Whois & Analysis for medicarefaq.com

Medigap (also Medicare supplement insurance or Medicare supplemental insurance) refers to various private health insurance plans sold to supplement Medicare in the United States.

Medigap insurance provides coverage for many of the co-pays and some of the co-insurance related to Medicare-covered hospital, skilled nursing facility, home health care, ambulance, durable medical equipment, and doctor charges.

Medigap's name is derived from the notion that it exists to cover the difference or "gap" between the expenses reimbursed to providers by Medicare Parts A and B for the preceding named services and the total amount allowed to be charged for those services by the United States Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

As of 2006, 18% of Medicare beneficiaries were covered by a Medigap policy.

Public-option Part C Medicare Advantage health plans and private employee retiree insurance provides a similar supplemental role for almost all other Medicare beneficiaries not dual eligible for Medicaid.

Medicare Advantage is a type of United States health insurance program within Part C of Medicare.

Medicare Advantage plans provide a managed health care plan (typically a health maintenance organization (HMO) but also often a preferred provider organization (PPO) or another type of managed care arrangement) that is paid based on a monthly capitated fee.

This Part of Medicare provides beneficiaries an alternative to "Original Medicare" Parts A and B Medicare, which provides insurance for the same medical services but pays providers a fee for service (FFS) directly rather than through managed care plans.

However a Medicare Advantage beneficiary must first sign up for both Parts A and B of Medicare.

All three of these Parts of Medicare -- A, B and C -- are administered by private insurance companies (often the same insurance companies).

A prescription drug (also prescription medication or prescription medicine) is a pharmaceutical drug that legally requires a medical prescription to be dispensed.

In contrast, over-the-counter drugs can be obtained without a prescription.

The reason for this difference in substance control is the potential scope of misuse, from drug abuse to practicing medicine without a license and without sufficient education.

Different jurisdictions have different definitions of what constitutes a prescription drug.