How To Change Medicare Supplement (Medigap) and Medicare Advantage Plans

Andrew Walsh
Phone: [phone]

0:00 Introduction
0:36 Medicare Supplement to Medicare Supplement
0:55 Medicare Advantage to Medicare Supplement
2:15 Medicare Advantage to Medicare Advantage
3:20 Medicare Advantage to Medicare Supplement
5:32 Summary

First Changing from Medicare Supplement to to another Medicare Supplement is the least complicated. You can change at any time of year as long as you can health qualify. So if you have a rate increase you are unhappy with just call give me a call and see if your healthy enough to change, simple as that.

Next let's look at going from a Medicare Supplement to a Medicare Advantage plan. You will need to do this during the Annual Election Period. This is an open enrollment period for Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D plans, which runs from October 15 to December 7 of each year, with coverage changes becoming effective January 1st of the following year. As long as you don’t have ESRD or End-Stage Renal Disease, you will be able to qualify for all the standard Medicare Advantage Plans. This will start your one-time 12 month Medicare Advantage trial right period. So at any point during your 12 month trial right period you can switch back to Original Medicare and you can reenroll in a Medicare Supplement with no medical underwriting. Again it is important to point out that you only can do this one-time in your life and after your 12 months is up there are no guarantees that you will be able to qualify for a Medicare Supplement plan in the future. And after making the change from a Medicare Supplement Plan to a Medicare Advantage plan you will need to call and cancel your Medicare Supplement Policy because you are not allowed to have both at the same time.

The third scenario is going from a Medicare Advantage Plan to another Medicare Advantage Plan. You can do this at two times. You can do this during the Annual Election Period. Again his is an open enrollment period for Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D Plans, which runs from October 15 to December 7 of each year, with coverage changes becoming effective January 1st. You can switch your Medicare Advantage plan as many times as you like during this time, and the one you picked last before December 7th deadline will start on January 1st. If you missed the December 7th deadline you will have one more chance to change Medicare Advantage plans. This is during the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period that runs between January 1st and March 31st of each year. During this time you have the option to disenroll from your current Medicare Advantage plan and enroll in another plan. You can only do this one time during this 3 month window.

Lastly the Most complicated scenario is going from a Medicare Advantage plan back to Original Medicare with a Medicare Supplement plan. You have the same two timeframes as the last scenario so you can do this during the Annual Election Period or during the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period. For the third time the Annual Election Period this is an open enrollment period for Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D Plans, which runs from October 15 to December 7 of each year, with coverage changes becoming effective January 1st. Now It is very important to make sure you are approved for a Medicare Supplement Plan before you go back to Original Medicare. To go back to Original Medicare you will need to simply enroll in a stand-alone Part D Prescription Drug Plan, which will automatically disenroll you from your Medicare Advantage plan. Now if your Medicare Advantage plan does not include prescription drug coverage and you’re planning to switch back to Original Medicare then you will need to actively disenroll from the Medicare Advantage plan by giving them a call and then enroll in a Part D Prescription Drug Plan, and it is recommended that you complete both actions within the same month. Now if you are not approved for you Medicare Supplement before the December 7th deadline you can can make the change during the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period that runs between January 1st to March 31st. Medicare Advantage enrollees can switch to Original Medicare during this time the same way as during the Annual Election Period and you can be back on Original Medicare starting the first day of the next month. So for example if you if you make the change in to Original Medicare in January it would start February 1st. You can do this all they way up to April 1st. Again make sure you are approved by for Medicare Supplement before you make the change back to Original Medicare.

How To Change Medicare Supplement (Medigap) and Medicare Advantage Plans

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If you do a trial with an advantage plan then you decide to go back to a medigap plan (that you were on) @ 12mos. can your old plan charge you more to come back to the same plan? And, let's say they can and do charge you more can you assert your trial right due to the increased cost to jump ship to another plan? Or, does one not have to worry about increased cost because you'd be able to move to another medigap plan with another company without medical underwriting in this case?