Annual Notice of Change
Medicare plans are changing. What matters is what's changing for you.
Your Annual Notice of Change is arriving now. Take a few minutes to read it — and if it doesn’t make sense, let’s go through it together.
What the ANOC is
Every year, your Medicare Advantage or Part D plan has to send you an Annual Notice of Change before the end of September. It’s the letter that tells you exactly how your plan will be different come January.
It arrives in a stack of plan mail, it’s long, and it’s easy to set aside. But it’s the one piece of mail that tells you whether the plan you have is still the plan you want.
Your plan can change even when nothing in your life has. Networks shift, drug lists get reshuffled, and copays move. Doing nothing means accepting all of it.
What to look for
- Your monthly premium for next year
- Copays and coinsurance for visits you actually make
- Your maximum out-of-pocket for the year
- Whether your prescriptions are still covered, and on which tier
- Whether your doctors and pharmacy are still in network
- Any extras — dental, vision, hearing — that were added or trimmed
Timing
You have until December 7
Medicare’s Annual Enrollment Period runs from October 15 to December 7. That’s your window to change Medicare Advantage or Part D coverage for the year ahead.
If your plan still fits, you don’t have to do anything at all — it simply continues. But that should be a decision you make on purpose, not one that happens by default.
Not sure what your changes mean?
Bring the letter, your prescription list and the names of the doctors you want to keep. We’ll go through it line by line and make sure you head into the new year with coverage that works for you.
There’s no cost, and no obligation to change anything.