so it's medicare open enrollment time again and i don't really know why medicare does it this way
it only creates just a massive amount of confusion about what to do and what not to do during our
medicare open enrollment period not only that it fills our mailbox with a bunch of junk mail
from medicare advantage companies also has our phone ringing off the hook with people
trying to sell us things during medicare open enrollment so i'm gonna go through real quick
try and get rid of the confusion tell you what you should do and really more importantly what you
shouldn't do during medicare open enrollment i'm keith armbr founder of medicare on video i help
people across the country make the right medicare choices and i can absolutely help you now this
time of year is when it just gets crazy i mean it's amazing we have so many people in medicare
and during medicare open enrollment it gives kind of free license to sales people to try and sell
you into things that you may not really want to go into so let's understand medicare open enrollments
also called annual election period so not only is it confusing it has two different names so
you're going to see a lot of tv commercials and of course this year we have elections going on as
well so our tvs are only going to be election commercials politics and medicare and same
with everything in our mailbox from now through november so medicare open enrollment runs from
october 15th to december 7th now that's the window that you have if you want to make a
change you have to initiate that change within that window that change would then take effect
on january 1st so that's the first thing to understand the time frame october 15th to december
7th is when you need to do something if you need to do something and then it will take effect on
january first so let's first talk about who needs to do something during medicare open enrollment
and the reason they have done this in my opinion is for people on medicare advantage plans
that are unhappy that they found out that their medicare advantage plan is not everything that
they thought it was going to be and that happens quite a bit so this gives the ability to change
during open enrollment period without any medical questions so the people that want to take
advantage of medicare open enrollment are people on medicare advantage plans and people that have
a medicare drug plan now the reason drug plans are in there is because drugs can change during
the year obviously if something comes up and you're taking a different set of medications
one drug plan might cover it better than another drug plan so medicare has set that up to make it
easy for you to change to that better drug plan if it fits your needs so those are really the two
main avenues on medicare open enrollment are people with a medicare advantage plan
and people with a medicare drug plan that gives you an open enrollment period to
make changes if you need to now people that have a medicare supplement plan medicare open
enrollment doesn't apply you don't really need to do anything with a medicare supplement plan
if you want to make a change you could do that anytime during the year there are some caveats
to doing that like medical underwriting in most states some states don't have that but medicare
supplements don't fall under the medicare open enrollment period so if you're a client of mine
you likely have a medicare supplement you're on a original medicare a and b with a medicare
supplement you don't need to do anything with that supplement however a lot of times it's it's still
a good time to shop because if we can get a lower price for the same plan that makes a lot of sense
too but it is a crazy time of year to do that shopping really makes a lot more sense to do it in
january when it's super quiet in medicare then it's just easier to get things done but that is
really where you are now with a medicare drug plan if you're on a supplement you have a medicare drug
plan if your medications have changed then you likely want to shop and see if you can
get a plan that covers better the medications that you currently take if you still have what
you had last year and it's pretty basic stuff and you have a pretty basic medicare drug plan
probably best to just leave it where it is so you don't have to actually do anything
but medicare advantage is the big one so a lot of folks get into a medicare advantage plan
they find out that it's either much too restrictive or their doctors not in network
or their hospital that they want to go to is not in network or if they travel a lot they don't have
coverage outside of their service area it can be a whole different set of things medicare advantage
is the one that you absolutely want to take advantage of medicare open enrollment period
now a lot of people on medicare advantage during that they want to come back
to original medicare and get a medicare supplement plan for the flexibility and the
freedom and the no networks and all that good stuff with a medicare supplement plan
it can be done this is the time to do it but there are again some caveats most states you
have to qualify to get a medicare supplement plan so we want to do this early if you want to get out
of your medicare advantage plan and you want to come back to original medicare we simply take an
application there's a list of medical questions and as long as you're no to all the questions
it shouldn't really be too difficult it's all big stuff like cancer and parkinson's and copd
so if you're in relatively good health you likely can get out of your medicare advantage plan get
back into original medicare with a supplement and again you have to do all this between october 15th
and december 7th and then it would take effect on january 1st so again it's a crazy time of year
there's so much going on and it's very difficult to get to everybody to get it done especially to
get through underwriting if we need to go through underwriting instead of taking a couple of days
it can take a couple of weeks so again we want to do it early in october if possible
early november for sure it can be done later there's some other enrollment periods after
medicare open enrollment but again we want to make it as easy as we can so medicare open enrollment
october 15 to december 7th takes effect on january 1st the people that want to do something
mostly anyone on a medicare advantage plan either you want to find a better medicare advantage plan
or you want to get out of your medicare advantage plan and come back to original medicare with a
supplement that's the time to do it if you're on a medicare drug plan with a supplement
then if your medications have changed significantly then it makes a good it
makes a lot of sense to shop and see if we can find a better solution for your current drug
plans people with a medicare supplement you can do it any time of the year you know this is not
really the best time to do it but still we want to shop and my other website medicarepricecheck.com
makes it easy that we can shop every year make sure we have the best price on our plan g our
plan n whatever it may be and we'll take it from there so that gives you a pretty clear overview
of medicare open enrollment i hope we survive all the mail i hope we survive all the tv commercials
and then we'll get into the holidays right after that so i hope you found all this helpful
stay tuned right now i'll show you how to download my free book medicare made clear you can have it
for free download it on your computer it's a great resource to have hope you have a fantastic day
thank you for taking the time to watch my video i hope you found it very helpful couple
of other things that you'll find very helpful is first download a copy of my free book medicare
made clear i put a lot of time a lot of effort into this book you'll find it very helpful for
everything that you need for medicare now and in the future it has videos in the book has all the
links that you need for signing up and everything else that you'll need going forward so take just
a minute go to medicareonvideo.com forward slash free book you can download it right now and save
it on your computer you'll have it for now and in the future and then down the road when it's time
to renew your medicare supplement plan we always want to shop around so every year it makes sense
to do a medicare price check and i have a website specific to that www.medicarepricecheck.com
where we will compare your current plan and see if we get the same plan at a lower price
and a lot of times we can do that so it makes sense to visit medicarepricecheck.com every year
we'll do a quick comparison let you know if it makes sense and then we take it from there hope
you found all this helpful have a fantastic day hey don't go anywhere these are some of my most
recent videos right here you can also find the link right below this video to download my book
medicare made clear absolutely free you can also subscribe to my channel right here
so please download my book watch some videos subscribe to the channel have a great day