To help you understand what to do with your Medicare coverage while you serve, please carefully review the following information. If you have questions, call 1-800-MEDICARE or go to www.medicare.gov.

Serving Outside the United States

Part A

Part A (hospital insurance) helps pay for inpatient hospital care, inpatient care in a skilled nursing facility, some home health care, and hospice care. Generally, you’re automatically enrolled in Part A when you begin to receive Social Security benefits. You should continue your Part A coverage while you’re outside the United States.

Part B

Part B (medical insurance) helps pay for doctors’ services, outpatient hospital services, durable medical equipment, some home health care, and many other services that are not covered by Part A.

A new law allows you to disenroll from Part B while you’re serving outside the United States and re-enroll when you return. Similarly, if you become eligible for Part B during your mission, you may defer your enrollment until you return. In either case, you avoid the unnecessary premium expense and aren’t subject to any increased premium penalties or waiting periods that could result in a gap in your coverage.

You must serve 12 months or more outside the United States in order to take advantage of this law.

To take advantage of this new law, you must have health insurance while you’re outside the United States. Enrolling in the Senior Service Medical Plan (SSMP) meets this requirement. If you don’t plan to enroll in the SSMP, contact Missionary Medical to discuss your insurance situation.

The decision to disenroll or defer your enrollment in Part B is strictly up to you and will depend upon your individual circumstances. In some cases, even though you’re covered by the SSMP or other insurance, you may still need to maintain Part B coverage. To help you decide whether you should disenroll or defer enrollment, please carefully read and consider “Some Common Questions.”

Part D

Part D (prescription drug insurance) helps pay for prescription medications through Medicare-approved prescription drug plans (PDP). Part D plans don’t cover you while you’re outside the United States. This is because Medicare won’t reimburse them for claims made outside the United States.

You must decide whether to continue your Part D coverage during your mission. If you maintain a residence in the United States, some plans may allow you keep your coverage. However, you must continue to pay premiums even though you won’t receive benefits. Other plans may not allow you to keep your coverage while outside the United States. Make sure you understand the rules of your plan.

Medicare allows you a Special Enrollment Period (SEP) to obtain Medicare Part D after you return to the United States. That special enrollment period is for 2 full months after the month you move back to the United States. Please contact Medicare for more information of that process and the needed requirements. If you turn 65 while living outside the United States, you won’t be able to enroll in Part D benefits until you return, but you should take advantage of the SEP to obtain Medicare Part D as you return.

Serving Inside the United States

Part A

Part A (hospital insurance) helps pay for inpatient hospital care, inpatient care in a skilled nursing facility, some home health care, and hospice care. Generally, you’re automatically enrolled in Part A when you begin to receive Social Security benefits.

Part B

Part B (medical insurance) helps pay for doctors’ services, outpatient hospital services, durable medical equipment, some home health care, and many other services that are not covered by Part A.

Parts A and B play an important role in your health care while you are serving inside the United States. As long as you remain inside the United States and are eligible for Medicare, that coverage is adequate for your needs and you won’t need to enroll in the Senior Service Medical Plan (SSMP). It’s important that you maintain your Medicare coverage or properly enroll when you become eligible. If you don’t, you will not have adequate insurance protection and, when you do enroll, you may be subject to premium penalties.

We encourage you to enroll in Part B approximately three months before you turn 65. To do this, contact the nearest Social Security Administration office. If you don’t have an employer-sponsored retirement plan, consider purchasing a Medicare-approved supplemental medical plan or a Medicare Advantage plan.

Keep in mind that Medicare typically becomes effective the first day of the month that you turn 65. Therefore, your coverage in the SSMP will end on the last day of the month before you turn 65.

Part D

Part D (prescription drug insurance) helps pay for prescription medications through Medicare-approved prescription drug plans (PDP).

If you have a prescription drug plan, contact your insurance provider to see if it will cover you in the area where you are serving. If it won’t, you may want to enroll in another plan that will cover you in that area.

Remember, you can’t be enrolled in two Medicare-approved prescription drug plans at the same time. So if you have employer-sponsored retiree insurance with prescription drug coverage, do not purchase another plan. If you do, you may lose your entire employer-sponsored retiree plan.

Because the SSMP wasn’t designed to act as a Medicare-approved prescription drug plan, you must enroll in a Medicare-approved plan when you turn 65. If you don’t enroll at that time, you’ll have to wait until the next open enrollment period before you can do so. Open enrollment is from October 15 – December 7 every year.

Also, if you don’t enroll in a Medicare-approved plan when your SSMP coverage ends, you’ll have to pay more if you enroll later. If you go for 63 days or longer without prescription drug coverage that is as comprehensive as Medicare’s, your monthly premiums will increase at least 1 percent per month for every month that you did not have that coverage.