• Yous have several opportunities to switch your Medicare Reward programme throughout the year.
  • You can switch your plan for Medicare Advantage and Medicare prescription drug coverage during the Medicare open enrollment period or the Medicare Advantage open enrollment flow.
  • You tin also switch your Medicare Advantage plan during a special enrollment period that's triggered by a major change in your life.

Medicare Advantage (Part C) plans are offered by private insurance companies. If y'all have a Medicare Advantage program, you lot can:

  • switch to a different Medicare Reward program that offers drug coverage
  • switch to a unlike Medicare Advantage plan that doesn't offering drug coverage
  • switch to original Medicare (parts A and B) plus a Role D (prescription drug) plan
  • switch to original Medicare without adding a Part D plan

To switch plans, contact the insurance provider of the plan you lot like and apply for coverage. If you lot're not sure how to contact the provider, Medicare'south program finder tool may be useful. Yous will exist disenrolled from your previous plan as soon as your new plan takes effect.

If you are switching from a Medicare Reward plan to original Medicare, y'all tin can either call your former plan or enroll through Medicare by calling 800-MEDICARE.

The short reply is no. You lot may switch Medicare Advantage plans during set enrollment periods each year and within a specified period of time following certain life events.

We'll talk over these enrollment periods in the next section.

Y'all may switch Medicare Reward plans during set up enrollment periods each yr and within a specified menses of time following certain life events. Here are the specific dates and rules for when you may switch Medicare Reward plans.

Initial enrollment period

You lot can switch your Medicare Advantage programme at any time during your initial enrollment flow.

If yous authorize for Medicare based on your age, and then your initial enrollment begins 3 months before the calendar month of your 65th birthday, includes your nascency month, and continues for iii months afterward. In total, the initial enrollment period lasts for 7 months.

If you authorize for Medicare based on a disability, your initial enrollment period begins iii months before your 25th calendar month of getting Social Security Disability Insurance or Railroad Retirement Lath benefits, includes your 25th calendar month, and continues for iii months after that.

Medicare Advantage open enrollment

You can make changes to your programme at whatsoever time during the Medicare Advantage open enrollment period from January 1 through March 31 every year. This is likewise the Medicare general enrollment period.

The changes you make will take effect on the first day of the month following the calendar month you make a change.

Open up enrollment menstruum

Yous can make changes to your Medicare Reward plan at any time during the annual ballot period, too known every bit open enrollment. This lasts from October fifteen through Dec 7 each year. The changes yous make will take upshot on Jan 1 of the following twelvemonth.

Special enrollment periods

Sure life events tin trigger the opportunity to switch your Medicare Advantage plan. If you motility to a new location, your coverage options change, or you lot see certain other life circumstances, Medicare may offer yous a special enrollment flow.

Here's a summary of those events and the options you'll have:

*Consult Medicare.gov for details on when the clock starts ticking to brand changes.

You tin make changes to your Medicare Advantage program by:

  • either calculation or dropping prescription drug coverage
  • switching to a different Medicare Advantage programme
  • going back to original Medicare, with or without a drug plan

The important thing to annotation is that you lot tin can change your plan but at specific times during the twelvemonth. You tin switch at whatsoever time during your 7-month initial enrollment flow. You can also switch during the open up enrollment menses each fall.

Another time yous can make changes is during the Medicare Advantage open enrollment period at the beginning of each twelvemonth. Plus, certain life changes allow you to change your program during special enrollment periods.

When you're ready to switch, know that you can become help finding and enrolling in the right plan for you.