Should You Change Medicare Advantage Plans?
What you need to know when considering a change to Medicare Advantage Plans
Should you change Medicare Advantage plans?
Maybe. We feel you should ask this question each year between October 15 AND March 31.
Why? Because some of these plans continue add coverages at little or no cost to the plan member. If these coverages add value to you and your choice of doctors/hospitals/other providers remains the same and the out of pocket cost to use plan services is lower/the same as your current plan you may be better off to change plans.
If you relate to points below you may be better off if you change Medicare Advantage plans.
The points to consider are:
1. Your monthly premium is above $70 and you are concerned about your copays and ‘out of pocket limit’ rising each year.
2. You learned other plans have much lower cost for the prescription medications you take.
3. You moved to a zero premium plan and later found out the plan only has one major hospital in it’s network and your selection of physicians is much smaller than you thought.
4. Not all of your medications are covered by your plan.
5. You learned other Medicare Advantage plans that now include preventive and comprehensive dental included in the plan’s monthly premium and yours does not.
6. Your current plan requires permission to see a specialist. You want a plan without this requirement.
7. You know the government no longer gives insurance companies with a star rating below 4 any bonus money and are concerned your premium and copays are higher because of your plan’s 3 or 3.5 star rating.
8. Your plan will not be available next year (you will get a notice from your insurance company if this happens to you).
9. The doctors and/or hospitals you prefer are no longer in your plan’s network.
10. You did not really explore your options before enrolling in a Medicare Advantage plan. You just enrolled in a plan your neighbor, friend, or was offered by your group insurance carrier before retiring.
11. You did not know about or understand your options with the 10 different Medigap (Medicare Supplement) plans.
If this interests you, we encourage you to learn more about Medigap policies and carrier differences and then call us.
12. You didn’t understand that with Original Medicare you can use any doctor/hospital that accepts Medicare and you are feeling the network restrictions of your Medicare Advantage plan is limiting your provider choices.
13. Your Medicare Advantage plan has extra features not covered by Medicare and you are not using them. You are concerned your premium is higher because of these features.
14. You just learned about 2 Medigap plans with an out of pocket limit much lower that your Medicare Advantage plan AND these plans let you use any doctor/hospital in the US that accepts Medicare.
15. You feel it is unfair to have to be restricted on you choice of doctors and hospitals.
16. You just learned about the article found here and are wondering if you made the right choice.