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Medicare Telehealth Flexibilities Extended Through End of 2026

Seniors can continue seeing their doctors virtually from home—Medicare telehealth flexibilities have been extended through December 31, 2026.

The extension covers a broad range of services: routine office visits, behavioral health therapy, diabetes self-management training, and even audio-only calls for those without reliable internet. Geographic restrictions and originating-site requirements remain waived for all beneficiaries.

While telehealth has proven popular and effective, long-term policy is still under debate. For now, the status quo remains safe for the rest of the year.

Learn about telehealth coverage at Medicare.gov

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Information Medicare Benefits & Services Preventive Care resources-health

Free Preventive Services Medicare Covers in 2026: The Complete List

Medicare covers a wide range of preventive services at no cost to beneficiaries, including cancer screenings, cardiovascular tests, immunizations, and annual wellness visits.

The Welcome to Medicare preventive visit is available within the first 12 months of Part B enrollment, followed by annual wellness visits that include personalized prevention plans.

Cancer screenings covered at no cost include mammograms, colonoscopies, lung cancer screenings for eligible beneficiaries, and prostate cancer screenings. Cardiovascular disease screenings and diabetes screenings are also free.

Vaccines covered under Part D now include shingles, tetanus-diphtheria-whooping cough, and RSV, while flu and COVID-19 vaccines remain covered under Part B with no out-of-pocket costs.

See the full list of preventive services at Medicare.gov.

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Trump administration announces 15 new drugs for Medicare price negotiation program

BY  ALI SWENSON
January 27, 2026

NEW YORK (AP) — Drugs that treat Type 2 diabetes, HIV and arthritis are among 15 new medications chosen for a Medicare drug price negotiation program that allows the federal government to haggle directly with drug manufacturers, the Trump administration said Tuesday.

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Medicare in Texas 2025: What You Need to Know

Photo of Houston Texas for All About Medicare website, resource from Texas Medicare website.

Introduction

If you’re a Texan approaching 65 or already on Medicare, understanding your options for 2025 is key. Texas offers a wide range of Medicare Advantage, Supplement, and Prescription Drug Plans — but not all are created equal.

Key Changes for 2025

  • Updated premiums and deductibles for Medicare Part B and D.
  • New Advantage plan benefits for dental, hearing, and vision.
  • Expanded coverage in rural Texas counties.

Enrollment Tips

  • Compare plans early — the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) runs from October 15 to December 7.
  • Review your medications and doctor network each year.
  • Use licensed Medicare agents in Texas for personalized quotes.
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Nutrition for Seniors: Why Do Seniors Have Different Nutritional Needs?

The human body is a complicated construct, and it is known to change throughout the years. While most of us are well-acquainted with the expected ways that our bodies can change—with pain, medical concerns, and new limitations appearing—people have a tendency to get confused when it comes down to their body’s overall nutrition needs. These needs do change as we get older and must be considered. In this article, we will explore why this happens and what it means for your health. 


Nutrition and Overall Health

It is often said that the majority of our health begins in the kitchen, and there is a lot of truth to this sentiment. We all have different nutritional needs that can change in response to a variety of factors. For most of us, it makes sense that someone might eat differently if they’re working out a lot more, but have you ever considered the ways that these needs change simply because our bodies do?


How Our Health Needs Change with Time

As the human body ages, it can go through some very noticeable changes. When we got older, it is common to find ourselves faced with new needs or preferences. Some of these might be related to taste, but the more important considerations often come down to health. The passage of time can influence the ways that our organ’s function, how comfortable we are after eating a certain kind of meal, or even how much we weigh. Being aware of this and accommodating these changes is a crucial part of aging gracefully.

Our nutritional needs are a direct response to our body and lifestyle. These needs might change when you find yourself diagnosed with a new medical condition, like diabetes, or they might change when you find yourself spending less time moving and more time sitting. Your lifestyle and overall health can influence what vitamins you need, and making the right nutritional choices can help you to thrive. Most aging adults need more calcium, Vitamin D, iron, and Vitamin B12 during their later years.


Nourishing Your Body to Suit Your Needs

Growing older isn’t always easy, but it is easier when we nourish our bodies the right way. For those who find themselves struggling with blood sugar changes, it might mean cutting out sweets. For someone who is losing bone density, it might mean changing how much calcium is in your diet. Age brings changes to every system in the body, so it is natural that your nutritional needs will change with it. Above all else, the best nutritional choices as you age will be the ones focused on health: fruits and vegetables, proteins, and plenty of energizing carbs.


The Takeaway

Getting older is inevitable, but the way that we age can be optional. Being aware of how your body’s needs can change, and making dietary changes to accommodate these new needs, can keep you healthy and comfortable in the years to come. To make the best choices, consult a medical professional about your blood work and your body’s individual needs.

