"Medicare Advantage Is About To Change. Here’s What You Should Know" - Paula Span
When Medicare’s open enrollment period begins on October 15, the private insurers that underwrite Advantage plans - which already lure seniors with things traditional Medicare can’t cover, like eyeglasses, hearing aids and gym memberships – will be free to add a long list of new benefits. Among those the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will now allow, if they’re deemed health-related: Adult day care programs. In 2020, thanks to Congress, the list of possible benefits could expand still further. Incorporated in the budget signed by President Trump, the Chronic Act is intended to help people manage conditions like heart failure and diabetes, in part by authorizing telehealth programs. It, too, will work through Medicare Advantage. These actions could represent substantial change. Diane Meier, MD, professor of medicine, geriatrics and palliative medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and director of the Center to Advance Palliative care at Mount Sinai, called them “a tectonic plate shift.” She said, “What I find most fundamental is the recognition, by C.M.S. and Congress, that this bright line between ‘medically necessary’ and things necessary to maintain health — like proper nutrition and transportation to a doctor’s office — is an illusion.”
- Diane E. Meier, MD, FACP, Professor, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Medicine, Vice Chair, Public Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director, Center to Advance Palliative Care