So you're getting ready to start using Medicare as your primary insurance.
It doesn't matter if you are just turning sixty five or if you are over sixty five and have been
enrolled in your employer group health plan, starting Medicare is a big deal.
It's normal to be a little anxious. The enrollment rules and timelines can be confusing, and a
lot of people make at least one mistake in the process.
And that is what I'm here to help you avoid.
In this video I'm gonna go through the five most common mistakes that we see people make when
starting Medicare and how easy it is to avoid them
even long after you've seen this video and forgotten some of the details.
Now the fifth mistake that I'll be talking about here in this video not only happens with people
that are new to Medicare but we've even seen it happen with people who have had their Medicare
for a year or two and really should know better.
So let's get started
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If we haven't met yet I'm Matthew Claassen and CEO of Medigap Seminars dot org.
Where one of the country's premier insurance agencies specializing in Medicare.
In fact, I'm licensed in every state except Massachusetts.
Sorry Massachusetts, and our services are free to you the consumer.
So please reach out to us for expert guidance.
You'll be glad you did. Let's get started with a very
common mistake, missing an enrollment period.
This is a mistake I blame entirely on Medicare and its patchwork structure.
Now why is this a common error? Because there are a gazillion different enrollment periods.
The mistake of missing or misunderstanding…your initial enrollment period is not
uncommon…There's one initial enrollment
period for original Medicare that's Medicare a and b.
But you don't have to get them both at the same time because for most people there is
technically no enrollment period limitation for part a.
Confused already? I know.
So there's another enrollment period for Medicare supplement plans with a
different time frame than any other enrollment period.
And then there's another enrollment period for Medicare Part D
prescription drug plans and Medicare Advantage plans.
Now this is critically important to understand if you are over sixty five and leaving your
employer group plan And that's part of mistake number three that I'll talk about shortly.
To help you understand let's start with this basic concept.
Everyone must enroll in Medicare during their initial enrollment period
, unless they have other creditable health insurance.
Your initial enrollment period is a seven month window around your sixty fifth birthday month.
Creditable health insurance is typically employer group coverage with an employer who has at
least twenty employees…Also, you must be actively
working past age sixty five for any insurance to be creditable.
Insurance as a retirement benefit…doesn't count.
Neither does COBRA I have a great one page flyer on creditable coverage that's linked…below,
and you should also be able to find it linked to it above my left shoulder…So you must
actively or manually enroll in Medicare, usually through the Social
Security website or a local Social Security Office.
The only people who are automatically enrolled in Medicare are those who have received their
Social Security income for at least four months prior to their initial enrollment period or are
under sixty five and on a social security disability income for at least twenty four months.
So to recap what I just said, everyone must apply for Medicare during their initial enrollment
period unless they choose to retain creditable
employer health insurance working past age sixty five.
If you are receiving social security income, you'll be placed on Medicare automatically.
The same if you're under sixty five and have reached your twenty fourth consecutive month of
disability income…So let's look more closely at your initial enrollment period I mentioned
your initial enrollment period is a seven month window around and including your birthday month.
The exception to this is if your birthday is on the first day of a month.
In that case your Medicare starts the first day of the month before your birthday.
And do you have to memorize all of this? No. I have a free online calculator…that will show
you your initial enrollment period.
Just go to medigapseminars dot org…Put your mouse cursor over the
resources menu and click…Medicare calculator…and you find your Medicare
initial enrollment period by inputting your birthday.
For example if your birthday is December fifteenth nineteen fifty nine, you find the year
nineteen fifty nine first, then the month, then the day.
Your Medicare start date in this case would be December first two thousand twenty four.
You can enroll in Medicare part A and part B
anytime between September one and March thirty one.
After that if you've missed your initial enrollment period, you must wait for the annual
general enrollment period, which is from January one through March thirty one.
The first calendar quarter of every year…I mentioned earlier the exception of when your
birthday falls on the first day of a month.
So we go back and we change the birthday to December
first, you can see that everything moves forward by one month.
Your Medicare start date changes to November one, and your
enrollment period is from August one through February twenty eighth.
Again this is on my website medigap seminars dot
org under the resources menu tab.
Last point on this is that you are not required to enroll in both
Medicare part a and part b at the same time.
