Aging Parents with a Medicare Advantage Plan

Recently, a number of our clients with aging parents have been experiencing how a Medicare Advantage plan works in times of a healthcare crisis. 

If you’re healthy a Medicare Advantage plan like Optum or Kaiser seems like a good way to go. 

Premiums are little or zero and all services are rolled up into one especially in the case of Kaiser. 

However, when a parent has to go to the hospital, the insurance company will push to get the parent discharged as soon as possible.

A couple of our clients were shocked to learn that their parent was going to be discharged when, in their opinion, their parent was still in distress. 

The next eye-opening event occurs when the parent goes to rehab aka nursing home.

Facilities that are contracted with a Medicare Advantage plan will typically only have a limited number of beds available for that plan as the facility is typically getting paid less from the insurance company versus regular Medicare.

Sometimes this means that the rehab facility is miles and miles from the hospital.

The insurance company also looks to get the parent off Medicare reimbursement as soon as possible. 

Once again the kids were shocked to see this and got a hold of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman to fight the discharge. 

If you have an aging parent with a Medicare Advantage plan, be prepared for what could happen in a healthcare crisis.