Medicare, Social Security Benefits Explored

QUESTION: At the clinic where I went the other day, the nurses told me that I could have only one Medicare charge per day. If I had a Cumadin check for example, Medicare would not pay also for a vitamin B-12 shot the same day.
Since I live 6 ½ miles out of town and with the price of gasoline what it is, I'd like to be able to get more than one procedure at a time.
Is what the nurses told me really true?
J.G.F., Inverness
ANSWER: A Medicare representative in Washington says that the nurses are misinformed.
Unless there are unusual circumstances, which you have not disclosed, any procedure covered by Medicare is covered, no matter how many procedures may occur on a given day.
If you have any questions about Medicare Part B coverage, call the First Coast Service Option (a subsidiary of Blue Cross-Blue Shield, which administers Medicare in Florida) at 1-66-54-9007 or write to the company at P.O. Box 2525, Jacksonville, FL 32231-0019.
Your signature indicated that you are a retired serviceman so you may want to check out the TRICARE medical and prescription drug coverage provided by the Veterans Administration at the Web site www.TRICARE@va.gov or call the VA medical benefits hotline at 1-800-27-1000.
QUESTION: Both my wife and I recently became disabled and now are receiving Social Security disability benefits. We are 52 and 54 yeas of age, respectively. We both have worked all of our lives and are wondering what calculations are made to compute the benefits that we will receive when we reach what would be our normal retirement age.
G.J.C, Ridge Manor
ANSWER: Your disability benefits were calculated on what your Social Security retirement benefit would be when you reach normal retirement age, assuming you earned each year until you reached age 62 the same amount you earned the last full year before you became disabled.
The formula used in determining a retirement benefit considers the 35 years of your highest earnings. That formula begins with the amount you earned when you started working, say 1976, assuming you started work at age 20, and multiplying that number by the ratio of the national average wage for that year and the national average wage two years before you started receiving benefits.
Say your wage that year was $10,000. The national average was $9,226.48. If you started receiving benefits in 2006, the national average wage in 2004 was $35,648.55. So the ratio is 3.6. Social Security then would multiply $10,000 by 3.6 and use the figure $36,000 for that year.
That process is repeated for each of the 35 years under consideration. Then the average monthly earnings over the 35 years are determined, say roughly $3,000 in this hypothetical case.
Based on that amount, the benefit would consist of 90 percent of the first $711 of that average monthly earnings (or $570). Then add 32 percent of the earnings between $711 and $4,288 (in this case only $2,430). The 32 percent would be $777 (rounded down from $777.60). The last part of the formula, 15 percent of anything over $4,288, up to a maximum benefit of $2,185, would not apply in this case.
So the benefit would be the sum of those two amounts or $1,347 a month.
When you reach the full retirement age, your disability benefit automatically would become your retirement benefit unless somewhere along the line you are able to return to work. In that case, your actual earnings would be worked into the formula to replace some years that otherwise would have the earlier assumed earnings.

If you have questions about any issues connected with aging, except medical conditions, please write to "Life to the Fullest," Hernando Today, 15299 Cortez Blvd., Brooksville, Fla., 34613, or send e-mail to adontaft@yahoo.com. Please include your name and address.