Every year in the first week of October I start receiving emails from my clients with their updated prescription lists. It’s a great time of year as an agent because it keeps us super busy and it’s just as great for my clients because they get the free review they need, so they know whether or not they need to change their Part D plans for upcoming new year starting January 1st.
This is the time of year that you need to put me on your calendar and make sure you send me that email.
I say this because these Part D drug plans change every year whether it’s the deductible, the co-pays, the monthly premium etc. I have clients who I had recommended drug plans 10 years and never heard from them again. Those folks are doing themselves a disservice because they could be costing themselves hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year on their prescription costs.
My clients who email me every year are very happy clients because they realize they need to preserve their income and they end up saving every year. However, this past enrollment period there were some missteps on Medicare’s pricing search engine.
During this past summer into September Medicare made a move to revamp the search engine site and caused a bit of confusion for some agents and most seniors who try to review their own plans.
I say some agents because I figured out some of the changes very quickly. It used to be when I ran someone’s scripts it would collate from the least expensive out of pocket costs to the most expensive. This year it collated from the higher monthly premiums to the lower monthly premiums.
Not everyone caught that issue right away. I would say most brokers did a good job of deciphering through some of those changes because of years of experience and navigating through thousands of drug plans for their clients.
At this point the site does ask for a lot more information before you get to implement the prescriptions into the system, so the navigator needs to be patient. I have heard from some clients that during the enrollment period they were being misquoted prices for their drugs.
I have read that Pennsylvania senator Bob Casey said he’s heard a lot of concerns from seniors and constituents about how the system is confusing and is frustrating some folks. Casey said “It’s obviously an effort that needs a lot more work to meet the legitimate expectations of seniors, especially when you launch something new, it can go awry. People steered in the wrong direction should get a measure of fairness.”
As your broker, all I can recommend is that you write to Medicare and explain the mistakes it has caused your plan to be misquoted and ask for a SEP, A Special Election Period.
I know when I review these plans every year some of my clients go by what they paid the previous year, but I have to remind them these plans change every year for the upcoming year and I always recommend the plan that will cost them the least amount of money out of pocket regardless of premium, deductible etc.
Isn’t that what is most important? How much are you paying out of pocket?
With all that said, don’t forget to email me your prescriptions around the first week of October so we can help you save your retirement money. Email is always the best way with me regarding the drug plans because I can store every email and work on each one in order.
Make sure you decipher between brand names and generics because that can decipher what you will actually pay out of pocket for the year. And for those of you who I haven’t heard from? For the effort of a simple email, let’s make sure you are saving money also.