Follow these steps to find Medicare Advantage programs on the medicare.gov website
Each year some Medicare Advantage programs are added, changed or omitted from services areas across the Country.
If you want to find information about available Medicare Advantage plans you should go to the source and visit the medicare.gov website.
That sounds easy enough but navigating the Medicare website to find what your looking for is often more difficult than it seems. Searchers are often frustrated when their queries return completely irrelevant information.
Follow these simple steps to navigate the Medicare website and you will be able to review all of the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D plans available in your County.
Locate and compare Medicare Advantage plans
1. Visit medicare.gov and select Compare Drug and Health Plans.
2. Enter your zip code. If your zip code spans more than one County you will be prompted to select your County.
3. Step 1 of 4: Answer the question: How do you get your Medicare coverage? Select continue to plan results.
4. Step 2 of 4: You are prompted to enter your drugs. This will you to get more accurate information about a chosen plan’s potential cost. You can also skip this step if you are only conducting a high level overview of available Medicare Advantage programs.
5. Step 3 of 4: Enter your pharmacies. You can also skip this step if you wish.
6. Step 4 of 4: Here you will need to refine your plan results. You can choose:
- Drug plans with original Medicare
- Medicare health plans with drug coverage
- Medicare health plans without drug coverage
7. Once you continue to plan results you will see available plans. You can view 10, 20 or 50 plans if they are available. You can choose individual plans to compare side-by-side.
Review These Three Options for Medicare Coverage
Compare Medicare Advantage plans
If you visit medicare.gov prior to October 1 you will be able to view only plans for the current calendar year. Companies that offer Medicare Advantage plans are not able to begin marketing for the following year’s plans until October 1.
The Annual Enrollment Period for plans with a January effective date begins October 15th, and runs through December 7th. Special Enrollment Periods will still apply if you are enrolled in a plan that is leaving the market.
By following the above steps and taking advantage of the new enrollment time frame you should be able to navigate medicare.gov and find Medicare Advantage programs that suit your needs.