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December 31st: Not Really the Medicare Deadline

by on Dec. 20, 2009, under Health

If you can’t make up your mind about changing your Medicare Advantage plan or staying put, December 31st is not your deadline.  You still have January – March (Open Enrollment) to make one change.

The December 31st deadline applies only to people with a stand-alone prescription drug plan, or those who are signing up for a Part D plan for the first time – alone or with a Medicare Advantage plan. But the 40% or so Tucsonans enrolled in Medicare Advantage still have a few months to make a change.

It seems like lots of insurance agents (and insurance company advertising) have left seniors with the misconception that they must “ACT NOW!” or they’ll be locked into their Advantage plan until 2011. Don’t let anybody push you to make a decision – you still have plenty of time.

Submitting paperwork this week or next will likely mean you won’t get your new Advantage plan card by January 1st. And if you have prescriptions that need refills in early January, you might find your old plan coverage cancelled but your new plan not yet in the system. I tell everyone to refill prescriptions before the end of the month, if at all possible.

The best time to submit an application to change your Medicare Advantage plan is early in the month.  If your paperwork goes in before the tenth of the month, everything will be processed and you’ll have your card – and your info will be in the system for the first of February. 

I have a feeling there will be many folks who did not look at the materials sent by their Medicare Advantage company at the end of October. These materials provided information on changes to their Advantage plan for 2010.  When they realize their plan has changed substantially (and they’re being asked to pay a premium), lots of folks will start shopping for a new plan in January, February, or March.

The key piece of information is that people enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans can still make one change during the Open Enrollment Period of January through March.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 20th, 2009 at 11:52 am and is filed under Health. Tags for this post: , , , , , , , , , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • George

    This is CRAP – it misleads seniors (or whoever reads) to believe that they have till March to decide what they want –
    BY MEDICARE LAW – A BENEFICIARY CAN MAKE ONE CHANGE BETWEEN 01/01 TO 03/31 AS LONG AS IT DOES NOT AFFECT THEIR PART D COVERAGE – IF THEY HAVE IT – THEY HAVE TO CHOOSE A PLAN THAT STILL HAS IT – IF THEY DON’T HAVE IT – THEY CANNOT CHOOSE TO ADD IT DURING THAT TIME – READ THE LAW BEFORE YOU WRITE THIS ARTICLE.

  • medicareblogger

    George:  The second paragraph of my post tells people that the Dec. 31st deadline applies to new Part D enrollments or changes  to a stand-alone Part D plan. I also said what you’ve said – that people who have a Medicare Advantage plan (almost all of which include Part D) can make one change between January and March.

    You wrote, “…it misleads seniors…to believe that they have till March to decide what they want”.  Then you refer to the rule that allows people to make one change before March 31st – which is what I wrote about.

    For example, a person in a Health Net Medicare Advantage plan (which includes Part D) can change to a Secure Horizon plan (which includes Part D) or any other plan that includes Part D. They have this option between January 1 and March 31st.  But they can only make one change during this period, and then they’re locked into that plan for the rest of the year.

  • medicareblogger

    What cannot be done January – March:  If a person does not have Part D and wants to sign up with a Medicare Advantage plan in February, they cannot enroll in a plan that includes Part D.  This is one reason why Secure Horizons and Health Net each have one plan that does not include Part D.

    For example:  Last March a lady called me about signing up for a Medicare Advantage plan.  But she had not signed up for Part D back in the Part D sign-up period (Nov 15 – Dec 31st).  So I signed her up for the Health Net Green plan, which does not include Part D.   I told her we would switch her over to a Ruby plan, which includes Part D, during this year’s Annual Election Period.   So last month she filled out the paperwork to change to a Ruby plan, which includes Part D.  As of January she will have Part D.  

    This woman is going to be penalized for not signing up for Part D when she was first eligible.  Her penalty will be assessed at 1% for each month she should have had Part D.  That means that 12% will be added to her premium based on the average Part D premium – and I’ll leave it to Health Net to figure that amount out.

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