[Music]
it is the time of year again to start
thinking about your healthcare options
Medicare plans are currently open for
enrollment and it's important to know
what your options are and the resources
available and joining me to talk about
more is dr. Cara James director of the
office of minority health at the centers
for medicare and medicaid services thank
you so much for joining me thank you so
much for having me so when does Medicare
open enrollment end so Medicare open
enrollment ends on December 7th and
that's why we're coming now where
there's still time to talk to the more
than 1 million Medicare beneficiaries in
Virginia to encourage them to as you
said review their plan options at
medicare.gov or through our call center
to see what's best for them okay so is
that what they the beneficiaries what is
that the main thing they need to do is
just double-check and make sure that
they're doing the right plan so open
enrollment is a time to review plans
because as we know our health needs
change during the course of the year so
they may have different medications
their providers may no longer be
participating in the plan there may be
more plan options or cheaper options and
this year we're really excited because
plans are offering supplemental benefits
that can help with things such as
caregiver support or in-home services
and these are available through the
Medicare Advantage plan so if they go to
medicare.gov or call our call center at
but if someone is in traditional
Medicare and would like to enroll in a
Medicare Advantage plan that is an
option that's available for them but
again it's only available until December
7th okay so let's talk about the
importance why is it so important for
people to get in on the open enrollment
so it's so important to get in on the
open enrollment one because after the
deadline on December 7th they won't be
able to make another choice again until
next year's open enrollment it's also
important because as I mentioned there
are new supplemental benefits that are
available that maybe the Medicare
beneficiaries need such as those in-home
supports or caregiver services they may
find a cheaper option or their health
needs may have changed during the course
of the year and so the plans that we
want to make sure they pick the plan
that best meets their needs and they can
do that through a number of choices
including vocal help that's available
through Medicare gov where they can set
up an appointment and meet with someone
face-to-face to review their choices
what happens if somebody misses the
deadline so hopefully they won't miss
that December 7th deadline but if they
do miss the deadline then they may not
be able to change plans again until next
year's open enrollment which will start
in October okay doctor thank you so much
for joining us can you remind us of the
website one more time sure the website
is medicare.gov and we also have the
call center at