Medicare open enrollment for parts C and D ends on Sunday, December 7.
Scott Minea, Executive Director of the state’s Health Insurance Assistance Program (Missouri SHIP), said for those already enrolled, now’s the time to make changes.
“For switching your Part D drug plan, this is the time of year you can make changes,” he told Missourinet. “Once December 7th happens, then you are in what you’re in for the coming year for your drug plan.”
The open enrollment period is for both newcomers and current Medicare members wanting to make changes to their coverage.
Minea said most people make changes to their Medicare plans during fall open enrollment, which began October 15th.
“In fact, for us, open enrollment contains about 40% of our activity for the whole year. So, we’re more than four times as busy right now than we are all the rest of the year,” he said. “It’s definitely a chaotic, quick time frame to get a lot of things done for a lot of people.”
Minea added that there’s a separate Medicare Advantage open enrollment period that runs from January 1 through March 31. As for which Medicare plan is the right one, Minea said it depends on the person.
“Medicare is not at all a ‘one size fits all,’ and in fact if your neighbor tells you that they’re on this kind of Medicare, they may or may not be on anything related to what you have available to you,” he said. “There are so many parts to Medicare and different subsets of different parts – that’s why you kind of need someone to help you navigate that experience.”
Unfortunately, Minea said the Missouri SHIP office is all booked up for the current open enrollment period and has no more available slots for people wanting guidance on making any changes to coverage before Sunday’s deadline. He recommends that anyone who needs help should visit Medicare.gov.
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