3 reasons to hold off on changing plans during 2013 Open Enrollment
UPDATED: October 23, 2013
Medicare’s Open Enrollment Period began on October 15. This is your one chance to review next year’s Medicare Advantage or prescription drug plan coverage and costs, and make any changes.
Under normal circumstances, 65 Incorporated would tell you to start your Open Enrollment process as soon as possible. You’d have the time to study all options, talk with the plan, and take action. However, this year is not normal. The government shutdown has had a big impact on the Medicare Plan Finder. For the length of the shutdown, this was the message posted at the top of the medicare.gov website.
The Medicare Plan Finder provides a convenient way to check out and compare plans. If the information is not current, your research would be, at best, a waste of time and, at worst, lead you into a plan that is totally wrong for you.
Here are three issues with the Plan Finder that still linger even now that the government is back up and running.
- The plans’ quality ratings for 2014 are “coming soon.” Without the ratings, you can’t tell a 5-star from a 3-star plan or review a plan’s strengths or weaknesses.
- For some plans, the detailed cost and benefit information are still not updated to include the 2014 rates.
- There are also instances when the costs in the Plan Finder still do not match what is posted on a plan’s website or published in its 2014 update.
We have noticed some corrections and updates over the last week and, hopefully, there will be more coming shortly. However, we suggest that it might be best to postpone any decisions until November.
Should you worry that you’ll run out of time? Probably not and here’s why...
The Open Enrollment Period runs until December 7. Even if you wait November, you still have plenty of time to change plans.
Plus, if it believes the government shutdown has had a too much of a negative impact on beneficiaries, Medicare can extend the Open Enrollment Period just as they did in 2011 and in 2012.
