Medicare Part B covers doctor visits and outpatient care but only pays 80%, leaving you with the rest. Most people buy supplemental insurance from AARP or United to cover that 20%, plus a separate Part D plan for drugs. You get more provider choice this way, but it costs more overall.
So Part B of Medicare is physician office visits and outpatient studies. And what a lot of people don't know is Part B does not cover everything. Part B only covers 80% of the bill, so the patient's responsible for 20% of the bill, and it does not cover any prescription drugs. So patients that have what we call straight Medicare for their outpatient doctors either pay the extra 20% themselves or they have a supplemental policy. I don't— I'm not touting it, but like AARP or United or United American or something like that. That's a secondary policy that covers that other 20%, um, and usually those people either have deductibles every year, they have like copays like $25 or $50 every time they come to the doctor's office. Then they are also responsible for getting a Part D plan to cover their medications. So when we say someone has straight Medicare, that's what we say. And the reason that that is beneficial is you don't require prior authorizations. Medicare covers pretty much everything. You can go to whatever doctor you want to go to as long as they take Medicare, which in Florida at least, is the vast majority of physicians. And frankly, the patient's life is made a lot easier because they can just get the care that they want. The downside is it's more expensive. You have to cover for that supplemental policy, you have to pay for a separate drug policy, you have to figure out that 20%, which is usually, again, that supplemental policy. So it's much more comprehensive, but not as cost-effective. So that is part A. B.
