Hospital
Inpatient stays, skilled nursing after a hospital stay, hospice. Most people have paid for this through payroll taxes and owe no monthly premium for it.
Annual Enrollment runs 15 October – 7 December
Medicare is confusing on purpose. We are not.
We are independent advisers in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. We sit down with you, explain what each part actually does, and help you choose. You pay us nothing — and we are paid the same no matter which plan you pick.
- No cost to you, ever. We are paid by the insurance company.
- No pressure and no same-day decision. Take the notes home.
- Bring your spouse, your daughter, whoever helps you decide.
What we will not do
Call you unprompted, arrive at your door, or ask you to sign anything on the first visit.
Start here
The four parts, in plain words.
Almost everything else is a variation on these. If someone has explained it to you and it still did not make sense, that is normal — and it is not your fault.
Doctors
Office visits, outpatient care, tests, durable equipment. This one has a monthly premium, usually taken out of your Social Security payment.
Advantage
A private plan that replaces A and B and usually bundles drugs, dental and vision — in exchange for using a network. More on Advantage.
Drugs
Prescription coverage, either standalone or inside an Advantage plan. Going without it and signing up later usually costs a permanent penalty. More on Part D.
The real decision
There are two roads. Most of the noise is about which one.
Neither is better in general. They are better for different people, and the honest question is which one fits your doctors, your prescriptions and how much uncertainty you can live with.
Road one
Advantage
Original Medicare replaced by one private plan
- Usually a low or zero monthly plan premium
- Drugs, dental, vision and hearing often bundled in
- A yearly cap on what you can be asked to pay
- You must use the plan's network of doctors and hospitals
- Some care needs the plan's approval before you receive it
- The network and the extras can change from year to year
Road two
Original + Supplement
Keep Original Medicare, add a Medigap policy and a drug plan
- Any doctor or hospital in the country that takes Medicare
- Very predictable costs — most bills are covered in full
- No referrals, and generally no prior approval
- A monthly premium for the supplement, on top of Part B
- Drugs, dental and vision are bought separately
- Switching in later may require health questions
The timing point nobody mentions. When you first become eligible there is a window in which a supplement must accept you regardless of your health. After it closes, in most states an insurer may ask health questions and decline you. That window is the single most consequential date in this whole decision, and it is why we would rather talk to you early than during the December rush.
How an appointment goes
An hour, and you decide afterwards.
We will not ask you to sign anything at the first meeting. If an adviser ever pressures you to decide on the spot, that is a reason to end the conversation — ours or anyone's.
Bring your list
Your doctors, your prescriptions with the doses, and your red-white-and-blue Medicare card if you have it. That list is what the whole conversation runs on.
We check them against plans
Is your cardiologist in the network. Is your inhaler on the formulary and at what tier. These two questions decide more than the premium does.
You take the notes home
A written summary of the two or three plans that fit, with the trade-offs in plain words. Talk it over with whoever you talk things over with. Then call us.
Who comes to us
Four situations, and they need different answers.
Turning 65
The most important appointment you will have. Your enrollment window opens three months before your birthday month, and some doors close permanently when it ends.
Come early
Still working past 65
Whether to take Part B now or delay it depends on your employer's size and how their plan is structured. Getting this wrong causes lifelong penalties.
Ask before you decide
Reviewing during AEP
Plans change every year — networks, formularies, extras. The plan that suited you last year may not this year, and the review costs nothing.
15 Oct – 7 Dec
Something changed
A move, a retirement, losing employer coverage, a spouse's death. These open a special window outside the usual dates, and they are easy to miss.
Call promptly
Guides
Written to be read once and understood.
Enrollment
The windows, and which ones close for good
Some Medicare deadlines can be caught up on later. Two of them cannot, and knowing which is which matters more than anything else here.
Enrollment
Still working at 65 — take Part B or delay it?
It depends on how many people your employer has, and getting it wrong causes a penalty that lasts as long as you have Medicare.
Enrollment
What counts as a life change, and what it lets you do
Moving, retiring, losing employer coverage or a spouse dying each open a window outside the usual dates.
Bring your list. We will do the rest.
Your doctors and your prescriptions. That is all you need for the first conversation, and there is no charge for it.