For most people Medicare Part A inpatient coverage has already been
paid for through payroll taxes during your working years.
That's what the Medicare deduction from your paycheck covered.
Because you've already paid for Part A You can enroll in Part A at
any time during or after your initial enrollment period.
A word of caution. After your initial enrollment period or after actually your your start
date for Medicare, uh Part B…When you enroll in Medicare Part A it can start
retroactively…either six months…
or back to your Medicare start date whichever is soonest.
I have more on that in your Medicare enrollment video
that I've done in I'll try to stick that up here too.
So let's look at the second common Medicare enrollment mistake.
The second common mistake is the one that can cause you the most harm, and it's enrolling in
Medicare Part B when you don't have to.
Now this has to do with people who are continuing to work past their initial
enrollment period and have employer group coverage.
The general rule is to never That's a big word but absolutely true.
Never enroll in Medicare Part B. Until such time as you wish Medicare to be your
primary insurance…and your discontinuing…
creditable employer coverage…Here's why.
On the day your Medicare Part B becomes active, a one hundred and eighty day countdown starts.
That's a one hundred and eighty day window where you can apply for and are guaranteed to receive
any Medicare supplement available to you with no health questions asked.
You're guaranteed to get any Medicare supplement plan that is available to you in your area at
the insurance company's…best price.
After that one hundred and eighty day window has closed, In all but a few states the insurance
company will require you to go through medical underwriting.
And then they can deny you coverage or increase your price based on your medical history.
Most Medicare agents will refer to the Medicare supplement initial enrollment period as a six month window.
And that's not entirely accurate.
It's one hundred and eighty calendar days which can be a few days short of six months.
We've seen this become an issue a number of time with people
who procrastinate until the very last day.
You see all but a few insurance companies hold you to that one hundred and eighty day limit.
So please don't wait until the last minute. The enrollment
period is not six calendar months It's a hundred and eighty days.
Now I have a free calculator on my website where you can see your Medicare supplement initial
enrollment period, and it's in the same area the same drop down menu.
Under the resources tab that the initial enrollment calculator is found.
So this time, just input your Part B start date, and it will show you when your
Medicare Supplement initial enrollment window closes…The mistake we see time and time
again are people who have enrolled in Medicare a and b and continue with employer group coverage.
Then years later they wanna retire and they begin to shop for Medicare
supplement…and learn they can't get one.
Unfortunately something happened medically that
disqualifies them from acquiring a Medicare supplement.
Remember it's past that one hundred and eighty day window, so they're required to qualify medically.
So now because they chose to get their group coverage instead of a supplement, their only
choice is to just keep Medicare A and B by itself and add a prescription drug plan or trade
in their Medicare a and b for a Medicare Advantage Plan.
That's it. They lost their option to add a Medicare supplement.
Thankfully there are a few states where if you make this mistake the state allows you to get a
guaranteed issue Medicare supplement plan.
But your choices are limited and only a few states
actually have a law that requires this privilege.
This next mistake that I'm going to cover is surprisingly
common and can lead to a permanent penalty.
Before I cover that I would like to ask you a small favor.
If you haven't yet please click the like button below and subscribe to my channel and be among
the first to see my new Medicare videos in
addition to seeing the many videos I've already produced.
There's a lot of information and I know you'll find it useful as you enroll
in and use your Medicare in the years ahead.
So let's look at mistake number three Now mistake number three is kind of related to the mistake
we just covered It's regarding those who choose to continue with
employer coverage after their initial enrollment period.
But this one leaves people without a part deep subscription drug plan.
The mistake is thinking that because they have a hundred and eighty days your six months from
the start of Medicare Part B, to choose a Medicare supplement plan without medical underwriting
, that they also have a hundred and eighty days to choose a Part
D prescription drug plan or Medicare Advantage Plan.
And that is not the case. To best understand and remember this I want you to remember this one
feature of Medicare enrollment periods.
When we look at periods…after your initial enrollment period, The Medicare
Supplement initial enrollment period is linked to the start
date of Medicare Part B outpatient coverage.
That's the one hundred and eighty day or six month window we spoke of earlier.
Conversely, Medicare Part D prescription drug plans and Medicare Advantage Plan enrollment
periods are linked to either your Medicare Part A in patient care start date, or the
last day of creditable employer health care coverage.
