Inauguration of the Annual Disenrollment Period and the

Inauguration of the Annual Disenrollment Period and the Elimination of the Open Enrollment Period

This applies only to Medicare beneficiaries who are now in a Medicare Advantage Plan.

The Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period, which has run from January 1 to March 31 of each year and which allowed you to make a variety of changes to how you got your Medicare, and which Plan you were in, is eliminated. It is no longer in effect.

In its place is a new Annual Disenrollment Period, which runs only from January 1 to February 14 of 2011 and every year thereafter. It is important to understand that this new period is less than half as long as the previous one, so you will have to act more quickly to make any permissible changes.

The changes you can make during this 45 day period are these: (Note that they are much more restrictive than what you could do in the now obsolete Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period.)

You may leave Medicare Advantage (Part C) and go to Original (fee-for-service) Medicare. The change will be effective first day of month following the date you disenroll from your Medicare Advantage Plan.

And, if you do so, you may join a stand-alone Part D drug plan. You will join this drug plan on first day of month following the date the plan gets your enrollment request. Note that you may enroll in a Part D plan whether or not the Medicare Advantage Plan you were in did or did not have Part D drug coverage.

And you do this either by:

Disenrolling from your Medicare Advantage Plan. This will put you in Original Medicare without any Part D drug coverage.

Or by enrolling in a stand-alone Part D drug plan. This will automatically disenroll you from your Medicare Advantage Plan and put you into Original Medicare and enroll you in the Part D drug plan.

And you may disenroll from your Medicare Advantage Plan and later enroll in a stand-alone Part D drug plan, as long as you enroll by February 14, 2011.

You may NOT join a Medicare Advantage Plan nor switch from one Medicare Advantage Plan to another.

So, in effect, during this Annual Disenrollment Period, a beneficiary in Medicare Advantage (Part C) who does not like their Plan and is willing to go back to Original Medicare (“fee-for-service” Medicare, also known as “plain vanilla” Medicare) may do so. Or, if for some reason, a beneficiary who is in such a Plan did not sign up for one with drug coverage, or did get it and now sees it as a bad choice of a Part D plan, may, if they are willing to go back to Original Medicare, can re-choose their Part D, as long as they choose a stand-alone Part D Plan. As all of these charge a premium (and not every Medicare Advantage Plan does, even if it has drug coverage), you need to think of that. And, of course, if you need or want a Medigap insurance policy (Medicare supplement), you better be sure you can get one (and price it to see if you can afford it) BEFORE you jump back into Original Medicare.