What is Annual Enrollment Period?
With all this talk about the Annual Enrollment Period, we wanted to take a second to pause and explain what it is and the essential “need to know” info so you can make informed decisions.
We put together a 4 step checklist to ensure that you have no bad surprises in January. We all like good surprises, especially around the Holidays, but the bad surprises are what we call problems and Medicare can certainly have a lot of problems if you're not careful. Medicare Annual Enrollment Period occurs between October 15th to December 7th.
It's a confusing time because there's so much marketing out there that occurs during this timeframe. Annual Enrollment Period only applies to individuals who are already on Medicare and have a Part D prescription plan or a Medicare Advantage plan. If you have a Medicare Advantage plan, (these are the plans where your medical prescription and sometimes extra benefits such as vision and dental are all rolled into one card) or if you have a prescription plan (that often goes with the Medicare supplemental plan that only covers your prescriptions) this is the time with new plans for next year come out. Your choice is: to keep your current plan or switch to a new plan.
Here’s your 4-step checklist to be sure that you'll still have a plan that will fit your needs.
Make sure you're well aware of the changes to your current plan.
In late September your current insurance company will mail you an Annual Notice of Change. This document highlights the changes to your current plan for next year. Often this is a very thick document so it can be a little dense to go through. If you have a Medicare Advantage plan make sure that you go through changes to your monthly premiums, copays, and your extra benefits such as your dental vision gym or hearing and make sure that they are still going to be acceptable to you for the next year. Pay special attention to copays such as; outpatient surgery PT and diagnostic tests (colonoscopies and prescriptions) These are areas where people get tripped up a lot in terms of overlooking these every single year number two make sure your doctors are still in the network. Again if you have a Medicare Advantage plan, doctors can go in and out of the network. Usually, the safest bet is to call your doctor’s office to confirm because there are errors in the provider directories.
2. The second best way is to check online for your plans provider directory to make sure that your doctors are still covered.
3. If you have brand name medications or long list of medications make sure you confirm that your prescriptions are still in the formulary. This is the area that we see the most surprises from year to year. Since drug prices can fluctuate drastically and plans can change what drugs are covered from year to year pretty frequently, make sure that when you look at your medications, have the name and the dosage ready since different dosages of the same drug can have drastically different prices.
Although all the marketing can make you believe that everyone makes a switch during the annual enrollment period studies have shown that only about 10% of people actually do. This means that folks are pretty content with their current plan and as long as there are no big changes. People tend to do nothing and let the plans automatically roll over for January 1st, however, if you are unhappy with your current plan or your situation has changed (whether it's a change in health or change in situation, whether you're moving or something else)
A little about what we do and why you can trust Doctor’s Choice…
4. In over nine years in helping thousands of individuals navigate Medicare, we've been able to identify the key things for clients that are oftentimes overlooked on a website or in a booklet this often saves individuals thousands or hundreds of dollars every single year on coverage. Doctor’s Choice can help you navigate this tricky time with a no-cost 30-minute consultation with our team. We will discuss what options you have, your doctors, and prescriptions, all prepared and ready when you meet with our team. We can help you take a look at your current situation compare your current plan with what else is available and help you make a switch if there's an option that will fit your needs. We do this so that you can rest assured covering all of your bases there is no cost to you.
How is that possible? Because we're paid by whichever insurance company we help you enroll in to stay objective which is our goal. Our team members are salaried employees to ensure that all financial bias is removed and the prices are exactly the same whether you go through our team or go through the companies directly. We give you access to guidance without having to pay extra. Please keep in mind our capacity is limited so if you do want to chat with us, please schedule in advance. We look forward to working with you!