You did it. You enrolled first into Medicare itself and you have your red, white and blue Medicare card to prove it. And, now you also have added a Medigap supplement and probably a drug plan as well to the mix. You are now officially one of us, a senior.
Here is some important information to know now that you are enrolled. Your plans will start on the first day of the month that you enrolled in to begin your Medicare coverage. Even if your card hasn’t arrived yet, you will still be enrolled and covered as of your start date.
You will receive a welcome kit in the mail from the carriers you enrolled into including a membership card. You will also have a portal for those carriers where you can view a lot of important information online.
We at ItsThatTime also know people have only so many slots in their wallet and don’t like having to carry around a paper Medicare card, that soon rips, along with paper cards from all the other medical plans they are enrolled in. That’s why we created what we call “The Convenience Card”. It has your Medicare card number, and the names and member numbers for each of your medical plans, along with contact phone numbers for them, and we put it all onto the same credit card style card. This is something we put together and send to you as a service to you. If you ever need a replacement card, just ask.
Should you ever move to a different county please notify your carrier as they will handle a move and any changes they need to make on their end.
A very important area I like to talk about is Preventative Health. Medicare has a list of preventative measures that falls into the preventative health category. These items are not subject to the annual deductible. If something is on the preventative care list, you should not have any out-of-pocket copayment costs.
The most important item on the list is called a “Welcome to Medicare visit.” You make this appointment with your primary care doctor. It is a head to toe physical with lab work that will screen you for a large variety of concerns. Your Welcome to Medicare visit is extremely thorough and gives you a baseline for moving forward with any health concerns. When you call your primary care office just say you want a ‘Welcome to Medicare’ visit scheduled and they will know exactly what you mean. After that, each year you are entitled to an Annual Wellness exam which is not as all-encompassing but is designed to keep you healthy and find any potential medical issues at the earliest point.
Other items that fall into the preventative health category include prostate exams, mammograms, and the colonoscopies that we all look greatly forward to. In addition, various vaccines are covered including covid, flu, pneumonia and shingles. You typically get these at your pharmacy
As long as you continue to pay your Medigap plan premiums, and pay Medicare itself for your Part B premiums, your Medigap supplement plan can not be cancelled by the carrier based on the cost of your claims. Nor can your premium be increased because of claims. Premiums do however increase over time as costs go up, and in some Medigap plans because you age, which I discuss in other videos.
Your prescription drug plan can be changed each year during Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) which is from October 15 through December 7. You will get a letter in September from your carrier each year letting you know the premium for the following year and if there are any other changes, most especially to the drug formulary. Generally, if you take no action to make a plan change during AEP, your plan will roll over.
