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Insurer Offers New Medicare HMO Alternative

Tue, 05/09/2000 - 11:00pm — Karen Stevenson
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USA Today reports that Sterling Life Insurance, a subsidiary of Aon Corporation, has developed a new alternative to Medicare HMOs. They will offer Medicare patients a fee-for-service alternative in the first program of its kind. The program will allow patients unlimited access to physicians and other providers, like traditional Medicare, but will charge patients a $10 per visit co-payment for physician visits and $300 per stay hospital co-payment, rather than asking beneficiaries to pay 20% of approved charges as the traditional Medicare program does. The projected cost for this plan is $55 a month over and above the regular Part B premium, but beneficiaries would not need to purchase Medigap coverage, which could cost far more than $55 a month. The plan does not include coverage for prescription drugs, however, and no other insurer has attempted to provide this sort of coverage, so it is to early to tell how well this will work in actual practice. The plan will be available in 17 states starting July 1, including Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.

USA Today reports that Sterling Life Insurance, a subsidiary of Aon Corporation, has developed a new alternative to Medicare HMOs. They will offer Medicare patients a fee-for-service alternative in the first program of its kind. The program will allow patients unlimited access to physicians and other providers, like traditional Medicare, but will charge patients a $10 per visit co-payment for physician visits and $300 per stay hospital co-payment, rather than asking beneficiaries to pay 20% of approved charges as the traditional Medicare program does. The projected cost for this plan is $55 a month over and above the regular Part B premium, but beneficiaries would not need to purchase Medigap coverage, which could cost far more than $55 a month. The plan does not include coverage for prescription drugs, however, and no other insurer has attempted to provide this sort of coverage, so it is to early to tell how well this will work in actual practice. The plan will be available in 17 states starting July 1, including Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.