Medicare Supplement with State Insurance?

[Limozine]

I have a client who is retired from NC, has lived in South Carolina for a number of years, and has been on the North Carolina state health plan (a 70/30 PPO) for the entire duration. She just turned 65 and was enrolled in Medicare A/B as of 9/1/24. She is being told by someone from the NC state plan that she can remain on that plan (for zero premium) as long as she wants, AND that she can purchase a supplement plan G. She has been told (by multiple people in that office) that this is fairly common with other retirees on the state plan. They say that Medicare will be primary, the 70/30 PPO state plan will be secondary, and the supplement will be tertiary. She wants to keep her state plan, if possible, because it covers all of her (expensive) drugs. She is interested in Plan G specifically because her PPO has co-pays (like $72 physical therapy visits) that she's hoping the supplement will cover. Do any of you NC agents have any experience with this? Is it common for supplement carriers to coordinate with Medicare and state plans like that? Is there any downside, other than premium, to her enrolling in a Plan G?

 

[Fisher]

Good grief, what a circlejerk of misinformation. A Med Supp isn't tertiary to anything. By definition, it can't be. She can have the state plan and Medicare A&B or she can have Medicare A&B and a supp. No sharesies.

Tell her to find out if she can 'suspend' her state bennies for Medicare as opposed to terminating them. That tends to make folks feel better. State retiree groups are some of the most opinionated/brainwashed people I have ever had the pleasure of interacting with.

They can have some nice qualified retirement plans to rollover, though.

 

[LostDollar]

I have a client who is retired from NC, has lived in South Carolina for a number of years, and has been on the North Carolina state health plan (a 70/30 PPO) for the entire duration. She just turned 65 and was enrolled in Medicare A/B as of 9/1/24. She is being told by someone from the NC state plan that she can remain on that plan (for zero premium) as long as she wants, AND that she can purchase a supplement plan G. She has been told (by multiple people in that office) that this is fairly common with other retirees on the state plan. They say that Medicare will be primary, the 70/30 PPO state plan will be secondary, and the supplement will be tertiary. She wants to keep her state plan, if possible, because it covers all of her (expensive) drugs. She is interested in Plan G specifically because her PPO has co-pays (like $72 physical therapy visits) that she's hoping the supplement will cover. Do any of you NC agents have any experience with this? Is it common for supplement carriers to coordinate with Medicare and state plans like that? Is there any downside, other than premium, to her enrolling in a Plan G?

Caveat, not an agent.

If Medigap pays based on Medicare and its approved amounts, why is the Medigap plan not secondary and the retiree plan tertiary? I don't see how the retiree plan could compute its proper coordination of benefits liability after Medicare payments if Medicare and Medigap do not both pay first.