Tag: Medicare open enrollment period
Dodging the Medicare Enrollment Deadline Can Be Costly
By
,Angela M. Du Bois, a retired software tester in Durham, North Carolina, wasn’t looking to replace her UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan. She wasn’t concerned as the Dec. 7 deadline approached for choosing another of the privately run health insurance alternatives to original Medicare.
But then something caught her attention: When she went to her doctor last month, she learned that the doctor and the hospital where she works will not accept her insurance next year.
Faced with either finding a new doctor or finding a new plan, Du Bois said the decision was easy. “I’m sticking with her because she knows everything about me,” she said of her doctor, whom she’s been seeing for more than a decade.
Du Bois isn’t the only one tuning out when commercials about the open enrollment deadline flood the airwaves each year — even though there could be good reasons to shop around. But sifting through the offerings has become such an ordeal that few people want to repeat it. Avoidance is so rampant that only 10% of beneficiaries switched Medicare Advantage plans in 2019.
Once open enrollment ends, there are limited options for a do-over…. [Continued on Kaiser Health News and NPR]…
Medicare’s Open Enrollment Is Open Season for Scammers
By Susan Jaffe | Kaiser Health News | November 11, 2021 | This KHN story also ran in The Washington Post.
In response, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has threatened to penalize private insurance companies selling Medicare Advantage and drug plans if they or agents working on their behalf mislead consumers. The agency has also revised rules making it easier for beneficiaries to escape plans they didn’t sign up for or enrolled in only to discover promised benefits didn’t exist or they couldn’t see their providers.
The problems are especially prevalent during Medicare’s open-enrollment period, which began Oct. 15 and runs through Dec. 7. A common trap begins with a phone call like the one Linda Heimer, an Iowa resident, received in October. [Full story in The Washington Post and Kaiser Health News.]