Medicare Open Enrollment - Advice

It's time to review your Medicare coverage.  Medicare's "open enrollment" starts October 15th and runs through December 7th for coverage in 2016.  Officially called the Annual Election Period (AEP), this is the only time (with only a few special exceptions) you can make changes to your Medicare coverage.

Most people on Medicare will benefit from an annual Part D Prescription Drug Plan (PDP) review.  Your prescriptions may have changed in the past year, and the way your current plan covers your drugs (the "formulary") may be changing for 2016.

If you have a traditional Medicare Supplement (Medigap) policy with Original Medicare benefits be VERY CAREFUL about replacing it with a Medicare Advantage (Part C) plan.  While a Medicare Advantage plan may offer very low monthly premiums, your coverage options - especially the choice of doctors and hospitals - will be very limited compared to Original Medicare with a full-coverage Medigap policy.

During the AEP, you may:

• Switch from Original Medicare to a Medicare Advantage plan.
• Switch from a Medicare Advantage plan back to Original Medicare.
• Switch from a Medicare Advantage plan to different Medicare Advantage plan.
• Switch from a Medicare Advantage plan that doesn’t include drug coverage to one that does, and vice versa.
• Join a Medicare prescription drug plan.
• Switch from one Medicare prescription drug plan to another one.
• Drop your Medicare prescription drug coverage.

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REMEMBER:  Medicare does NOT cover long-term care.

"Medicare and most health insurance plans, including Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap) policies, don't pay for [long-term] care, sometimes called "custodial care".
- "Medicare & You 2016", page 72, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, US Dept. of Health & Human Services.

If you don't have LTC insurance, this is also an excellent time to consider all of your retirement health care plans.