Now, every year Medicare has this
annual enrollment period, the dates are the same, pretty well etched in stone.
October 15th through December 7th
Welcome to Medicare School Daily, where we help you understand Medicare,
save money,
avoid making mistakes, and above all else,
get the most out of your Medicare benefits.
Now, today's topic is fixing a mistake that you made during the annual
enrollment period.
And so what I want to do is I want to talk about the decisions that you make
and then and then how you can fix those if you have made a wrong decision.
So the decision we're making during the annual enrollment period.
Number one, we're switching drug plans.
There are times when people move from year to year
they're taking either more meds or less meds
and they may want to switch a prescription drug plan.
Now, the good news about switching drug plans,
these are the dates, of course, but you don't have to medically qualify.
So if your meds have changed up or down or you're no longer happy
with the plan or the premium,
then you can move from one drug plan to another drug plan.
And that that new plan has to take you as long as that plan is in your zip
code, and you're eligible for Medicare, you can pick up that new drug plan.
Drug plans are written for one calendar year.
So they always terminate December 31.
But we have to make the decisions during this seven week period
so that the new plan would then kick in January the one of the following year.
All right.
So we can switch drug plans now.
Also, we can switch advantage plans.
Remember, half of all people on Medicare are going to get a supplemental plan
and the other half are getting advantage plans.
These are called your C plans or your replacement plans.
And so they're very similar to the drug plan in that during the October 15th
December seven dates, we can change advantage companies advantage plans.
And we do that and we can do that without medically qualifying
there's no health questions ask as long as it's available
in your service area where you live and you're eligible for Medicare
A and B, then you can switch your advantage plans during this time.
Thirdly,
there are people that are on advantage
plans that decide they
no longer want to be an advantage.
They want to move to a supplemental plan.
And again, we must make that move during this period of time,
October 15th through December 7th.
And one of the time we get we can do this.
But this is someone on the advantage plan wants to move to a supplemental plan
Now here's the rules, though.
If you've been on the advantage plan more than a year,
if you're going to make this kind of a switch,
you actually have to medically qualify to make that move.
In other words, that supplemental company
you want to go with, they have the right to underwrite you.
So we're going to have to ask you during this switch
about 25 or 30 health questions.
We're going to have to check your medications
what you're taking now and what you took
in the last 24 months.
So they're checking you out medically.
They have to get a statement from your doctor to clarify
certain health issues,
but you're going to have to medically qualify to make that switch.
And then if we do make that switch and we can get approved,
then we can actually add a drug plan to your coverage
because your drug plan on the advantage was part of the package
but when you have a supplemental plan, it's not it's gonna have to
be a separate plan.
There's usually 15 to 30 different plans to choose from.
Now, here's a real key issue.
A lot of rookie agents mess this up.
If someone wants to make this kind of a switch,
what we want to do is you have to apply for your supplemental plan.
You don't want to do this last minute.
You'd rather do it up here because there's so many applications
coming through
that as we approach December 7th, there's sometimes
people are coming in last minute and we can't get them to underwriting.
All right. So you want to do this early on.
And the other thing you have to remember is that with this
this kind of a switch, we're going advantage to supplemental plan.
We will not
cancel it or have you cancel your advantage plan.
Until we first have approval
on that supplemental plan, because if we cancel that
during these dates, it's going to knock it out of the system.
So first, we won't get approval.
Then once we have approval, then we actually write the drug plan.
That drug plan will automatically kick that advantage plan out December 31.
And then your new coverage will start January one.
All right. So that's the switching there.
Well, actually, let's say you're on a supplemental plan,
and for whatever reason, maybe your financial
financial situation has changed or whatever,
and you decided that you would like to go on to an advantage plan again
during these dates and only these dates, you have this seven week window
where you can get off the sup and pick up any advantage plan
that's going to be in your service area tied to your physical address.
And there's usually, oh, anywhere from 15 to probably 40 plans to look at. So
there's a lot of we can make the switch now that supplemental plan you're on.
