Tyler Foster
Latest Articles by Tyler Foster
A lady bird deed keeps a home out of probate while the owner keeps full control
A homeowner who wants a house to pass to an heir without a court proceeding, but doesn’t want to give up any say over that...
A SIM-swap scam hijacks a phone number to break into a bank or brokerage account
A phone that suddenly loses all service, no calls, no texts, no data, can be the first sign that a scammer has just taken over...
A verbal password on a bank account can block a scammer who spoofs the bank’s number
Caller ID showing a bank’s real name and number no longer proves a call is genuine, because scammers can fake, or “spoof,” that same information...
Open enrollment for 2027 marketplace coverage starts November 1, and skipping it can forfeit any subsidy
Open enrollment for 2027 Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage begins November 1 and runs through January 15, and anyone who lets the window close without...
The July jobs report showed the economy shed 23,000 jobs, with prior months revised down 103,000
The U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, and the government simultaneously erased another 103,000 jobs it had already counted for May and June, the...
Medicare covers part of outpatient mental-health therapy visits
Depression and anxiety don’t retire when a person turns 65, and Medicare’s coverage for outpatient mental health treatment is broader than many beneficiaries assume, extending...
Medicare’s Part D now covers shingles and other adult vaccines at no cost
For years, the shingles vaccine sat in an awkward gap in Medicare coverage: recommended for nearly everyone over 50, but priced high enough out of...
Medigap plans are standardized by letter, so identical coverage can cost wildly different premiums
Two people can buy a Medicare Supplement Insurance policy carrying the exact same letter, from two different insurance companies, and pay premiums that differ by...
Signing up for Social Security and Medicare are separate steps, and a late Medicare start brings a penalty
Turning 65 does not automatically move a Medicare card into the mail. Social Security administers both programs, and the overlap has convinced many people nearing...
The free Welcome to Medicare visit in your first year costs nothing
New Medicare enrollees are entitled to one appointment that arrives with essentially no fine print: the “Welcome to Medicare” preventive visit, available once within the...
A Medicare Advantage plan must keep paying for treatment already underway after you switch plans
Switching Medicare Advantage plans mid-treatment used to carry a real risk that a new insurer would simply restart the approval process, forcing a patient already...
Medicare covers hospice care almost entirely, sparing a family the cost
Terminal diagnoses arrive with enough to absorb without a family also bracing for a hospital-scale bill. Medicare’s hospice benefit is built to remove that second...
A Medicare Advantage plan can change its network every January, dropping your doctor mid-year
A Medicare Advantage member who picked a plan specifically to keep a longtime doctor in-network can still lose that doctor before the next enrollment season...
A first-year Medicare Advantage member can switch back to Original Medicare within 12 months and keep Medigap
Medicare Advantage’s appeal often rests on a trade a new enrollee cannot fully judge from a brochure: lower premiums and extra benefits in exchange for...
Leaving a job after 65 opens an eight-month window to join Medicare with no penalty
A worker who keeps working past 65 while staying on a company health plan does not have to scramble to sign up for Medicare the...
A Medicare Savings Program’s QMB level bars a doctor from billing you the balance
The most generous of Social Security’s four Medicare Savings Programs, the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary program, does more than help pay Medicare premiums. Once a low-income...
