Medicare Part D is the prescription drug plan. It’s completely optional, but can be bought as a standalone plan with Original Medicare, or as an added benefit with Medicare Advantage. If you decide not to get it, that’s fine. But if you wait to get it, you will pay late enrollment fees that will be tacked onto your monthly premiums.
How the Enrollment Process Works
We make enrolling in Part D easy – it’s easy for you, and it’s easy for us. First, you should get a list of all the medications you’re taking because these plans vary in what drugs they cover. Each plan has a formulary, which is the plan’s list of prescription drugs that it covers. Some plans may have your medications, others may not.
When you work with us, we take your list of medications and compare our list of Part D carriers to see which one will offer you the most coverage for those prescriptions. By doing this, we can give you a list of the available plans in your area, sort out each plan by cost, and still find you the cheapest plan and pharmacy that fits your needs.
We also try to stay as informed and updated as possible because Medicare Part D is always changing, and not just across every policy on the national level, but on an individual company basis.
What Are the Costs?
The 2021 yearly Medicare Part D deductible is not a set price, but – it will not be anything over $445. As for other costs such as premiums and coinsurances, those are dependent on the policy you enroll in.
And for medication costs, this is where formularies and tiers come in. Part D policies list their plan’s prescription costs according to the tier they fall under. The lower the tier, the cheaper the medication is going to be.
Tiers are in the order of:
- Tier 1 – Preferred generics
- Tier 2 – Non-preferred generics
- Tier 3 – Preferred brand names
- Tier 4 – Non-preferred brand names
- Tier 5 – Specialty drugs
We Know a Way to Preserve Low Costs
There are different reasons why a drug may become more expensive for a particular plan. Your medication could be removed from your current plan’s formulary. Or, they may switch your drug to a higher tier because they weren’t making enough money from it.
But there’s a second choice, and that’s choosing another plan where your medication does not move to a higher tier. Now, you have to wait until the Annual Enrollment Period to do this. This period is from October 15 to December 7. If you don’t switch plans, you’ll be stuck paying the higher price for the next year.
If you’re ready to get started with a prescription drug plan today, call Turning 65 Solutions at (830) 217-6711 and you can email us at ron@t65s.com.