Elderly Health Insurance
Do your parents sometimes neglect to open their mail or pay bills on time? Find out whether your parents’ medical or long-term care policies feature a “third-party notice” option. This allows them to name you (or another relative, friend or professional such as an attorney or accountant) as the person the insurer would contact if your parents’ coverage is about to end because the premium has not been paid.
Encourage your parents to select a third party to receive notice if their policies are about to lapse due to non payment of premiums. Sometimes people with cognitive impairments such as Alzheimer’s forget to pay their insurance bills and lose their coverage when they most need it.
While your parents are still healthy, become active in their health care. Know where to find their complete medical histories and document their prescriptions and over-the-counter medications. Include the dosage amounts and frequency. This information is crucial in a health emergency, but is also essential to correctly complete medical claim forms.
At the very least, ask your parents for the names, addresses and phone numbers for all of their health care providers. Organize this information in one easily accessible place. If your parent is mentally or physically incapable of giving you this information, you can obtain most of it from insurance or Medicare bills.
In addition to knowing who is medically treating your parents, you need to know what companies insure them and where the health insurance documentation is kept. Are they covered only by Medicare? Do they have retiree health benefits from a former employer? Do they have private health insurance to supplement Medicare? Ask your parents where they keep important papers, including health insurance cards and bills. If they’re unable to assist you, contact their doctors for insurance information.
Understanding Medicare benefits is essential to ensuring your parents are getting proper services and payments.
Read your parents’ health insurance and/or Medicare handbooks. If your parents don’t have the information, try to obtain copies. The latest Medicare handbooks are available online.
If your parents can’t help you, call the insurers’ customer-service departments, explain your situation and ask them to send you replacements. Save this telephone number. You may need it later to obtain more information or help with your parents’ medical claim forms.
If your parents have long-term care (LTC) coverage, make sure you know exactly what types of services and facilities the policies cover. This information is especially important should they be incapable of making a decision about a long-term care facility and the choice falls to you.
Consider durable power of attorney which is a document that allows your parents to give you authority to make financial and legal decisions and transactions on their behalf.
