VBJ February 19

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THE VALLEY BUSINESS JOURNAL 24 www.TheValleyBusinessJournal.com February 2019 Keep Your Medicare Costs Down Most doctors accept Medicare as full payment for their services. But some accept it only for certain services, and others don’t accept it at all. What does this mean for you? If you have Original Medicare, it means you should try to use doctors, hospitals, medical equipment suppliers, and other healthcare providers that participate or “accept assignment” in Medicare. Such providers have signed agreements to take Medicare as payment in full for their services. If your doctor or other provider accepts assignment: • Your out-of-pocket costs may be less. • The provider agrees to charge you only the Medicare deductible and coinsurance amount, and usually waits for Medicare to pay its share before asking you to pay your share. • The provider has to submit your claim directly to Medicare and can’t charge you for submitting the claim. Some doctors and other providers haven’t signed an agreement to accept assignment for all Medicare-covered services, but they can still choose to accept assignment for some services. These providers are called “non-participating” providers. If your doctor or other provider doesn’t accept assignment: • You may have to pay the entire bill at the time of service. Your provider is supposed to submit a claim to Medicare for any Medicare-covered services they provide to you. • The provider can’t charge you for submitting a claim. If they don’t submit the Medicare claim once you ask them to, call 1 800 MEDI- CARE. • In some cases, you might have to submit your own claim to Medicare using Form CMS-1490S to get paid back. • The provider can charge you more than the Medicare-approved amount, but there’s a limit. Non-participating providers are paid 95% of the Medicare-approved amount. They can only charge you up to 15% over the amount that non-participating providers are paid. The 15 percent limit applies only to certain Medicare-covered services and doesn’t apply to some medical supplies and durable medical equipment. Some doctors and other providers don’t want to enroll in the Medicare program at all. You can still visit these “opt out” providers, but they must enter into a private contract with you (unless you’re in need of emergency or urgently needed care). A private contract is a written agreement between you and a doctor or other provider who has decided not to provide services to anyone through Medicare. The private contract only applies to services you get from the provider who asked you to sign it. If you sign a private contract with an opt-out doctor or other provider, keep in mind that Medicare won’t pay any amount for the services you get from that provider, even Medicare-covered services. • You’ll have to pay the full amount this provider charges you. You and your provider will set up your own payment terms through the contract. • If you have a Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap) policy, it won’t pay anything for the services you get. Call your insurance company before you get the service if you have questions. • Your provider must tell you if Medicare would pay for the service if you got it from another provider who accepts Medicare. • Your provider must tell you if he or she has been excluded from Medicare. • You can’t be asked to sign a private contract for emergency or urgent care. • You’re always free to get services not covered by Medicare if you choose to pay for them yourself. You don’t have to sign a private contract. You can always go to another provider who participates (accepts assignment) in Medicare. Be sure to ask your physician or other provider if they are participating, non-participating, or opt-out. You can also check by calling 1-800-MEDI- CARE or by using Medicare’s Physician Compare tool on www.medicare.gov. You may want to contact your State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) to get free help before signing a private contract with any doctor or other health care provider. Greg Dill is Medicare’s regional administrator for Arizona, California, Nevada, Hawaii, and the Pacific Territories. You can always get answers to your Medicare questions by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).
February 2019 Cloudy and Blurry, or the New Normal? REAL ESTATE by by Gene Steve Wunderlich Fillingim As most of you know from my recent articles, 2018 was not a great year but far from a bad one. We’ve been in a low interest rate/low inventory situation for so long we’ve forgotten what a ‘normal’ market used to be. For example, we’ve conveniently forgotten when we were comfortable with 6% - 7% mortgage interest rates. Rates have been artificially depressed into the 3% range for so long that today’s rates of 4.25% are causing alarm. They shouldn’t. And next year they’ll likely rise into the 5% - 5.5% range, and that won’t be the end of the world either. However, it does make it more difficult for first-time buyers to enter the market given the lack of affordable workforce housing. Lack of supply is the problem, not interest rates. Similarly, we’ve forgotten that a ‘normal’ inventory of homes for sale is a 6 -7 month supply. Over the past decade we’ve had local inventories as low as 3 weeks and only recently increased to 3 months. And for some THE VALLEY BUSINESS JOURNAL www.TheValleyBusinessJournal.com reason people are freaking out about it. They shouldn’t. Increased supply is the solution, not the problem. Properties are staying on the market longer – as long as 40 days in December. For agents accustomed to the more recent market, the fact that they’re not getting multiple offers at higher than asking price within hours of listing a home is evidence that the market is collapsing. It’s not. Competitively priced properties are still selling briskly but nearly 30% of properties in the mls are now selling after a price reduction. Adjust your expectations in line with reality instead of fantasy and you won’t be disappointed. Fewer properties sold across our region in 2018 than 2017 – about 12% fewer (11,685 / 10,479). That’s actually 479 homes more than my mid-year forecast called for, so I look at that as a win! But it’s also the fact that we’re coming off our best sales year in a decade in 2017 that makes this year look worse than it actually is. After four consecutive years of increasing sales volume, a step back looks scary until you realize a correction is not a bad thing. As long as it remains just a correction. By the way, condo sales were off 15% (680 / 581) and sales of luxury homes over $1,000,000 also declined 16% (131 / 110) across the region. If you’re an existing homeowner, median price appreciation remained a bright spot in 2018, though not as bright as it has been. Median price for the region increased 6% ($351,578 / $374,104), exceeding my mid-year forecast of 5%. Echoing what’s happening across the state, our higher end markets in Temecula and Murrieta saw three consecutive months of price declines during the last quarter while more affordable market continued to increase. Temecula actually saw a median price decline of 5% from December of 2017 ($474,000 / $449,325) and after posting an average price in excess of $500,000 for the first 11 months of the year, saw that drop to $489,890 in December. Across the market our region is still some 4.5% below our prior peak average price point ($405,486 / $387,767) but three cities, Temecula, Wildomar and Menifee all set new record high averages. It took 11 years to recover what it took 18 months to lose. So where do we go in 2019? Well there are experts on both sides of the equation from (limited) boom to (moderate) bust. As usual, I agree with the experts. Home sales across the state fell 3.2% in 2018 and are forecast to drop 25 another 3.3% in 2019. Sluggish sales will moderate price gains to 3% - 5% with actual declines in some markets. Most point to underlying strength in our economy albeit with concern for the impact of weakness in markets from Europe to China, the fear of trade wars, stock market volatility, the Fed, and what the newly constituted Congress and mega-majority California Legislature will deliver to us. Meanwhile cloudy and blurry will define our return to the new normal for the next few months. If you’d like to view the detailed report and graphs, please visit: https://tinyurl. com/SRCAR-housing. Gene Wunderlich is Vice President, Government Affairs for Southwest Riverside County Association of Realtors. If you have questions on the market, please contact me at GAD@ srcar.org.
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VBJ February 19

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