Jennie L Phipps

Key takeaways:

A healthcare network is a group of doctors and hospitals that provides services to insured members at a lower cost than providers outside the network.

When shopping for a health plan, explore the network of the plan you are considering. Make sure it includes the healthcare providers you want and need.

Remember that upfront cost isn’t the only factor. Consider the location of the available healthcare providers, including any specialists you might need to see.

If you have a healt...

Picking a Medicare supplement (Medigap) plan tricky. Newcomers to Medicare have many options and making a poor choice can cost big bucks.

Medicare Part D drug coverage may be the most complex part of the already complicated Medicare program. I'm a Medicare participant, and I have spent a lot of time explaining the program to others.

Once a Medicare participant picks a Medigap plan, it is hard to switch. This story details the difficulties, including explaining why someone might be rejected, the challenges of insurance underwriting and when it is possible to switch without facing underwriting.

Consumer advice for people considering Medicare supplement plans. This is part of a series written for a lead generation company.

Can you get health insurance if you don’t have a job that offers it as a benefit? Absolutely. Good quality health insurance is available at all income levels—even with no income. I've been writing solid consumer advice to be published by a lead-generation company for the last couple of years.

'Environmental issues are extremely critical in terms of our being great stewards of our state ...'
2020 was a busy year for Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka.
Last February, Persons-Mulicka, a Fort Myers Republican, launched her legislative bid with support from several state political luminaries, including state House Majority Leader and current director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Dane Eagle.
By May, she gathered enough signatures to get on the ballot to succeed term-limited...

Key takeaways:
High-deductible plans — those that require you to pay $2,490 in 2022 before Medigap starts paying your expenses — can save you money on Medigap insurance if you have enough money to cover the deductible in a worst-case scenario.

This is part of a larger project, looking at Blue Cross Blue Shield and its affiliated companies. It was designed to help health insurance shoppers find policies that best meet their needs.

Medigap travel benefits are available in 6 of 10 nationally standardized plans. These benefits can be valuable if you are traveling abroad, even if they just augment private travel insurance.

Do Medicare Beneficiaries Have to Renew Medicare? The short answer is no. Once you sign up for Medicare’s various parts and cont...At MedicareGuide.com, we want to make health insurance content easy to understand so that it can help you make better decisions. We adhere to strict editorial standards.

Unconventional housing options for retirees. I have done a lot of work for Lending Tree and its affiliates. Most of them aren't bylined. (Nor are they available for posting. )

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Some 50 years ago, fans were rocking to "Twist and Shout." These days, the same crowd is rolling on over to orthopedic surgeons for hip and knee replacements.
Medicare recently reported that in 2014, it paid for more than 400,000 of these operations, which cost more than $7 billion for the hospitalizations alone. The average cost for these procedures, including hospitalization and recovery, ranged from $16,500 to $33,000, depending on geographic location.
If you are contemplating one of ...

By Jennie L. Phipps for Bankrate.com
First-time parents who are in their 40s and 50s face some retirement-planning issues that are different from those generally encountered by people who got an earlier start on rearing children.
A baby shower of advice
Put saving for your retirement first. There is a very real possibility that you'll be paying for your child's college education at the same time that you're considering hanging up your work boots. Sheila Gugliuzza, managing director, wealth ma...

After a disaster has passed, leaving behind a mess so complete it’s hard to know where to begin putting things right, resist the temptation to run away and worry about it later.
Your mission — and you better accept it — is to call your insurers and get the claim ball rolling. The sooner you report damage, the sooner you get to cash the check.
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Dealing with disaster
Here are 12 tips from insur...