When you sign up for Medicare, you get to customize your coverage to a degree by choosing your own Part D drug plan. You might also decide to sign up for a Medicare Advantage plan to take the place of original Medicare. And if so, that Advantage plan will generally offer coverage for prescriptions as well.
You may be inclined to think of your specific Medicare plan as something to set and forget. But that's a huge mistake you might sorely regret.
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Don't pass up the opportunity to review your coverage choices
Each year, Medicare runs an open enrollment period during the fall that begins on Oct. 15 and ends on Dec. 7. Open enrollment might sound like the time for newly eligible seniors to sign up for Medicare in the first place, but that's not what that fall period is about. Rather, it's an opportunity to make changes to your existing Medicare coverage.
Specifically, during fall open enrollment, you can:
- Move from one Part D drug plan to another
- Switch Medicare Advantage plans
- Sign up for Medicare Advantage in favor of original Medicare
- Dump Medicare Advantage and move over to original Medicare
It pays to review your plan options during open enrollment for a few key reasons. First, your existing Medicare plan may be changing for the worse.
Your drug plan may be bumping the medications you take into a higher tier, resulting in more expensive co-pays for you. Or, your Medicare Advantage plan may be raising the cost of your premiums or taking away some of the supplemental benefits you've been paying for. In either situation, switching to a new plan could be a smart move.
Additionally, it may be that your health needs have changed over the past year. Maybe you're no longer taking some of the medications you were 12 months ago. Maybe your prescription list has grown. Or maybe you've been diagnosed with a new condition and need to make sure you're on top of it. These, too, are good reasons to consider a change to your Medicare coverage for 2025.
Start doing the legwork now
At this point, you have about another month to take advantage of Medicare's fall open enrollment period. So don't delay. The process of exploring your plan choices could take time, so the sooner you start, the more calmly and methodically you can review your options.
Of course, you may decide to leave your existing Medicare coverage in place after seeing what other choices are out there. And that's fine. The key is to get the right information to make sure you're not passing up the chance to lower your healthcare costs or secure superior coverage.
And remember, Medicare can help you see what plans are available in your area of the country. Just enter some personal information on its Plan Finder tool, and you'll be given a host of options based on your ZIP code. From there, you can review each plan's rating and costs to see what's best for you.
