3 Medicare benefits you may not know about

Read time: 3 minutes

There may be more to your Medicare than you realized.

Unless you’re a retired insurance agent, chances are you may not know all of the benefits that come with being enrolled in Medicare. In fact, many people don’t know a lot of what’s covered and what isn’t.

Let’s help fix that.

Here are a few Medicare benefits that more people could take advantage of and make the most of their coverage.

Tobacco cessation counseling

Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States. If going cold turkey isn’t your thing, you can get free counseling to help you kick the habit. Even if you’ve smoked for years, quitting tobacco can help reduce your risk for certain diseases — not to mention other health benefits.

What’s covered?

You can get up to eight smoking and tobacco-use cessation counseling sessions during a 12-month period. There are two levels of counseling, depending on your needs. Intermediate service counseling sessions last between 3-10 minutes, and the intensive counseling service lasts longer than 10 minutes.

How much does it cost?

If you’re on Medicare and your service provider accepts Medicare, you pay nothing, including co-pays or coinsurance.

Obesity counseling

The connection between a high body mass index (BMI) and increased risk for a number of certain diseases (heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers) is well known. If you have a BMI of 30 or more, Medicare offers help to take the weight off.

What’s covered?

Medicare will cover your services through what’s known as Intensive Behavioral Therapy (IBT). IBT involves a weight screening (to determine BMI), nutrition assessment, as well as help on how to improve diet and exercise. You can have up to 22 face-to-face counseling sessions over a 12-month period.

How much does it cost?

If you’re on Medicare and your service provider accepts Medicare, you pay nothing.

Advance care planning

Advance care planning is when you and your doctor make plans to manage the type of care you receive and when, if you’re unable to make your own medical care decisions. This can be especially beneficial if you want control of your own medical decisions, or if you just want to make sure your loved ones don’t have to do it.

What’s covered?

The list of advance directive decisions you can make is quite long. But two of the most common are a living will and power of attorney. Broadly speaking, a living will outlines your preferences on the use of emergency care to keep you alive. These can include CPR, ventilators, tube feeding, pacemakers, ICDs, etc. A power of attorney identifies who you want to help make health care decisions if you’re unable to communicate your preferences. Each state has its own advance directive forms. Your doctor can help you complete the forms and they can be updated at any time.

How much does it cost?

If you do your advance care planning as part of your yearly “Wellness” visit, and your doctor accepts Medicare, you pay nothing.

If any of these sound like they’d be helpful, work with your doctor. While seemingly modest, these often-underused benefits can help you take control of your health and the choices you make about your health.