Happy New Year and for some of you it’s a new plan with new coverage. So, what now? What do you do with your new card? What happens to your old card? When will premiums increase? Together we can prevent errors and headaches with these five tips for navigating your Medicare benefit into a new year.
Tip 1:
If you made a change during Annual Enrollment by December 7th, you will have a new insurance card or cards, depending on what that change was. Make sure you have your new cards and that they are accurate. Once you have verified the card(s), you can discard your old cards but NOT your Medicare card. You will always keep that safe! If you did not make a change, you will not get new insurance ID cards. You will keep using the same cards.
Tip 2:
What cards do you carry and present to providers? If you have a supplement or Medigap plan with a stand-alone prescription drug plan, you will carry three cards and present them to the appropriate medical provider. You will present your Medicare card [red/white/blue card] as primary, your supplement card as secondary, and lastly, you will carry and present your prescription drug card. If you changed to or have an Advantage Plan, you will only need to carry one card. Advantage Plans are a ‘one stop shop’. Your one card will represent medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage. **Do not show your Medicare card to any provider when you have an Advantage Plan. I promise you, the billers in the office will screw it up!
Tip 3:
Make sure you present your new card or cards at the first appointment with any provider, pharmacy, lab or therapy team! They will need to update their system to bill correctly and minimize headaches for everyone.
Tip 4:
If you changed to an Advantage Plan, be sure you called and canceled your supplement or Medigap plan effective January 1st! The drug plan will automatically be canceled, but the supplement will not. It is your responsibility to notify them. Please don’t delay and have that premium automatically withdrawn from your bank account! We are trying to save you money here. Help me, help you!
Tip 5:
When and why are your premiums increasing? Premiums for supplements and prescription drug plans increase every year. For drug plans the increase is likely right away in January. For supplements, the increase in premium is sometimes in March and sometimes in May. And sometimes premiums increase more than once per year! Those increases are based on age in most cases, but in some cases they are based on community ratings due to previous claim history.
When in doubt, call your Independent Insurance Agent. Don’t have one? Get one as soon as possible! It costs you nothing and having an Agent can take away so much hassle and stress when navigating all things Medicare and Insurance related. Reach out to me at carrie@cdi-cares.com or check out my website www.cdi-cares.com