Advice for Seniors on Medicare

November 21, 2017
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S. O. S.  (SPEAKING OF SENIORS) column: Details of Medicare Mess Up

By Woodrow Wilcox

On November 21, 2017, I helped a client from Munster, Indiana.  I reviewed the papers that she brought and phoned Medicare with her.  Her main problem was that Medicare had not updated her Medicare file in a timely manner.  Claims for medical services that she received after starting to use Medicare were not being paid because the bad records stated that she did not have Medicare as her primary insurer.

She showed me a copy of the notice of termination of private group insurance that was file stamped as received by Medicare at its office in Merrillville on April 18, 2017.  The notice of the insurance change stated the effective date of August 1, 2017.  But, Medicare never updated her record until October 3, 2017.  So, all the medical claims filed in August and September were rejected by Medicare and our client was getting big medical bills that she should not have received.

I helped the client send letters to all the medical service providers that were sending bills to her.  I copied and mailed the letters for the client.  Each letter explained how Medicare caused the problem and when Medicare said it had fixed the problem that it caused.  Then, the letter asked the doctor, hospital, or other service to refile the claim because it should sail through smoothly now that the problem was fixed.

The client said that it might be a good idea to tell seniors that when they switch to Medicare, don’t use a medical service for at least three months because that’s how much time Medicare needs to update a file so that a Medicare claim will be paid properly.  In her case, it took Medicare nearly six months to finally get around to updating her file so that claims could be paid.

All the help that I gave this client was FREE OF CHARGE.  This insurance agency has earned a reputation for “going the extra mile” with our senior citizen clients whenever the Medicare system fails to work properly.  If your insurance agent or agency does not help clients this much, maybe you should switch to an insurance agency that does.

Note: Woodrow Wilcox is the senior medical bill case worker at Senior Care Insurance Services in Merrillville, Indiana.  He has saved clients of that insurance agency over one million dollars by fighting mistakes and fraud in the Medicare system.  He wrote the book Solving Medicare Problem$ (www.SolvingMedicareProblems.com) and posts articles at www.WoodrowWilcox.com.  His S.O.S. column appears regularly at the website and blog of Secure America Alliance, recognized as a non-profit organization by the IRS under Section 501/c/4.