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How to Assess Your Medicare Coverage

Senior Adult Taking Pills Medicine Concept

Medicare open enrollment for 2025 starts on October 15 and ends on December 7, 2024.

If Medicare is your health plan, we encourage you to spend some time over the next few weeks to determine if your current coverage is going to be the best fit for 2025.

Important Dates for Medicare

Date
What is Happening?
October 15, 2024, to December 7, 2024
Medicare open enrollment period.
January 1, 2025
Coverage starts for all changes made during open enrollment.
January 1, 2025, to March 31, 2025
Medicare Advantage open enrollment. If you are unhappy with your Medicare Advantage plan, you can make changes during this three-month period.

To help guide you through the process, we’ve broken down some of the key considerations into a four-step strategy.

Step 1: Review your Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) when it arrives in the mail. Your ANOC should arrive by September.1,2

Here are a few checklist items to review:

  • Benefits added to your plan
  • Benefits removed from your plan
  • Changes to providers in your network
  • Changes to in-network and out-of-network coverage
  • Changes to your prescription drug coverage

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Step 2: Here’s a series of yes/no questions to help you decide if your plan continues to fit your needs.

  1. Does my plan address my health needs?

              𝥷 Yes 𝥷 No

  1. Are my doctors still in my plan?

              𝥷 Yes 𝥷 No

  1. Do I see my prescriptions on my plan’s list of medications?

              𝥷 Yes 𝥷 No

Step 3: Here’s a series of yes/no questions about your plan’s fees and services

  1. Does it look like my monthly plan premiums will increase?

              𝥷 Yes 𝥷 No

  1. Can I get answers to my questions with my current plan?

              𝥷 Yes 𝥷 No

Keep in mind that this is not a comprehensive list of questions to ask about your Medicare plan. It’s designed to help you get started thinking about your coverage so you can be prepared when open enrollment begins on October 7.

In his popular book, Diamond of Life: The Five P’s of Success and Significance, Mick reminds readers, “To stay healthy, you must burn the calories you take in, eat right and exercise! But that’s just your physical health! What about your emotional health and more importantly, your spiritual health?”

If you have questions, please contact our offices. We may have some material at our fingertips that might help. If we don’t have the answers, we will work with you to find the answers so you can feel comfortable with your decisions.

  1. Medicare.gov, 2024

  2. UNH.com, 2024

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