Some of Aroostook County’s elderly have started to receive news in the mail that is not welcome.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services has mailed letters of termination of benefit to people receiving help through the Medicare Savings Program or Medicare Buy-in. The reason people may be losing the benefit is because of a change in Maine law requiring liquid assets including bank account balances to be limited. The new limit for a single person is $50,000 and for a couple it is $75,000. DHHS rules allow the exclusion of up to $8,000 in assets for one and $12,000 for a couple so the effective limit is less than $57,999 for one and $86,999 for a couple.
People affected by the loss of benefit need to understand what they are losing and what they must do. Tammy Delong, Medicare specialist at the Aroostook Agency on Aging, advises people need to carefully look at the letter they receive from Maine DHHS.
“The letter contains the amounts DHHS has calculated and if they feel the amount is not correct because it doesn’t agree with their actual balances, they should appeal the decision”, said Delong. The appeal must be filed within 30 days of the letter having been sent by DHHS and the letter from DHHS contains the procedure for appeal.
“People need to know what benefits they are losing, especially if they are a Qualified Medicare Beneficiary or QMB”, said Delong.
Those with the QMB benefit are of the lowest income level and the benefit includes coverage of Medicare deductibles and co-insurance requirements. “In effect they have lost their supplemental medical insurance that dovetails with Medicare and they will incur high medical bills without supplemental coverage. For many, this help ends Dec. 31 so they need to secure supplemental medical insurance now” according to Delong.
Maine law allows people 90 days to secure medical coverage if they lose a benefit such as QMB and, after that, they could have big problems in securing coverage.
The loss of these benefits means those affected will have their Social Security monthly payment reduced by $104.90 because their Medicare Part B premium will no longer be paid by the benefit. Their prescription drug coverage will not be affected during calendar year 2014 but they will lose prescription drug help on Dec. 31, 2014.
FMI, call 764-3396 or toll free at 1-800-439-1789.
