$148 Medicare Part B Premium Give Back Explained - Arkansas

You may have seen ads on TV or received them in the mail claiming you may qualify to get $148 back on your Medicare premium.
If you've ever been curious as to how that works and if you qualify for it or not well this video explains it.

Any ad that makes the claim to get up to $148 back on your Medciare premium is advertising a Medicare Advantage plan also known as Medicare Part C.

Medicare Advantage plans are ran through private insurance companies and they get paid by Medicare to administer the benefits. They will pay a claim and leave either a co-payment or co-insurance behind that the Medicare Advantage member is responsible to pay.

The two most popular types of Medicare Advantage plans are PPO (Preferred Provider Organization) and HMO (Heatlh Maintanece Organization). They are managed care plans and have networks. These plans come with extra benefits like dental, vision, hearing, over-the-counter benefits, ect. In some areas of the country one of the benefits is call a Medicare Part B Giveback. They give back some or all of the Medicare Part B premium and for most people in 2021 that amount is $148.50.

Not all plans give any of the Part B premium back and the some of them only give a small amount back. What I've noticed is the plans that give any back it comes from sacrificing other benefits in the form of either higher co-payments or less amounts of "extra benefits" or a combination of both.

The way some plans are able to give 100% of the Medicare Part B premium back is the fact they are located in heavily populated areas with a small network footprint. The costs are controlled so much so the Medicare Advantage plan can afford to "give back" the Medicare Part B premium.

Where I live in Northeast Arkansas (AR), none of the Medicare Advantage plans give 100% of the Part B premium back. The only way to not pay tha Part B premium is to qualify for Medicaid. Medicaid is based on income and assets.

I hope the details in this video help and if you need more information or have questions about your Medicare needs feel free to reach out. I'm happy to help any way I can.

Adam Cooper - Independant Insurance Broker/Agent

[maxsambucca]

That was a very good explanation well done

[lyndayoung]

Very informative thank you.
Do you know the mechanism of receiving a pay back? Is it a check mailed to you or a check to social security, reducing the amount of B premium they deduct from your retirement benefit?
I wonder if it's different depending on the insurance Co sponsoring the plan?
A fellow I know told me because he hadn't started SS yet, the MA plan would not or could not do the B premium give back! Only to those already receiving SS.

It makes me wonder why companies have to have all these give -aways to entice people to join MA plan. And the cost to the government is astronomical like close to $1000/mo/enrollee. No wonder the company limits to a network and often denies treatment requiring pre-authorization. That's ultra-managed managed care!

[centralgroupllp]

This guy has some misleading points. He should just stick to selling life insurance or individual health ins. In his tinty backward state.