What Does the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment mean? Is this a good time to review your Medicare health plan options?
From January 1 to March 31 you have the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period. During this time period you may make a onetime change from one Medicare Advantage Plan to another. Or, you may dis-enroll from a Medicare Advantage Plan go back to Original Medicare (Part A and Part B) and also enroll in a Part D prescription drug plan on a guaranteed basis. If all someone has is Medicare Parts A and B I refer to that as “basic Medicare”. You cannot use this time period to enroll in a Medicare Advantage Plan or Part D plan if you do not already have coverage. You cannot use this time period to change your Part D plan.
We encourage most people to use the Annual Election Period (October 15 to December 7) as the ideal time to review their Part D prescription drug plans and Medicare Advantage plans. During that time period you can enroll in a plan even if all you have is basic Medicare.
In California, it is ideal to review your Medicare Supplement plans is around your birthday. We have a law that guarantees the right to change plans within 30 days of your birthday to any companies’ similar or lesser plan. We call it the “birthday rule.”
For example, you have the right if you have a Plan F to switch to another Medicare Supplement company Plan F with NO medical questions asked and no pre-existing conditions. Feel free to call us around your birthday and we’ll see if you can save some money by switching companies. You can also schedule a phone call with us here.
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