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. Now, today's
topic is fixing a mistake that you made during the annual enrollment period. Now, as you
know, Medicare has an annual enrollment period every year that's October 15th through December
7th. We have seven weeks where we can switch plans. And I just want to do a quick reminder
of what can be done during the open enrollment period as people make switches. Number one,
you can switch your prescription drug plan, any drug plan that's in your market, which
is typically your county or your zip code. If that's available in that area, then you
can switch from one plan to another. No health questions asked whatsoever. You can also switch
advantage plans. So if you're on one advantage plan, and you want to go to another one. No
problem. As long as it's in your market, in your area, then you can switch that advantage
plan, providing you do not have end-stage renal disease. Remember, end-stage renal disease
is the only health question that is ever asked of someone who wants to get an advantage plan
or switch advantage plans. If you have end-stage renal, you can not get or switch advantage
plans. But during the seven weeks we can switch, we can also if we’re on an advantage plan,
and we would like to go into a supplemental plan. We can also make the switch during this
particular point in time.
Now, remember, if you make the switch, you usually have to medically qualify to pick
up that supplemental plan, but this is the time we do it. And then lastly, if you're
on a supplemental plan, and you don't want to be on that, you like maybe that the advantage
plans in your market, you can make that switch again as long as you have end-stage renal
disease during those dates. And if I make any switches of these types of plans during
these seven weeks, the new plans are going to go into effect January 1 of the following
year. But let's suppose that I do make one of these switches, and I made a mistake. I'm
disappointed or I regret what I've done. Medicare knows this is going to happen, and they do
make provision. So they are going to make an allowance for you to fix some of the mistakes
that could be made during this time. And so let me explain how you correct those mistakes.
So the first thing is you're notice to fix these mistakes, we have to do so during the
first three months of the year, the very first quarter of the year. And this particular period
is called the open enrollment period, different than annual, remember annual was October 15th
through December 7th. So this is the first three months, the open enrollment period.
So let me show you what you can do and what you can't do during the open enrollment period.
Number one: what you notice can do is if you're on advantage plan and for whatever reason,
you're unhappy with that choice you made, maybe because your doctor ends up not being
in the network or you're unhappy with maybe it's an HMO and you’d rather be on a PPO
or some other reason, you can move from any advantage plan to another advantage plan during
this time as long as it's in your particular market. OK? No health questions asked whatsoever
except for the end-stage renal question. So anyone moving from an advantage to advantage
or from a supplemental to advantage, we always have to find out do you have end-stage renal
disease? Because if you have end-stage renal disease, you cannot switch advantage plans
or get a new one. So as long as that is not the issue, you can do this during the first
quarter. The other thing you can do is you can drop an advantage plan. Let's say if you
went on one for the first time or you've been on one for a while and you decide during this
first three months that you're unhappy with your advantage plan, you can drop the advantage
plan, disenroll from it, and you can return to original Medicare. Remember, this is the
A and B of Medicare, and you can without any health questions asked, you can add a drug
plan. However, remember, most people that take original Medicare A and B get a supplemental
plan. Those are the ones that have a different letter F plan, G plan, N plan.
Any supplemental plan that you would want, more than likely you're going to have to medically
qualify to be able to pick that plan up and add it to your coverage. OK? So you have to
medically qualify. So if you drop your advantage plan, return original Medicare, you may be
subject to underwriting, which means the underwriter has to approve your health conditions. Pre-existing
conditions are certainly going to come into play in that as well. OK? Anyway, so those
are the things that you can do during this first quarter. Now let me show you what you
can't do. Notice again I said, can't do. These are things you can't do during this quarter,
first quarter of the year. You cannot change prescription drug plans. So the prescription
drug plan that you selected during the annual enrollment period, October 15th - December
7th, is going to be your plan for the whole year. We cannot switch off that plan at all.
All right? So that's something we cannot do, nor if we have chosen to go with a supplemental
plan, can we stop that supplemental plan and then pick up an advantage plan. Now, we can
do this next year during the annual enrollment period, but we cannot do it during this first
quarter of the year. And so these are things that are just off limits to us during the
open enrollment period. So, yes, there is an opportunity for some mistakes to be corrected
and for us to get different plans. But these are things that we cannot do.