aren’t “participating,” they may choose not to accept assignment. If suppliers don't accept assignment, there’s no limit on the amount they can charge you.

Competitive Bidding Program

If you live in or visit certain areas, you may be affected by Medicare's Competitive Bidding Program. In most cases, Medicare will only help pay for these equipment and supplies if they're provided by contract suppliers when both of these apply:

• You have Original Medicare.
• You get competitively bid equipment and supplies in competitive bidding areas.

Contract suppliers can't charge you more than the 20% coinsurance and any unmet yearly deductible for any equipment or supplies included in the Competitive Bidding Program.

Note

To find out how much your specific test, item, or service will cost, talk to your doctor or other health care provider. The specific amount you’ll owe may depend on several things, like:

• Other insurance you may have
• How much your doctor charges
• Whether your doctor accepts assignment
• The type of facility
• The location where you get your test, item, or service

Note

If you live in an area that's been declared a disaster or emergency, the usual rules for your medical care may change for a short time. Learn more about how to replace lost or damaged equipment in a disaster or emergency.

Related Resources

• Where to get covered DME items  
• More information about DME
• Competitive Bidding Program

Break Free From Osteoporosis!

Break FREE from OSTEOPOROSIS!

*Repost* National Osteoporosis Foundation

https://www.nof.org/about-us/building-awareness/national-osteoporosis-month/

May is National Osteoporosis Month!

Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a disease of the bones. It happens when you lose too much bone and/or make too little bone. This means your bones become weak and may break from a minor fall or, in serious cases, even from simple actions, like sneezing or bumping into furniture.

Osteoporosis means "porous bone." Under a microscope healthy bones look like a honeycomb but in bones with osteoporosis the honeycomb holes and spaces are much bigger. This means your bones have lost density or mass and that the structure of your bone tissue has become abnormal making the bone weaker and more likely to break.

FACT: One in two women and up to one in four men will break a bone in their lifetime due to osteoporosis. For women, the incidence is greater than that of heart attack, stroke and breast cancer combined.*

May is National Osteoporosis Month! We hope you will help us celebrate by taking the #JumpingJackChallenge. We issued this challenge to raise awareness about building bone strength and density when you’re younger to achieve peak bone mass and to maintain bone health and strength as you age.

Accepting the Jumping Jack Challenge is easy – videotape yourself, your kids, family or friends doing 10 jumping jacks in less than 10 seconds. Share the video via your social media page with the hashtag #JumpingJackChallenge and challenge your friends to do it too – or they should make a donation to NOF at www.nof.org. You can learn more and see an example on this page of our website: https://www.nof.org/about-us/building-awareness/national-osteoporosis-month/. Please remember that if you have osteoporosis you shouldn’t do jumping jacks, but you can do “stepping jacks” (step side-to-side raising your arms above your heard as you would for jumping jacks). This is a safe way for everyone to take part in the Jumping Jack Challenge!

You might wonder why we chose jumping jacks for this challenge. As noted above, we hope to raise awareness about building peak bone mass in children and adolescents. Peak bone mass is the greatest amount of bone an individual can attain. We reach our peak bone mass between 25-30 years of age. Focusing on bone health in children and adolescents is not just about growing strong bones, it also may help strengthen the concept of disease prevention over treatment. Most children do not consume the necessary amounts of nutrients needed to sustain strong bones during the key bone-building years of 9-18. In fact, a quarter of childhood injuries include fractures that could have been prevented through better nutrition.

Prevention of osteoporosis later in life begins in childhood with a strong health curriculum that teaches children healthy lifestyle choices including about proper diet and exercise.

I recently surveyed the community including educators and health leaders to determine if they think a curriculum including bone health is important to implement in schools and more than 75% said yes! Check out the following infographic to learn how you can incorporate bone healthy behaviors with your children or grandchildren before, during or after school.

We hope to see your posts on social media for the #JumpingJackChallenge!

Andrea Portillo, MPH, CHES®
Marketing, Consumer & Professional Education Manager
National Osteoporosis Foundation

What Is Medicare Supplement Insurance?

                      *repost: https://www.medicare.gov/supplement-other-insurance/medigap/whats-medigap.html               What's Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap)?

A Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap) policy, sold by private companies, can help pay some of the health care costs that Original Medicare doesn't cover, like copayments, coinsurance, and deductibles.

Some Medigap policies also offer coverage for services that Original Medicare doesn't cover, like medical care when you travel outside the U.S. If you have Original Medicare and you buy a Medigap policy, Medicare will pay its share of the Medicare-approved amount for covered health care costs. Then your Medigap policy pays its share.

A Medigap policy is different from a Medicare Advantage Plan. Those plans are ways to get Medicare benefits, while a Medigap policy only supplements your Original Medicare benefits.

8 things to know about Medigap policies 

1. You must have Medicare Part A and Part B.
2. If you have a Medicare Advantage Plan, you can apply for a Medigap policy, but make sure you can leave the Medicare Advantage Plan before your Medigap policy begins.
3. You pay the private insurance company a monthly premium for your Medigap policy in addition to the monthly Part B premium that you pay to Medicare.
4. A Medigap policy only covers one person. If you and your spouse both want Medigap coverage, you'll each have to buy separate policies.
5. You can buy a Medigap policy from any insurance company that's licensed in your state to sell one.
6. Any standardized Medigap policy is guaranteed renewable even if you have health problems. This means the insurance company can't cancel your Medigap policy as long as you pay the premium.
7. Some Medigap policies sold in the past cover prescription drugs, but Medigap policies sold after January 1, 2006 aren't allowed to include prescription drug coverage. If you want prescription drug coverage, you can join a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan (Part D).
8. It's illegal for anyone to sell you a Medigap policy if you have a Medicare Medical Savings Account (MSA) Plan.

Medigap policies don't cover everything

Medigap policies generally don't cover long-term care, vision or dental care, hearing aids, eyeglasses, or private-duty nursing.

Insurance plans that aren't Medigap

Some types of insurance aren't Medigap plans, they include:

• Medicare Advantage Plans (like an HMO, PPO, or Private Fee-for-Service Plan)
• Medicare Prescription Drug Plans
• Medicaid
• Employer or union plans, including the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP)
• TRICARE
• Veterans' benefits
• Long-term care insurance policies
• Indian Health Service, Tribal, and Urban Indian Health plans

Dropping your entire Medigap policy (not just the drug coverage) 

If you decide to drop your entire Medigap policy, you need to be careful about the timing. For example, you may want a completely different Medigap policy—not just your old Medigap policy without the prescription drug coverage. Or you might decide to switch to a Medicare Advantage Plan that offers prescription drug coverage.

You have to pay a late enrollment penalty when you join a new Medicare drug plan if:

• You drop your entire Medigap policy and the drug coverage wasn't creditable prescription drug coverage, or
• You go 63 days or more in a row before your new Medicare drug coverage begins

To learn more about the costs of MediGap: https://www.medicare.gov/supplement-other-insurance/medigap/costs/medigap-plan-costs.html