You would not cancel that until effective
1-1 of the next year or December 31st midnight.
We're going to cancel that plan.
You would
and then the advantage plan would go into effect January one
because they're written for a calendar year.
All right.
So these are the decisions that we're making now.
Let's suppose we've made a mistake, something we made that decision.
We regret that.
So what can we do and what can we not do during this period of time?
So now
the annual
election period is over, and now we come into another opportunity
where you may be to make some switches
called the open enrollment period, or we use the acronym OEP.
Now, this is very specific.
It's tied to the first quarter of the year, as you can see, January
one to March 31.
What can you do?
Well, if you're on an advantage plan that you selected to go into effect
January one and for whatever reason, you decide that was not a good decision,
that you should have gone on a different advantage plan.
Or maybe you just found out last minute the doctor is no longer in the network
or the hospital or you want to go to is no longer in the network.
So during this first quarter, you can move advantage plan
to advantage plan again as long as in your service area
and there's no health questions required whatsoever.
You can make the switch now.
You can only make the switch one time during this first quarter.
If I make that decision that I'm unhappy in January,
I can set up a new advantage plan to go effective February 1st.
If I make the decision in February, it goes into effect March one, if i make it in
March it will go into affect during the month of April.
So that coverage always starts the next month.
So that's advantage. Advantage.
No health questions asked you also can drop an advantage plan
during this sweep.
You decided, I don't really want to be on a page plan.
I want to return to original Medicare and B, which means Medicare
and B is going to pay first.
And when you make this switch, then you're certainly going to want some kind
of a supplemental plan to have A and B by itself is very, very risky.
And so you'll get a supplemental plan.
There's ten possible plans.
Most people get an F, a G, or an N plan.
Now, keep in mind, if I dropped my advantage,
then you're probably going to
have to medically qualify to actually add that supplemental plan.
And if you can't qualify for that, I would not make that switch.
I just keep my advantage plan.
But if you can make the switch and pick up a supplemental plan
and you can get through underwriting, remember 25, 30 health
questions, check your medications, get a statement from your doctor.
If we can make it through that process, then we'll add a drug plan
that's separate, and that drug plan will automatically kick out
that advantage plan.
All right.
So that's what we can do during the open enrollment period.
But here's what you can't do.
Very important
you're not going to be switching your drug plan during the first quarter
of the year.
Drug plan switches have to occur October 15th through December 7th.
And those new plans kick in January one.
And that's your plan for 12 months.
So you cannot switch drug plans between October.
I mean, after January one, you're just you're on that plan.
So this open enrollment period does not apply to prescription drug plans,
nor does it
allow you to drop a supplemental plan and pick up an advantage plan.
Remember, now I can actually do this, but just not do this during these dates.
If I want to drop myself and good advantage, I've got to do that
only during October 15th to December 7th.
But I cannot do that during this first quarter of the year.
If you have a supplemental plan and you drop that, then you have nothing
but A and B, and so this is something that is simply not possible.
All right.
And so those are the things that you can do.
And again, we do have some limited options if you have made a mistake.
And we'd certainly be happy to give you more information about that.
Hey, thanks so much for watching the video,
and I do hope that it was helpful.
Now if you feel like
you need to learn more about Medicare
to make sure you're making the right Medicare decision,
really the best way and the easiest way to do
that is to go to MedicareSchool.com.
That's MedicareSchool.com,
and you'll be given the opportunity to be able
to click on Get the Free Workshop.
We call that the essentials workshop
and I do all the teaching.
And there you'll learn all the ins and outs of Medicare
to make sure that you have an accurate
and thorough understanding of how Medicare works.
The second thing you can do
is click where it says, talk to a Medicare guide,
and there
you can actually set up a time
where you can discuss your situation
with a Medicare guide.
They'll explain all your options
and actually even walk you
through the enrollment process as well,
if that's what you need to do.
And so go to MedicareSchool.com,
watch the workshop or talk to a Medicare guide.
It would be our privilege to assist you further.