AHIP Medicare Survey: F Gets an A

A research center at America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), Washington, has reported those figures in an analysis of figures from the Medigap exhibits that insurers filed with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Kansas City, Mo., for the year that ended Dec. 31, 2011.

AHIP says overall enrollment in the "standardized" Medigap plans designated by letters increased 1.7%, to 9.1 million. About 9.8 million people were enrolled in all types of Medigap plans, including plans purchased before July 1992, when the current standardization rules took effect.

The federal government requires health insurers to use standardized plan types designated by letters when developing and selling Medigap coverage.

Plan F coverage fills many of the gaps left by the traditional Medicare Part hospitalization program and the Part B physician services program.

Plan F will pay for the first 3 pints of blod, for example, and it also will pay the Part A hospice care coinsurance or copayment amount. Part F also will pay skilled nursing facility care coinsurance bills, Part A and Part B deductibes, some foreign travel emergency bills, and physician fees that Medicare Part B classifies as "excess charges."

Plan C plans will cover most of the same expenses, but they won't cover Part B excess charges.