Finances and Taxes

Medicare Special Needs Plans (SNPs) are specially coordinated plans for certain qualified individuals (limited to patients with chronic or disabling conditions and who have limited incomes). It’s a unique Medicare Advantage Plan, where the federal government pays approved private companies (meet MOC requirements) to cover special health care or financial needs.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program is a US federal financial assistance program that provides monthly assistance to families that meet the program’s eligibility requirements.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) of 1972 is a federal income supplementation program (funded by federal tax revenues) that provides regular monthly cash assistance to vulnerable people (adults and children with little income and resources and meet specific financial criteria i.e. have little to no income).

SSDI Appeals process can take longer or shorter-all depending on the level of the appeal. Ideally, appeals have to be made within 60 days of receiving the first determination(or benefits termination following a continuing disability review) from the Social Security Administration (SSA) via the denial notice (maximum of 65 days allowing 5 days of mailing time).

SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance) is a federal income benefits program. It provides monthly financial assistance to Americans (or their dependents) with significant illness or impairment (that meet the requirements for a disability) and who are unable to work for at least a year (or their condition may result in death within a year).

Cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is the automatic upward adjustment of Social benefits for inflation by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to help counteract the effects of rising prices in the economy. COLA has been in use since 1975. It’s based on the increases in the cost of living, as measured by the changes in the wage earners’ consumer price index (CPI-W) in a specific period.

The Social Security Act was signed by President Franklin Roosevelt on August 14, 1935. This is a federal program (run by the Social Security Administration (SSA)) and uses social security taxes (and the balance goes into a trust fund) to provide benefits to people who are eligible (Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) ).

Medicare Part B is that portion of Medicare (medical insurance) that covers;

Medically necessary outpatient medical services (like doctor visits, diagnostic tests, etc.),
Some preventive care (Like screenings, certain vaccines, and mental health counseling) and
Durable Medical Equipment (DME).

Medicare Part A(Hospital Insurance) is the hospital coverage portion (inpatient and care following hospital stays) of Original Medicare (alongside Part B). It’s the federal government-sponsored health insurance program for U.S. citizens aged above 65 years (individuals who are disabled or with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) can get it at any age).

Medicare Part D, the Prescription Drug plan is a part of the Medicare program (optional to anyone with Medicare) that caters to most outpatient prescription drugs. Part D is “privatized”, meaning its offered and managed through approved private companies either as a stand-alone prescription drug plan (PDP) for Original Medicare enrollees or packaged as a benefit in a Medicare Advantage prescription drug plan (MA-PD)- Which includes HMOs and PPOs, that cover all Medicare benefits including drugs.