Medicare 101: Understanding $0 Premium Plans

As a leading provider of healthcare services, we often receive questions from our patients about Medicare. As an owner of MyTruAdvantage Medicare Advantage Plan, we created this Medicare 101 series to help provide helpful information about options available to you when it comes to your healthcare coverage.

Understanding $0 Plans

You may have heard about Medicare Advantage plans with a $0 monthly plan premium. And that often includes coverage for additional services that are not covered under Original Medicare. But how do these plans work? Are they free? Do they cover anything? To understand $0 plans, it’s helpful to understand a few details about how Medicare Advantage plans work.

About Medicare Advantage Plans

With Medicare Advantage plans, the federal government contracts with private insurance companies, like MyTruAdvantage, to offer and administer your plan. You still have all the rights and benefits that come with Original Medicare, but these companies can also offer low premiums and added benefits, as well as put a limit on how much you will spend out-of-pocket.

Why Medicare Advantage plans can offer plans with $0 premiums:

• Medicare Advantage plans offer preventive care and disease management programs to help people better manage their overall health—keeping members patients healthy and their healthcare costs lower.
• Medicare Advantage plans contract with a network of doctors and hospitals to help manage costs and determine how much they can charge for care and services. This means you can keep your costs lower if you select an in-network provider and may have to pay more money out of pocket if you see a doctor outside the plan’s network.
• Medicare Advantage plans then pass savings on to members in the form of $0 premiums and additional benefits, such as dental, vision, prescription coverage and more.

So, What's the Catch?

Of course, just because your Medicare Advantage plan premium is $0 doesn’t mean your plan is free. You may still pay deductibles and copays when you receive care and covered services. And all Medicare members still have to pay the Medicare Part B premium. But depending on your own personal healthcare needs, $0 premium plans can add up to real savings for Medicare Advantage members.

Learn more about PPO Medicare Advantage plans from MyTruAdvantage—Indiana’s own community-focused Medicare Advantage plan. MyTruAdvantage is a Medicare Advantage plan founded by local doctors and hospitals you know and trust, like Community Health Network, and designed around you and your needs.