VA plus Medicare, what to do?

[brecon65]

There must be enough "Old Salts" out there to give me some good information on this subject. I'm currently 100% service connected and will turn 65 and Medicare eligible in June 2010. I also continue to have private health insurance. With my VA status, do I need a Medicare supplemental policy? Will a Medicare prescription plan conflict with my VA prescription benefits. Should I take a chance and drop full medical insurance, knowing with pre-existing conditions I may not be able to get recovered? Should I wait to do anything until after the "brain trust" in Washington gets through with the current healthcare cluster-f...? Is there a service organization that has advisers on this subject? Looking forward to advice from some of you who have gone through the same situation.

[oldtop]

For some strange reason, the VA cannot accept payment from medicare, nor can VA co- pay with medicare. SC Veterans that find themselves in a non-VA hospital that erroneously provide the hospital with medicare info screw themselves! The hospital immediately submits to medicare for payment, then requests payment from VA. VA refuses to pay because medicare is involved.. the vet gets stuck with the remainder of the bill that medicare did not pay. If you are 100% SC, and go to a hospital, be sure to do the following:
(1) Notify the nearest VA hospital immediately, and request authorization for treatment
(2) Provide the hospital with VA info and ID ONLY...NO MEDICARE INFO!!!
(3) If your hospitalization is for an emergency (the only reason that you should have to go to a non-VA facility in the first place) request that you be transferred to a VA facility as soon as your condition has been stabalized and it is safe to transfer you.
As for keeping medicare oe cancelling it..that is a decision that you will need to make on your own, based on your particular set of circumstances.. medicare prescription benefits will not interfere with your VA Rx benefits at all, as they are seperate entities.. the medicare Rx benefit might provide you with drugs that are "non-formulary", or not available through VA. If your only physician is a VA doctor, then you probably don't need medicare at all..if you have civillian doctors also, then you should probably keep medicare. If you are retired military and have tricare, then you are required to keep medicare by tricare.