The Medicare Prescription Drug Plan (Part D) Annual Open Enrollment begins October 15 and runs through December 7, 2019. This is the period when you are allowed to change your Medicare Prescription Drug Plan for the 2020 plan year or, if eligible, enroll in a plan for the first time.
2020 Update: Next year there will be thirty-two plans available, two more plans than this year. The recent accusation of Aetna drug plans by WellCare will result in some plan name changes. The trend is for additional lower premium plans; six more plans will be priced under $25 a month. However, the number of plans with deductibles will increase too. Next year only five plans will have a $0 deductible, the cheapest being $74.20. Ten plans will see premium decreases with seventeen having increases. The parameters within the Part D plan benchmark design will increase slightly (deductible, initial coverage, donut-hole and catastrophic level) resulting in a potentially higher out-of-pocket.
It is very important to review your plans renewal material and confirm that your current medications will be covered next year. Changes to your plan’s deductible, copays and premium will also be communicated to you in the renewal packet.
If you would like our assistance in evaluating all plans, we again will be offering our advisory services. For our evaluation, recommendation and enrollment assistance, we charge a $175 fee per evaluation. (Note: we do not sell market or represent any Part D drug plans).
If you would like our assistance, please request our Prescription Drug form and we’ll send you one. Once you have completed the form, mail it to the address below along with a check for $175 payable to OnlyHealthInsurance. We will then contact you with results, a recommendation, and assist with enrollment as necessary.
Important for you do-it-yourselfers! It will be important to get an early start this year. Medicare has changed their Plan Finder tool significantly. It offers a much more user friendly experience however some key information and functionality have been removed. We will be supplementing information from other resources (some are listed in the self-help section below), to complete our reviews and make our recommendations.
We appreciate the opportunity to assist you.
Medicare offers free resources to assist you in evaluating plans and enrollment:
- www.medicare.gov – Using their Plan Finder (www.medicare.gov/find-a-plan) you can enter your medications and preferred pharmacies, review all plan options, and enroll online.
- Call 1-800-633-4227 – Medicare representatives are available 24/7 to provide free analysis, recommendations and enrollment over the phone.
- www.q1medicare.com – Best private website on the subject of Medicare Part D. This site has the most information available with tools to compare plans, search the drug formulary of any plan and review star ratings.