What To Consider When Choosing The Best Medicare Option for Your Health Needs and Budget

How To Choose a Medicare Plan During Annual Enrollment

Every Fall brings an opportunity to make an annual Medicare election, which often fills people with dread due to the range of choices that bombard them over the summer. A health insurance broker licensed to sell Medicare health plans in Santa Rosa can help you navigate the ongoing changes to Medicare that leave many people confused and lead to challenges in making decisions that ultimately affect coverage.

Circumstances That Would Require You To Select a New Plan

Medical insurance should cover routine and unexpected costs associated with the prevention and treatment of illness. As you age, you are more likely to rely upon your medical insurance for the frequency and variety of care you need to stay healthy; however, your Medicare insurance provider may no longer match your needs for the following reasons. 

• It stops covering your preferred medical providers
• It provides less coverage for vital prescription drugs
• Its premiums rise dramatically
• It does not offer the benefits you currently need

Ways To Prepare To Change Your Medicare Plan in 2022

A health insurance broker licensed to sell Medicare health plans in Santa Rosa may advise these steps to prepare you to make your election during the 2022 Medicare annual enrollment period.

Review Your Current Coverage

Before you decide to change your Medicare coverage, it is essential to understand the details of your current plan. For example, government-sponsored Original Medicare Parts A and B and private Medicare Advantage plans provide in-hospital and routine medical benefits. However, you need a supplemental Part D plan for prescription drugs coverage if you have Original Medicare. In contrast,  Reviewing your current Medicare coverage will also help you choose the best option to minimize your out-of-pocket costs. 

Confirm That Your Doctors Will Continue To Accept Your Existing Plan

With an Original Medicare plan, you can visit any medical providers of your choice without worrying about coverage; however, if you have a Medicare Advantage plan, you will need to select providers in the plan's network. Medicare Advantage plans all have different networks, making it necessary to confirm that your providers are part of the network to ensure your health plan will cover treatment from them.

List The Medications You Take

Before deciding to change your Medicare plan, take an inventory of all the medication you are currently taking or planning to take. Preparing a list with dosages and brand or generic names will allow you to calculate drug costs under multiple plans and find the Medicare plan that best suits your budget. 

Leave Time To Review Your Notice of Change Packet

You should receive a packet including the annual notice of changes for your Medicare Part D drug plan or your Medicare Advantage plan by the end of September. Reviewing this packet as soon as possible will ensure that you know about all upcoming changes and have time to consider new plan choices before the end of the annual enrollment period.

Find Out How a Medicare Plan Can Impact Your Other Insurance

You can choose to have a Medicare plan along with another health insurance plan, but knowing what each plan covers will ensure you gain the maximum benefits from each. For example, if you have an employer-sponsored medical insurance plan, it is usually considered the primary payer on a claim if your employer has more than 20 employees. Therefore, Medicare can pay the claim balance as the secondary payer. However, if your employer has fewer than 20 employees, the primary payer is Medicare, and your employer's plan is the secondary payer. In other instances, you may need to choose one plan to pay a claim. For example, if you have both Medicare and Veterans' insurance, you can not apply both to the same medical claim. 

Check Your Eligibility Status

Knowing your eligibility for Medicare plans will save you time when choosing an option that will work for your particular circumstances. For example, before you begin your application for Original Medicare Part D prescription coverage, you must make an election for Medicare Parts A and B. Also, if you are thinking of switching from Original Medicare to an Advantage plan, you must live in the area that the Advantage plan services. 

Keep Track of Deadlines

Although your Medicare plan starts on the first day of the new year, you must make your selection between October 15th and December 7th of the previous year. You cannot change your Medicare plan after December 7th and must wait one year for the next opportunity to do so.

Work With a Licensed Health Insurance Broker in Santa Rosa 

The annual Medicare enrollment period leaves many people worrying about making a wrong decision, leading to high costs for vital health insurance or insufficient coverage. Fortunately, you can count on Sackett & Associates Insurance Services for helpful advice about choosing the best Medicare plan. 

For more information about how our knowledgeable Medicare advocates can help you choose a Medicare plan during the annual 2022 enrollment period, contact us at (707) 823-3689.