Welcome to Medicare School Daily, where we help you understand Medicare, save money,
avoid mistakes, and above all else, get the most out of your Medicare benefits. I've been
doing a series called Avoiding Medicare Mistakes. You all know that as we go on Medicare, Medicare
is very time sensitive. There's certain decisions and timelines and timeframes that we have
to live within. And so today I'm going to share with you one of the most critical time
periods that you had to live with, and that is called the open enrollment period for Medigap
policies. And so this is all about missing the six month pre-existing condition period.
We don't want you to miss this pre-existing condition period. It only lasts six months,
and so here's some instructions that I want to make sure you're real clear about. Number one,
we called this the Medigap open enrollment period. Now, notice, this doesn't say the
Medicare open enrollment period. Medicare does have an open enrollment period for the
entire Medicare population that is every year, October 15th through December 7th. And that
Medicare open enrollment period has to do with prescription drug plans and advantage
plans. Truly, it has nothing to do with what I'm talking about here, because this is your
open enrollment period. This is a time in which you go on Medicare, where you have this
Medigap open enrollment period where you can have any Medigap policy that you want. So
don't confuse your open enrollment period with the Medicare open enrollment period.
Again, that's drug plans and advantage plans. This has to do with you getting a supplemental
plan. So let me explain. First off, I want you to see that the B effective date
was when you enrolled in Medicare Part B. That's the big date. This is when that six
month time period begins. All right? So let me just give you a couple of quick examples.
This is a husband and wife I'm going to tell you about. The husband is John Smith, and John is going
to retire January 1, 2021. He's going to go on Medicare, completely retire, and he's going
to enroll into Medicare at 65. And so his A and B dates are January 1st, 2021. But what
really matters is the B date, because this B date is when this six month timeframe begins
to start. OK? And so he has six months here. So this is going to be 1/1/2021 all the way
to 6/30/2021. All right? That's that six month period of time. And so that means that his
period of time would be over after July the 1st. So these six months, he's in his open
enrollment period. But after 7/1/2021, this open enrollment period for a Medigap policy
has then terminated. It's expired. All right? So that's John's situation. Now let's talk
about his wife, Jane.
Now, Jane, his wife, decides that she is not going to retire yet, but she goes ahead and
enrolls into Medicare Part A. There's a lot of people who enroll into A. They enroll into A because they're
afraid they’re gonna be penalized. And frankly, there's a whole nother lesson on that that
I've done. But you will not be penalized if you keep working and you don't take Medicare
Part A. But she goes ahead and she enrolls in Medicare Part A and she keeps working.
So her A date when she turned 65 was January 1st, 2021, and she's going to work one year
later and then she's going to retire. So then she's going to enroll in Medicare Part B and
her B date is now going to be January 1st, 2022. So what's her timeline? For Medigap
open enrollment starts 1/1/2022, it'll go all the way to the end of June of 2022. During
that six month window, she has no underwriting required. And then, of course, after that
six months period is over, then she would have to go through underwriting to get a Medigap
policy. OK? So that's Jane's situation. So the whole point is it's the B date, your B
date that's going to determine this open enrollment period for your Medigap policy. And that's
what this second slide is showing. The emphasis is on this six month and six months only.
So during this period time, again, we have no underwriting required whatsoever. Now,
beyond that, now we have to go through underwriting. All right? And so the reason that's such a
big deal is this, folks, because after my six months is over, now I have to be approved
to be able to get a Medigap policy. If I do it during this period of time, regardless of my health
conditions, even if they're even serious pre-existing conditions, those are not an issue here. But
once I'm in my after the six months, now underwriting will be required. That means to get a Medigap
policy, any of them that you would like, now you have to medically qualify. The insurance
company's going to ask you anywhere from 20 to 25 health questions, they're going to check
all your medications to see what you're being treated for, and they may get a statement
from your doctor called an attending physician statement. And so now after that six months
is over, now an underwriter is going to have to approve you. And sometimes they say yes
and sometimes they actually decline the application. They must approve you here, but they don't
have to here. And that's why we're saying don't miss the six month pre-existing condition
period. If you want a Medigap policy, this is absolutely the most convenient time and
really the simplest time to get one of those policies, because after that you're
going to have to medically qualify.