You don’t need to sign up for Medicare each year. However, you should review your Medicare health and prescription drug coverage and make changes if it no longer meets your needs or if you could lower your out-of-pocket expenses.
There are several things you should consider when choosing Medicare drug coverage. If you:
- Take specific drugs, look at drug plans that in
- clude your drugs on their formulary (a list of prescription drugs covered by a drug plan). Then, compare costs.
- Want extra protection from high prescription drug costs, look at plans offering coverage in the coverage gap, and then check with those plans to make sure they cover your drugs in the gap.
- Want your drug expenses to be balanced throughout the year, look at plans with no or a low deductible, or with additional coverage in the coverage gap.
- Take a lot of generic prescriptions, look at plans with “tiers” that charge you nothing or low copayments for generic prescriptions.
Medicare open enrollment runs from October 15 to December 7. As you make a decision about your prescription drug coverage, remember to review your current plan. Look at other plans in your area to see if one may better meet your needs.
If you are needing assistance with reviewing your prescription drug plan, contact your local K-State Research and Extension office. The extension office will be helping beneficiaries with comparison, selection and enrollment in drug plans. Email Brenda at bklangdon@ksu.edu or call any of the offices in the Post Rock District to schedule an appointment.
By: Brenda Langdon
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