Your Insurance Guy, Avenue Insurance Planners, Liberty Lake, WA
Medicare's annual election period for a January 1st, 2015 effective date is October 15 - December 7th. You may qualify for a special election period based on your particular circumstances. Also depending if you are aging into Medicare for the first time in 2015 will also determine when you would be able to enroll in a Part D plan.
Aging into Medicare means three months prior and three months after your 65th birthday. At 65 you have some important decisions to make concerning medicare and medicare supplement plans including Part D. Also, if you have a significant change in your health or medication, and your current plan does not include your medication in it's formulary, there is period to make a change outside of the open enrollment period.
If you are turning 65 - you can enroll up to 3 months prior to your 65th birthday with the effective date of plan being effective the first of the month - of your birth month. If you enroll a bit after (you have up to 3 months after birth month to enroll with a guarantee issue) then it would be effective the first of the month following your enrollment. So let's say your birthday is in May: You can sign up for Medicare A & B, and your additional plan(s) Feb, March, April, May, June July and August. After that you are no longer guarantee issue and would need to wait till another enrollment period. NOW, if you are working full time and retire, this gives you yet another guarantee issue enrollment period at the month of retirement. (You still want to enroll in Medicare A & B up to 3 months before retirement - and then the additional plan(s) about 1-2 months before that start date of Medicare A & B.) If you are already enrolled in Medicare and would like to change your RX plan for 2015 then during the "Annual Enrollment" period, which is Oct 15th - Dec 7th 2014 - with an effective date of Jan 1 2015, then you would want to make sure to meet with your agent during this time period. Make sure you, or they, run your RX list through a comparison tool - such as Medicare.gov - to see which of the many plans may best fit your needs. Anyone enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan or a Supplement along with an RX plan will want to review your Advantage plan or your RX plan every year during this "Annual Enrollment" period as plans change and your prescriptions may have changed. Always search for what may fit your needs best. If you have a Supplement plan - you typically do not ever change this plan for another - there are exceptions.
Hope that clarifies.
Belinda
myseniorventure.com/answers
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Hope that clarifies.
Belinda
myseniorventure.com/answers