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Do I need to renew my Medicare coverage every year?”
The answer is no; there is nothing that you have to do every single year to keep your Medicare coverage. If there is rate increase on Part A or Part B (Original Medicare), you’re going to find out don’t worry about that. A good insurance agent keeps you up to date on Medicare changes. On that same note, there are a couple of things that you might want to consider looking at. Again, a good agent will check on your policies yearly and do an annual Rate Review on both your Prescription Plan AND your Medicare Supplement.
A lot of folks don’t know this but IF you change even just one of your prescriptions throughout the year, you might have another Prescription plan option that could be better for you. That can be changed in the fall period between October 15 and December 7. Changes will take effect January 1. We do this every year with our clients. We just go to medicare.gov. We have a video about it of course but we go to www.medicare.gov. We input your fave pharmacy, your zip code, your specific prescriptions along with dosages and get the best 3 or 4 plans.
If you are unhappy with your Medicare Advantage Plan and want to get a Medicare Supplement, that fall period is the only time that you can do that so just keep that in mind.
Now it terms of your Medicare Supplement you’re not limited to any certain time frames. We handle Medicare Supplements 365 days a year. The most popular plans tend to be Plan F & Plan G. because they cover the most. So it’s always a good to have an independent agent take a look at that. Most people don’t realize that every single Plan G (as an example) is the exact same as every other Plan G on the market…. EXCEPT for price. What that means is that there might be another plan that is less expensive for you with the same exact benefits. This is how we regularly save people $700…$1000…or more PER YEAR with the exact same benefits. The average savings seems to be around $720/year.
You see many people don’t realize that Medicare protects you in terms of making the plans standardized (all the same). One Plan F is the exact same with another Plan F. Each state has about 25 or 30 different companies that are approved by Medicare. Medicare doesn’t force these companies to have the exact same premiums. They only make them offer the exact same benefits. So one Plan F from one company could be $50 difference, can be a $100 a month different or even more on a different company. It all depends on age, zipcode, general health.
So that’s just something that we check in with our clients with every single year at the 12 month renewal. We always want you to keep the most money in your pocket so we see if there’s any other options with the exact same benefits for a lower premium.
So again, you don’t have to change anything. But it’s smart to have someone check on your plan yearly for both the Drug plan AND the Medicare Supplement.
Thank you for checking out our article Do I need to Renew My Medicare Coverage yearly? Please feel free to call us if you have any questions about Medicare at all. We’re happy to help. (888) 506-7510 or if you’re like so many seniors that they’re just so confused and overwhelmed by Medicare, have a look at our 6-part Medicare mini course. . .