What do people usually forget to check before enrolling in Medicare?
The short answer
People most commonly forget to check whether their current doctors accept the plan they're enrolling in, and whether their prescriptions are covered at a reasonable cost under that plan's drug formulary.
The full explanation
Two things trip people up more than anything else. The first is doctor access. With Medicare Advantage plans, your doctors have to be in the plan's network or you may pay significantly more, or nothing gets covered at all outside emergencies. People assume their longtime doctor accepts every Medicare plan, and that's often not the case. It's worth calling the doctor's office directly and asking if they accept the specific plan you're considering, not just Medicare in general. The second is prescription drug coverage. Every Part D drug plan and Medicare Advantage plan with drug coverage has a list of covered medications called a formulary. Even if your drug is on the list, it may be in a higher cost tier that makes your monthly costs much higher than expected. Before you enroll, run your exact prescriptions through Medicare's plan finder at medicare.gov to see what each plan would actually cost you over a full year. These two checks take maybe an hour and can save you thousands.
Related Medicare Resources
In
Utah
specifically
In Utah, network access matters a lot depending on which health system your doctors use. Intermountain Health and University of Utah Health each have different relationships with different carriers, so a plan that works well for one person's care team may not work for another's. Checking network fit before you enroll is especially important here.
What this means for you
For you, this means taking 30 to 60 minutes before enrollment to verify your doctors are in-network and your medications are covered at an affordable tier can prevent costly surprises that are difficult to fix until the next enrollment period.
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