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Medicare Fitness Plans

Original Medicare does not provide any benefits for fitness. Many, but not all, Medicare Advantage Plans and a few Medigap plans include some fitness benefits such as free or reduced-price classes, gym memberships, supplements, etc. If this kind of benefit is important to you, examine the plan brochure carefully.

The more interesting question is, should they be important to you? There is a lot of research that demonstrates that even mild to moderate aerobic and strength training exercise is enormously beneficial to seniors and the disabled. Even a little exercise will help and the more the better. 

 Exercise improves and maintains functioning, fights depression, reduces pain, increases mobility – the benefits are unlimited! So, in general, having an Advantage or Medigap plan that offers fitness benefits is a good thing.

But is it a good thing for you? If you are a self-starter and self-organizer who can Google a fitness routine and start and keep to it without encouragement, you probably don’t need a fitness benefit. 

Buying a pair of two-pound dumbbells or a membership at a local gym, you can benefit greatly from any type of fitness regime.

Many Advantage and Medigap Plans offer the “Silver Sneakers” program of in-person and online exercise classes as a fitness benefit. The classes are worth taking, particularly if you enjoy group activities. Introverts may prefer the online version. 

If your plan offers fitness activities, there is usually no cost or obligation to try them, so give them a whirl! 

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How Chronic Disease Impacts Overall Wellness

There are times in life when things don’t quite go accordingly to plan, and sometimes these instances can influence our health for better or worse. Chronic disease is a concept that has been around for ages, but it is taking on more meaning as we learn more about what it is and how it impacts people. In this article, we will explore chronic disease in general and the ways that it might influence your overall wellness.


What is Chronic Disease?

Chronic disease is any kind of disease that is around for the long haul. These diseases can last a few months—or a lifetime. Presented in many different forms, chronic disease can impact our health immediately, and have long-lasting impacts as well. Since chronic disease is an active part of an individual’s life for a long amount of time, the impacts on overall health and wellness can be significant.


How Chronic Disease Influences Wellness

Anyone that has ever been diagnosed with a chronic disease will tell you that it changes the way that you live. Some of these diseases are present at birth, but chronic diseases can also show up later in life. Regardless of their duration, they can influence your wellness in some substantial ways.


Mental and Emotional Fatigue

Chronic disease is known to come with its fair share of mental and emotional fatigue. It can place limitations on the way that you live, forcing you to miss out on big events or even just causing you to wear down with time. Having a chronic disease can be a heavy weight on your life, particularly if it is left unmanaged. Many people struggle to balance chronic disease with maintaining their own mental health.


Physical Fatigue

With any chronic disease, there is generally a degree of physical fatigue. It might be the sapping exhaustion of living with chronic pain, or the drain on your body’s power and resources as your body responds to the disease. For some people, this fatigue can get worse at certain stages of the disease cycle, or it can just get worse with time.


Medication Stresses

Medication can have a big impact on your wellness, and most people with chronic diseases take one or several kinds of medication. It is common for medication to have side effects, and this can put added stress on your body and mind. These stressors can be frustrating, and sometimes they bring worse pain or discomfort.


The Takeaway

Everyone responds to chronic disease differently, and the disease that you have will come with its own hardships. It is clear why disease would impact us, but sometimes it is important to consider how they can impact us as well. To find comfort while living with chronic disease, we must address just how much it really affects us and find the support that we need to keep pushing through.

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Exercise and Fitness in Your Golden Years: The Best Exercises for Seniors

With each new year, we all get a little bit older, and the years can certainly change our bodies. As we slowly gain more knowledge and a better understanding of what the aging process really looks like, there is more of a focus on what we can do to support our bodies later in life. Let’s explore the best exercises to embrace during your Golden Years so that you can age with grace and comfort!

Walking

There are few exercises more simple or enjoyable than walking, and it is also an excellent opportunity to get plenty of exercise. When we walk, we get our blood pumping and help our muscles to shake out any lingering tension. This low-impact exercise makes it easy for us to increase overall health, particularly in the heart and lungs!

Swimming

You would be hard-pressed to find a doctor that doesn’t believe that swimming is one of the best exercises that seniors can do. As far as exercise methods go, swimming is as low-impact as you can get. It allows us to get plenty of healthy exercise without putting the amount of strain that can come with other forms of exercise. As an added bonus, it is also quite a bit of fun! Whether you are swimming laps or doing water aerobics, you will find that the pool is a great space to promote your wellness, particularly if you have chronic pain or arthritis. 

