that most of your routine medical needs are entirely covered under the annual fee- so you only need insurance to cover major medical expenses such as hospitalizations and major outpatient procedures.

Those purchasing their own insurance or making decisions for small groups need to review the federal legislation on Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). HSAs are essentially Roth IRAs that cover medical and dental expenses in tax free dollars. Money not spent stays in the account, is invested and interest accrues tax free. If you run a computer search on HSAs you will come up with numerous sites that explain them in detail or go to www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p969.pdf . Without question, no other form of medical insurance can compete with this new paradigm for savings and flexibility. Best of all, dental work, eye exams and glasses, and drugs are covered and become tax write offs for anyone regardless of income level. Employees get a meaningful retirement benefit instead of subsidizing an insurance company, and there are no co-payments or hidden charges. Services provided by Dr. Stein can be deducted from an HSA.

Some self employed people choose much less expensive catastrophic or high deductible health plans. These work wonderfully well with IMPC. Because Dr. Stein is available at all times to his patients, the likelihood of an expensive ER visit and unnecessary hospitalization is minimized.

This means you may not have the freedom to choose the plan that is best suited for you. Strict HMOs make using an IMPC doctor difficult. All referrals have to be made by “In Network” physicians. These are contracted physicians who have agreed to the insurers pricing and regulations. They are then employees of the insurance company, not the patient. We do have HMO patients in the practice but if something goes wrong that requires a scan or referral to a specialist we have to bounce them off an “In Network” provider and Dr. Stein looses control of the case.

People with preferred provider plans (PPOs) actually do better under the IMPC model than with an “In Network” provider. Dr. Stein can make any necessary referrals. With Dr Stein there are no co-payments and services provided by Dr Stein can be billed back to the insurance company. Whatever money is paid out by the insurer goes back to the patient. Remember, we charge only the annual fee. Most patients recover most, if not all of the annual fee this way. Many employees have a choice between HMO and PPO plans. The premium for the PPO will be slightly higher but under the IMPC model these people generally wind up spending less than their HMO counterparts.

Employers can also offer HSA-plans. These are the best of all as you get to build a tax advantaged retirement account. These are not like the old Medical Savings Accounts where you lost whatever money you did not spend at the end of the year. With an HSA the money stays with the employee and is transferable from one job to the next.

Medicare has four parts: A, B, C and D. Medicare A is catastrophic hospitalization insurance which covers any hospitalization with a $1024.00 deductible regardless of the length of stay up to 60 days. There is no premium for part A as long as you paid your Social Security taxes. Medicare part B is optional insurance that covers outpatient medical care. There is a monthly premium which is deducted from your Social Security check. This premium is now progressive. Most elders will pay $96.40 monthly. Those individuals who earn more than $205,000.00 yearly will pay $238.40 monthly. These premiums have been going up on a yearly basis, more so for the higher income levels. At the beginning of each year there is a $136.00 deductible for Part B services. Most Part B services like doctor visits have a 20% co-pay. It only pays for the first physical after entering Medicare. It does not cover yearly physicals and associated lab work thereafter. Some services like blood work have no co-pay. Many people buy supplemental insurance to cover these additional charges and hospitalization deductibles. Medicare Part C is one such supplemental plan, AARP another. Part D is purely a prescription plan. Please read Dr. Stein’s memo on the Great Medicare Insurance Scam.

Dr. Stein has “Opted Out” of Medicare because he feels it is inappropriate for the government to interfere with and monitor your healthcare. He still takes care of many seniors and in deed they are his most appreciative patients. This is done legally by contract. This does not affect the way Medicare works with ANY other provider or facility only with Dr. Stein. Medicare will not cover his services. On the other hand Medicare has no idea what services are being provided and what they are for. With Dr. Stein there is no deductible and there are no co-payments, only the annual fee which includes your physical and all related work performed in our office including many cosmetic procedures that Medicare will not cover at all. Because Dr. Stein is available at all times by cell phone (except when on vacation) you are far less likely to wind up in an emergency room or inappropriately hospitalized incurring further expense. Most of my seniors do not buy supplemental insurance as their costs are much lower. They open a long term CD and pay themselves a premium until they have several thousand dollars stowed away earning them interest. They are then covered for any eventuality. If they incur an expense they just start paying themselves the premium again until the account is up to snuff. Thus, Dr. Stein’s seniors save thousands of dollars in insurance premiums over the years and get far superior healthcare.
In most instances, only if you get supplemental insurance as a free retirement benefit is it worth it. AARP does not spend millions of dollars on TV ads to loose money. They make a fortune with these plans which means someone is loosing a fortune…YOU.

6 Mary E. Clark Drive, Unit 1 Hampstead, NH 03841