Medigap News

As we have previously discussed, in order to be covered by a Medicare Advantage Plan, you must opt out of traditional Medicare coverage. This key fact is often misunderstood because of improper education, or worse because of deceitful Medicare Advantage agents. Our reader question today comes from Frank in Bellevue, Washington:

Q: I enrolled in a Medicare Advantage Plan and disenrolled from Medicare without really understanding what my options were, and now I want to return to traditional Medicare with Medigap insuance. Is there any way to undo my mistake?

- Frank

Hi Frank! Don’t worry, you are NOT alone. Fortunately, you can reverse your mistake, but there are several things to understand about the process:

• You MUST make the decision to return to traditional Medicare within 1 year of switching to a Medicare Advantage Plan.
• When there are 60 days left on your Medicare Advantage Plan, you may apply for your Medicare Supplement Insurance (aka. Medigap).
• No matter what, you MUST apply for your Medicare Supplement Insurance with 63 days AFTER your Medicare Advantage coverage ends. (So 63 days after you return to traditional Medicare.)

It’s critical that seniors understand that they DO have a choice in getting their health care needs met. There are options, and there are ways to reverse mistakes, but understanding the deadlines is absolutely essential. There are so many options that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. The best thing to do is to contact a licensed, qualified agent who can go over each and every option that’s available. That will allow you or your loved one to make the best health care choice possible so that mistakes aren’t made that need to be reversed.

–>