Typically you have sixty three days from the end of you or your spouse's employer group health
care to enroll in either an advantage plan or stand alone Part D prescription drug plan.
Neither plan…ever has medical underwriting…They
just have a strict limitation as to when you can apply.
You must have a valid enrollment period to apply for either a Part
D prescription drug plan or a Medicare Advantage Plan.
You do not have…or need an annual enrollment period for a Medicare supplement plan.
You can enroll in a Medicare supplement plan at any time Three hundred and sixty five days a year.
Of course you may be required to qualify medically outside of your initial enrollment period.
Just remember, only Medicare Supplement plans have a six month enrollment period.
Everything else is closer to two months…The fourth mistake is really quite simple.
On occasion we see people who have delayed their Medicare only
because they wanted to wait until they collect the Social Security Income.
In some cases they believe that they can't get their Medicare without also starting their Social
Security…Medicare and Social Security are not linked.
You can have Medicare and not Social Security or Social Security and not Medicare.
Most people become eligible for Medicare as they turn sixty five.
You cannot get Medicare under sixty five unless you're permanently disabled.
But you can collect your Social Security starting at age sixty two up to age seventy.
So social security and Medicare are not linked.
Don't mess up the enrollment in one for the other.
Our last common mistake happens with people who are in their first few years of Medicare as much
as it does with people who are new to Medicare.
In fact many insurance companies encourage this
confusion in order to generate more business.
So here's what's going on. Every year between October fifteenth and December seventh Pearl
Harbor Day, is Medicare's annual open enrollment or also called the annual election
period sometimes just referred to as AEP.
This enrollment period is only for people who are past their Medicare initial enrollment period
, and already have either a Medicare Advantage Plan or a stand alone Part D
prescription drug plan or want to get one.
So this is important. If you're new to Medicare and your initial enrollment period is upcoming
or concurrent with the annual enrollment period
, then the annual enrollment period is not relevant to you.
It's only for people who are past their initial enrollment period, and have either an advantage
plan or a Part D prescription drug plan.
Or again they want to get one. So why is this?
The reason for the annual enrollment period is to give those enrolled in Medicare the
opportunity to research the costs and benefits of next year's plans, then choose the ones best
suited for them In other words, It's only for those
Medicare plans with changing benefits on an annual basis.
Medicare Advantage Plans and Part D prescription drug plans are
annual plans that operate on a calendar year basis.
Their benefits and costs can change every year.
Every feature of your Medicare Advantage Plan or Part D
prescription drug plan can change every year.
Now contrast this to a Medicare supplement plan Medicare supplement plan benefits never change.
Ever. The benefits are written into Social Security Law.
In order to make a change to a supplement plan feature or benefit,
it will take an act of congress signed by the president.
Even then, it cannot change existing plan benefits
only plans yet to be purchased at some point in the future.
And that is why there's no need for a Medicare supplement annual enrollment period.
You can change your supplement plan at any time.
You're simply required to qualify medically through a medical underwriting.
Conversely, you never have medical underwriting or medical questions with Advantage plans and
Part D plans but you can only change those plans during select enrollment periods.
So what is all the hype with the millions of dollars in TV commercials during this annual
enrollment period, this is important to understand.
It's because insurance companies want you to change plans.
Insurance companies insurance agents won't make a
sale unless you decide to change plans.
If they can convince you to make a change they have the opportunity to make money.
Keep in mind the annual enrollment period has nothing to do with your Medicare supplement plan.
You do not have to do anything with your Medicare supplement that
policy will simply continue until you decide to change it.
Now personally I believe that you should always check your advantage plan and part d
prescription drug plan benefits every year.
You do that to protect yourself from changes that may increase your costs or reduce your benefits.
But you're not required to make any change. If you do nothing, your plan will simply roll over
to next year's versions of your existing plan.
So there you have it Common mistakes that are easy to avoid.
Just remember, you can research your Medicare initial enrollment period on my website
medigapseminars dot org under the resources
tab the same with your Medicare supplement initial enrollment period.
Also remember your Medicare supplement enrollment period is always linked to your Part B start date.
Reach out to medigap seminars dot org If we can help you with
any of your specifics and help you with your situation.
I'm Matthew Claassen at medigap seminars dot org.
Thank you for watching
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