You have seen the commercial, been approached in stores, and bombarded by phone calls, or even called the insurance company directly and you finally enrolled in a Medicare Advantage Plan. When a claim is filed you just are not happy with the coverage, so what are you choices?
First, before you make any changes, be aware that you can't drop your plan at any time during the year without a special enrollment.
With that being said, listed below are your options, if you would like to discuss them further give us a call or text 312-800-0751 to speak with one of our licensed experts.
Switch Back to Medicare in your first year
Your first year in a Medicare Advantage plan: This counts as a trial period in two circumstances. You can drop out of the plan and return to original Medicare, with the right to buy Medigap supplemental insurance, at any time during those first 12 months — if you joined the plan straight away when you enrolled in Medicare at age 65, or if you dropped a Medigap policy to join the Advantage plan and this is the first Advantage plan you have ever been enrolled in.
Switch to a different company or plan during the Annual Enrollment Period(October 15th to December 7th)
Annual open enrollment period (Oct. 15 to Dec. 7): You have many options to change your coverage during this time frame: from a Medicare Advantage plan to original Medicare and vice versa; from one Medicare Advantage plan to another; from one Part D drug plan to another. Coverage in the new plan begins Jan. 1.
Disenroll during the Annual Disenrollment Period (January 1st to February 14th)
Annual disenrollment period (Jan. 1 to Feb. 14): This specifically gives you the opportunity to switch from a Medicare Advantage plan to the original Medicare (but not to a different Advantage plan). If you drop your plan in January, coverage in original Medicare begins Feb. 1; if you drop it in the first two weeks of February, coverage begins March 1.
Switch During a Special Enrollment Period
The following are special reasons that qualify you to change plans at any time:
- You receive Extra Help (the low-cost Part D prescription drug program for people with incomes under a certain level)
- You enter or leave a nursing home or other long-term care facility
- You lose coverage from Medicaid or a state program that pays your Medicare premiums
- • You switch to a Medicare Advantage plan that has earned Medicare’s highest quality rating (five stars) if there is one in your area (you can switch any time of the year except for the first week of December)
- • You move out of the plan’s service area
- • The plan withdraws service from your area, leaves Medicare entirely, or closes down
- • Medicare agrees with your complaint that the plan violated its contract with you, or that you were misled into joining the plan through fraud or erroneous or incomplete information
- • Medicare agrees that a federal employee made a mistake when processing your enrollment in this plan.
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