Yoga

With every passing year, more people are developing an interest in yoga, and it is fairly easy to see what is driving this interest. Overall, yoga is a form of exercise that really does cater to the needs of the individual. It can be as simple or as difficult as you make it, allowing you to grow along with it as you explore your practice. Like the other exercises on this list, yoga is low-impact, but it also does wonders for stretching out the muscles and increasing comfort in the joints. 

Strength Training

In recent years, a surprising number of seniors are turning to strength training in order to support their health and wellness. Strength training can help us to retain our muscular strength, support our bone density, and increase our mobility. Some people use it to maintain their independence as they age, but others use it to manage pain levels that are associated with chronic disease.

Aerobics

Aerobic exercise has been one of the most popular forms of exercise for seniors who are looking to age with an added bit of grace and style. This heart-friendly exercise option is a great way to remain active and improve your overall mobility. Though levels can vary, this is a good exercise option that should be discussed with a doctor depending on your unique needs.

The Takeaway

Your Golden Years can be some of the best years of your life, and it all gets a lot easier when you pair them with the right exercise. Choosing a good way to stay healthy and active can help you to enjoy the years even more by giving you the power to maintain your comfort and independence, even as the decades pass by!

For more information sign up for our FREE All About Medicare Newsletter

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Dental Coverage Under Medicare

Dental Coverage Under Medicare
Dental Coverage Under Medicare

Dental Coverage Under Medicare

Medicare covers almost no dental services. Not exams. Not cleaning. Not dentures. Not drilling. Not filling. Zip. Zero. Nada. The exceedingly rare situations in which Medicare covers dental services are those in which dental services are an integral part of care for a non-dental problem, such as a jaw injury or bone cancer.

That being said, the only way that you will obtain dental services under Medicare is to enroll in a Medicare Advance Plan that offers dental services as an extra benefit or enroll in a dental plan for seniors on Medicare. With Medicare Advantage Plans, precisely because they are an extra benefit, they tend to be limited, but some coverage is certainly better than none. Coverage in separate dental plans may be more generous.

Because both Medicare Advantage Plans and dental plans for seniors on Medicare are both private businesses not affiliated with the federal government, you must deal with a Medicare agent in order to get them. The Social Security office or Medicare can only refer you to an agent if you have questions about these plans.

When Can I Enroll?

For Medicare Advantage Plans that offer dental services as an extra benefit, your Original Enrollment period starts the third month before your 65th birthday and runs for seven months. There is also an open enrollment period from January 1 to March 31 of each year. You also have a special enrollment period if you lose coverage because your plan shut down, or stopped offering services in your area, you lost employer-provided insurance that you were using as evidence of creditable coverage, you were given wrong information about enrollment by a Federal employee, and a few other situations.

Open enrollment for stand-alone dental plans for seniors is usually year-round, but this may vary in some states and localities. Again, your Medicare insurance agent is your best source here; Medicare cannot help you.

How Much Does It Cost?

As with American health care in general, prices vary widely and wildly. Premiums for Medicare Advantage Plans with dental services range from $0 per month to around $100 per month; premiums for stand-alone dental plans range from $0 to $100 per month. That being said, why, you may ask, does not everyone pick the zero-premium plans? The answer is coverage. You get what you pay for, and higher-cost plans generally, but not always, offer lower deductibles and copayments and a wider range of services.

About half of adults on Medicare do not have dental coverage. It is not advisable to be one of them.

 

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Does Medicare Cover Ambulance Services?

Does Medicare Cover Ambulance Services?
Does Medicare Cover Ambulance Services?

Does Medicare Cover Ambulance Services?

The short answer is yes. If ground or air ambulance transport is medically necessary, Medicare will pay to transport you to the nearest facility that can provide the needed services. Services are provided under Part B. If you do not have Part B, Medicare will not pay.

The Part B deductible, which is $233 in 2022, applies. After that, you pay 20% of the Medicare-approved charges.

Most of the time when ambulance transport is necessary, it is obvious. In cases where it is not, your doctor can provide a certification that it is needed. For example, a dialysis patient may need ambulance transport to a dialysis center.

What If There’s a Question?

If the ambulance service doubts that you meet the definition of medical necessity, they are required to give you a notice that Medicare may not pay. This is called an Advanced Beneficiary Notice of Non-coverage. It is given if you requested an ambulance in a clearly non-emergency situation or the company believes Medicare will not pay. (The fact that you received such a notice, alone, does not mean that Medicare will not pay; this is determined later.)

Are There Special Situations?

Yes. If you live in the states of Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, or West Virginia, and you use non-emergency ambulance services more than three times in a ten-day period or once a week for three weeks or more, the company may request a pre-authorization before providing services. If the pre-authorization request is not approved, Medicare will not pay for the services.