Tyler Foster
Latest Articles by Tyler Foster
Medicaid home- and community-based waivers can pay for care at home instead of a facility
Most older Americans who need long-term help with daily tasks would rather receive it at home than move into a nursing facility, and Medicaid has...
Being a QMB shields a Medicare enrollee from being balance-billed by providers
A bill arrives for a doctor’s visit or hospital stay that should have cost the patient nothing, and for one group of Medicare enrollees, sending...
A “medically needy” spend-down can qualify you for Medicaid after high medical bills
An applicant whose income sits just above the Medicaid limit often hears what sounds like a final rejection. In many states it is not. A...
Medicaid, not Medicare, pays for long-term nursing-home care once you qualify
Families managing a parent’s decline often discover the hard way that the program they counted on does not cover the bill in front of them....
Spousal rules let a healthy spouse keep income and assets when the other needs nursing care
When one spouse enters a nursing home and turns to Medicaid to cover the bill, the partner who remains at home once faced a grim...
Home-insurance non-renewals are climbing as insurers retreat from high-risk states
The home-insurance squeeze has a second edge that never shows up on a premium quote. Beyond the rising cost of a policy, a growing number...
NewYork-Presbyterian could go out of UnitedHealthcare’s network September 1 without a deal
One of the country’s best-known hospital systems is days from dropping out of a major Medicare Advantage network, and the outcome was still unsettled as...
Coffee is up about 20% and ground beef nearly 19% as tariffs and shortages hit groceries
Two fixtures of the American kitchen are leading the newest run-up in grocery prices, and both hit the kind of everyday shopping that fills a...
Trump’s new drug-pricing model starts in January for costly Medicare Part B medicines
Separate from the advertised cash-price cuts that grabbed headlines this month, Medicare is preparing to change how it pays for some of the most expensive...
Medicare pays for a yearly wellness visit and many preventive screenings at no charge
Free is the word that gets people in the door and, sometimes, the word that leaves them holding a bill they did not expect. Medicare’s...
A Medicare Advantage member can demand a fast appeal, and many denials get overturned
A Medicare Advantage plan that denies a test, a treatment or a hospital stay is not the last word, and the gap between what plans...
Some Medicare Advantage plans hand back part of your Part B premium each month
Every month, the standard Part B premium comes out of a retiree’s Social Security payment before the deposit ever arrives, a deduction that never appears...
Medicare Part A hospital coverage is premium-free once you’ve worked 40 quarters
Most people reach Medicare age expecting to pay for their coverage, and for the doctor-visit and drug portions they do. Hospital insurance is the exception....
Medicare covers shingles, flu and other vaccines at no cost under the drug benefit
The shingles shot used to come with a price tag that stopped people at the counter. The two-dose vaccine that guards against a painful, sometimes...
Hospital “observation status” can leave a Medicare patient with a surprise bill
Two patients can lie in identical beds, on the same hall, receiving much the same care, and walk out owing very different amounts. The difference...
Medicare covers a skilled-nursing stay up to 100 days after a qualifying hospital admission
The moment a hospital says a patient is ready to leave but not ready to go home, a family collides with one of Medicare’s most...
