Most adult children only learn about dual eligibility after their parent has already paid for years of things they didn’t have to.
Medicare Savings Programs — the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB), Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary (SLMB), and Qualifying Individual (QI) programs that pay Medicare premiums and cost-sharing for low-income beneficiaries — sit in a quiet corner of the system that few families notice until someone tells them about it. A parent on a modest fixed income may have been paying $185/month in Part B premiums for three years that the state would have paid on their behalf, if anyone had bothered to apply.
This post is the screening guide. Five quick questions to figure out whether your parent might qualify, the income and asset benchmarks that drive the answer, and the three calls that turn a hunch into an application. It takes about ten minutes.
If you haven’t already, the foundational read: Medicare vs Medicaid: Understanding Dual Eligibility. [Read more…] about How to Check If Your Parent Qualifies for Dual Eligibility