Medicare Supplemental Insurance

Archive for the ‘Part D’ Category

November 15th through December 31st 2009 is the Annual Open Enrollment for Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D plans.

What does this mean?  You can elect to make a change to your Medicare Advantage or Medicare Part D plan if you need to.  If you make a change, the last change you make will be the one that goes into effect on January 1st 2010.

If you have a Medicare Supplement, this does not apply to that plan.  With a Medicare Supplement, if you are healthy and can answer the qualification questions, you can make a change at any time.  If you have had some health challenges, there might be some opportunity on changing your Medicare supplement options, just give us a call so we can help determine the best options for you.  Call 816-254-6100 or toll free 1-888-535-0999

With the Annual Enrollment Period starting on November 15th I thought I would share some findings with you my friends.  By request I have been reviewing plans for my clients preparing for the Annual Enrollment Period coming up here in a few days and I wanted to share that it completely depends on your actual prescriptions, whith what your total cost will be for the year.

To give you an example, the last comparrison I ran on medicare.gov for one of my clients, she is currently on five (5) different prescriptions.  And this is the reason I STRESS that you look past the montly premium for your plan, her total costs including premiums for the year ranged from $2587 to $5490!  That is a difference of $2903 for the year, from the most cost effective plan to the least! And the funnything is, neither of the plans were the cheapest monthly or most expensive monthly premium.

The average monthly premium ranged from $34 to $50 per month. So again, make sure you look past what the montly premium is for your Part D prescription program is and look at the total cost for the year.  You will save more than just a headach later in the year, you could also save a ton of cash by makeing sure you get in the plan that gives you the best all around deal!

Happy Hunting!

Travis

For those with a Medicare Advantage plan or a Medicare Part D (prescription) plan, starting on November 15th and going through December 31st you can make a change to your current program which will take effect on Jan 1st, 2010.

This Annual enrollment period does not allow you to make a change to your medicare supplement since those are a different type of insurance policies and do not follow the Annual / Open Enrollment periods set by Medicare for the Advantage and Part D programs.

The reason that the Medicare Advantage and Part D programs have Annual and Open Enrollment periods is because they are a contract between Medicare and private insurers for those benefits and the enrollment periods are set around the fact that the contracts follow the calendar year.

Medicare Supplements are not direct contracts with Medicare and therefore do not follow the Annual / Open enrollment periods that Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D follow.  Medicare Supplements have their own open enrollment periods and guarantee issue periods that may have special options for you depending on what state you live in.  Contact an agent for more information.

Here is the Press Release from AARP.

AARP has approximately 29% of the Medigap Market in terms of # of insureds.  There has been some debate on whether this endorsement has a financial incentive for AARP because of the possibility of an increase in Medicare Supplement sales.  AARP receives referal fees from United Healthcare who administers the AARP Medicare Supplement and Part D programs.

Article -> here

By now, if you are on a PFFS Medicare Advantage plan (private fee for service) depending on what company you have your plan with, you might have gotten a letter saying that your plan will not be offered for the 2010 year.  With some of the changes Medicare made this year, there now must be a network associated with the plans.  Those companies offering PFFS plans that don’t have a network in your area, have sent out a letter to those members affected letting them know they need to find a different plan for 2010.

You can obviously select another advantage plan in your area, but you also now have a guarantee issue period to select a Medicare supplement plan if you would like to move back to original Medicare.

If you live in Missouri, Kansas or Iowa and need assistance with finding a new plan, please give us a call 816-254-6100 or toll free 1-888-535-0999.