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You can have regular medicare, or sign up for a "medicare advantage" plan, that essentially subcontracts your medicare benefits to a third party managed care plan, often an HMO style program. Regular medicare is an 80/20 plan, covers 80% of allowed charges, managed care plan will be different, may exclude certain stuff, or have a limited panel of providers. These will also tend to have more limited formularies for prescriptions, or may limit who you have to go to for durable medical equipment.
The supplement is to pick up that 20%. The supplemental plan will depend in large extent to whether you have signed up for regular medicare or one of the managed care plans. Supplement plan generally will parallel benefits of medicare, but that is not always the case. Better have your business manager go over it with you.
Oh yeah, a supplemental plan that is primarily in California may not have anybody in Pennsylvania that is on their list of providers.
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