Halloween is over. Daylight Savings is gone for another year. The holidays are fast approaching. In fact, the days are flipping by faster than a calendar montage in an old black and white movie. This, I find, is what happens as I’ve moved to The Other Side of Sixty. Things get away from me because life is moving double-time.
I marked mid-October on my calendar back in August. I knew I wanted to review my Medicare coverage this year and the Annual Election Period runs from October 15 to December 7. We are now into November and I’ve only just begun my research.
In times past, I had the luxury of ignoring the whole question of navigating my Medicare choices.
My financial situation was such that I just signed on for the top of the line Supplemental, plus Drug coverage, from my provider and thought no more about it. That changed this year. I must look long and hard at what I’m paying for, what I’m getting, and whether I, in fact, need it all. Or need something else. In short, I’m one of the thousands of senior citizens who are reviewing their health and financial goals as we shop for a Medicare plan during this AEP.
I was totally ignorant about the differences between the different kinds of plans. In fact, I’m still not sure if Supplemental is different from Advantage. What I do know is that comparing my husband’s Advantage coverage and my what-ever-it’s-called coverage has revealed some shocking facts. For one, he pays much less than I do. For another, his drugs are covered. For a third–and this is a big one–he has access to a gym membership that I would die for but can’t afford.
When I saw the infographic that CignaHealthSpring created for those of us reviewing our Medicare coverage, I realized their tips spoke directly to me:
- Make a list of your priorities and use it to compare plans: Yes! I thought paying extra so that I wouldn’t be part of some HMO was important for me. I’m not sure what medical problems I’d have to have to make that true, but my primary care physician only refers me to doctors within his large network, and I chose him because he was part of that very medical group.
- Be sure your plan offers comprehensive preventive care benefits and use them: Oh, okay. I’m so so bad about this. I’ve had referrals from my PCP for a whole range of preventative care benefits and I procrastinate. If I’m going to change to an Advantage plan, I need to make sure those same benefits will be available to me.
- Know your network: I chose my network because they’re the people who saved my life when I had a ruptured cerebral aneurysm. It’s not just loyalty or that they have my complete records on line going back a decade or so; it’s also that they are one of the top hospital/medical network combos in the country. But, and here’s a big but, I now live on the other side of town from them. Will I still be able to stay within the same network if I change plans? And if I can’t, will that be a deal breaker for me–or can I find a network on this side of LA that would engender the same faith in me?
- Get rewarded for staying active: Yes! Yes! Yes! I want that gym membership. I can’t keep up with changes in my body and activity level that have come with being on The Other Side of Sixty. I need help!
- Use free resources: There are a number of entities with a stake in America’s seniors being well protected both medically and financially, and they’re offering a variety of free seminars, community and online resources. For example, the free Medicare information guide that I’m using is from Cigna-HealthSpring.
Everyone knows that this whole health care coverage issue is complicated. According to a 2014 Cigna survey, consumers are seeing the connection between health care costs and a secure financial future. In some ways, those of us who are on The Other Side of Sixty have it easier than those who are pre-Medicare. But there are still a lot of options and questions and decisions that we need to make, and we need to make them now, before the December 7, 2015 cutoff date.
That’s coming up faster than we think.
I was compensated by Cigna-HealthSpring for writing this post, but the opinions are all mine.
I wanted to get an advantage plan because it’s cheaper and seems easier; but for whatever reason my medical group doesn’t take the advantage plan of my ins. company, but they do take the supplemental plan — and I wanted to stay in my old medical group. So I have the supplemental plan. Go figure. It’s all just too complicated, if you ask me.
The end of my story is exactly the same, Tom. After promising I could say with my old medical group, the supplemental plan signed me up with a practice of Korean physicians that I never heard of. Methinks that somehow money is changing hands. I went back to the advantage plan too.