All right, so this means that you have a Supplemental plan
you went with one of the letter plans and most people either have an F
plan, a G plan or an N plan
So you have one of those plans.
And so what must you do or what can you do during the annual
enrollment period?
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 coverage.
Now, today's topic is switching supplemental plans during
Medicare's annual enrollment period.
That happens every year, October 15th through December 7th,
if you're satisfied with your supplemental plan, meaning you like it, you've
had it for a year or two, five, whatever, and you're very happy with the plan.
You don't have to do anything And the reason for that, folks,
is because supplemental plans are actually written for life.
They're lifetime policies.
The insurance company can never cancel that policy on you.
Other than non-payment.
All right.
So let's say you decide to relocate or you're, you know, aging and you're 90
95 years old or whatever.
They can't cancel because your age, let's say
you've had some real serious health issues and you've had some very high claims.
They can't cancel because of that either.
They can never cancel the policy except nonpayment of premium.
All right.
So if you like the supplemental plan nothing is required whatsoever
during the annual enrollment period.
You don't do a thing with your supplemental plan
because as you make your premium payments,
those things just continue to renew and renew, renew your entire life.
All right.
Now, let's suppose that you are on a supplemental plan
and you want to switch supplemental companies.
Let's say you're with ABC Insurance Company.
You want to switch to X-Y-Z or
Maybe say you're on a Plan F and you want to move to a G plan
or you're on a G plan.
You want to move to an N plan
if you're going to make any switch with supplemental plans.
There is really no timeframe where you have to do that
because you actually can do it any time you want, supplemental to supplemental,
any time you want. But here's what you got to remember.
Underwriting will be required in almost every state in the country.
And so once we start Medicare, we have this period of time for six months
of starting Medicare where there's no underwriting
but after six months of starting Medicare now, we gotta medically qualify
to switch supplemental plans, change companies or change letters.
And that underwriting means we're going to have to ask you.
25 30 health questions.
We're going to check the medications you take now
that you have taken the last 24 months to know what you're being treated for
and probably going to have to get a statement from your doctor.
That's what underwriting looks like.
All right. So that's not an automatic switch.
As long as you get through underwriting, you can make that switch
any time of the year.
Then let's suppose you're on a supplemental plan
and you decide that you want to go to an advantage plan.
Remember, when people go on Medicare, they have two options.
Supplemental plan or Advantage half choose Aupplemental plans, half choose advantage.
And so if you chose the supplemental plan and now you decided I want to try
one of these Advantage plans, you can make that switch only once a year.
And that is during the open enrollment period October 15th
through December 7th is the only time you can add an Advantage plan
and get off of your Supplemental plan.
So we have the seven week period of time we have to do that.
Now, remember, there's no health questions asked here.
So we don't make that switch.
As long as that advantage plan is in your area,
what's called a service area.
So it's all tied to your physical address, as long as it's available in that area
and you qualify for Medicare A
and B, then you can make that switch, no underwriting requirement.
And then lastly, let's suppose someone was on a separate plan
and they went to an advantage and they stayed on it for a period of time.
And now they want to go back to the supplemental plan.
They can actually do that during the first quarter of the year. Now,
this this period is called the open enrollment period.
So this means that I effective January one, I was on an advantage plan
and now I want to move back to a supplemental plan to original Medicare
A and B and get a supplemental plan and a drug plan.
I can make that move the first quarter of the year, January one to March 31.
Now, if you've been on that advantage plan for more than a year
and you want to move back to a supplemental plan again, same thing
you got to Medically qualify.
So we're going to have to have to ask you 25 to 30 health questions,
check your medications, get a statement from your doctor.
So you have to go through that process.
So just because you want to make that switch
back to a Supplemental plan doesn't mean you're going to get to do that.
If your health has changed or you have any kind of a serious health
issues that you're dealing with. All right.
So those are the things that you can do during the annual enrollment period.
And I hope this helps you because I know it can be very confusing.
Thanks so much for watching
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.