Today's Options

Straight answers about Medicare and your health coverage.

You have more options than ever when it comes to your Medicare health coverage. Of course, before you make a choice, you want to be informed. This free booklet is called Know Your Options – Your Guide to Medicare and Today’s Options. We’ve reduced everything down to the basics, and provided you with straight answers – information you can use to get the right facts about Medicare. We’ve also included a list of additional sources to help you make the best decision about your healthcare.?

What is Original Medicare and how does it work?

Original Medicare has three parts. Medicare Part A provides you with hospital insurance and you are automatically entitled to this based on age or disability. Medicare Part B is insurance to cover doctors’ services. To receive Part B coverage you must enroll in this coverage and pay a monthly premium to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); the Part B premium is usually deducted from your Social Security check. In addition, annual deductibles and coinsurance apply.?

In 2006, Medicare introduced prescription drug coverage (or Medicare Part D) that helps beneficiaries pay for their prescriptions. Private companies that have contracted with Medicare to provide this new benefit offer this coverage. In 2007, Today’s Options will offer the Medicare Part D benefit through two of our plans. We will also continue to offer stand-alone drug plans through Prescription Pathway.

How does Today’s Options give you more than Medicare?

Today’s Options has four different plans that give you more benefits and services than Medicare alone. Two of our plans offer prescription drug coverage (Part D) and two of them do not. Depending on your individual needs, one may be better for you than the others. But before we get into specifics, here’s some background on how our Today’s Options plans work:

• You may go to any eligible doctor or hospital anywhere in the U.S. that is willing to provide care and accepts Today’s Option’s terms and conditions.
• When you enroll in Today’s Options, you are still in the Medicare program and are entitled to all medically necessary healthcare services that are covered by Medicare.
• Today’s Options has extra benefits that Medicare currently does not cover, such as prescription drug benefits included in the Value Plus and Premier Plus plans.
• Once you join Today’s Options, you need to continue to pay your Part B premium to Medicare and also pay a premium directly to Pyramid Life, if the plan you select has a premium. Today’s Options also has deductibles, co-payments and coinsurance amounts that are usually less than those under Original Medicare.

Before joining any plan, you should carefully determine your potential out-of-pocket costs. For most beneficiaries, you will have less out-of-pocket costs than you would under Original Medicare combined with a Medicare Supplement.

Does Today’s Options offer prescription drug coverage (Part D)?

Today’s Options Value Plus and Premier Plus both offer prescription coverage. Premier Plus offers generic drug coverage in the coverage gap (donut hole).