Switching Medicare plans

People switch Medicare plans for a handful of practical reasons: a doctor left the network, a premium went up, a prescription is no longer covered, or a plan stopped operating in their county. None of these are unusual, and none of them require you to wait until you are unhappy enough to make a change. Medicare gives you defined windows during the year — the Annual Enrollment Period, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period, and Special Enrollment Periods tied to specific life events — and knowing which one applies to your situation determines what you are allowed to do and by when. The path also depends on what you are switching from and to: moving from Medicare Advantage to Original Medicare is a different process than adding a Medigap policy, and changing a stand-alone drug plan is different from either one. The five situations below cover the most common reasons people call us. Find the one closest to yours, or call and describe what's going on — a licensed agent will tell you which window applies to you.