Hello Toni:
I recently attended a Medicare Advantage meeting and was going to join with some reservations. After reading your article about the different Parts and Plans of Medicare, I am concerned that this Advantage plan may not be a good fit for me.
My question is if I change to an Advantage plan and find out in a few months it’s not working for me; what are my chances of returning to regular Medicare and a supplement.
I have a supplement Plan F that is $260 monthly. I am looking for something more reasonable. My age is 73 and in fairly good health. I just found out my regular Dr does not take this Advantage HMO plan and I would have to change doctors.
I have spent hours on the medicare.gov site, but cannot find out what doctors and hospitals are in the networks. I am just as confused as I can be.
Thanks,
Sophia, Nashville, TN
Hi there, Sophia:
Medicare’s open enrollment ends this year on Thursday, December 7th at mid-night and those who have made changes to their Medicare Advantage Part C plan or enrolled for in a Part D Medicare Prescription Drug plan or should receive their new insurance card by Monday, January 1, 2018.
The Medicare Open/Annual Enrollment rules are explained in chapters 4 and 6 of Toni’s “New” Medicare Survival Guide® Advanced edition which has recently been released.
For those who are not happy with the Medicare Advantage plan that they have picked for 2018, on page 72 of Toni’s new guide, it explains how you can disenroll from the Medicare Advantage Plan. Medicare will only give that person 45 days (from January 1st to February 14th) to find out if the new Part C Medicare Advantage plan is what they want. This time is called the Medicare Advantage Disenrollment Period or MADP in Medicare terms.
You can only disenroll from your current Medicare Advantage Plan and return to Original Medicare only and enroll in a standalone Part D Medicare Prescription Drug plan. You would think that Medicare would give you time to tryout a new Medicare Advantage plan…but Medicare doesn’t!!
To get out or disenroll from a Medicare Advantage plan after February 14th you cannot because you are “locked in” and will have to wait until the next Medicare enrollment period, which should be October 15, 2018. You can then disenroll and make a change with January 1st of the next year as a new start date.
At the Toni Says® office, we always advise a Toni Says® Medicare client to call all their doctors to see which Medicare Advantage plans the healthcare professional/facility accepts.
One thing to remember is that the doctor can also stop taking a Medicare Advantage plan in the middle of the year. If you find a Medicare Advantage plan that you like and your doctor is not in the plan, then you might have to change doctors to use that plan.
Since you are spending about $260 on a Medicare Supplement and want something less expensive with the same access to doctors that accept “Original Medicare”, there may be a less expensive option. You might consider shopping for a different, less expensive Medicare supplement such as plan G or even plan N.
The most important thing to remember is to always talk to your doctor or the doctor’s office manager before you make any changes to your Medicare insurance needs and see what Medicare Advantage plan they accept. For assistance in finding a plan that meets your needs call the new Toni Says® Medicare call center at 1/844-250-8664.
Toni King’s new Medicare Survival Guide® Advanced edition is on sale at www.tonisays.com.
