I just turned 65 on the 25th of April and with that birthday I was switched from Medicaide to Medicare. What a nightmare, but that is another story all to itself, however: Last Tuesday Jan was out shopping and she had to stop by our pharmacy. While she was there she called to tell me that they had a prescription for me that my doctor had called in. I said, "No problem, just pick it up and if there is any co-pay use my debit card (Jan carries a copy of my debit card). When Jan got home she said she did not get my prescription because I have to go to the pharmacy and sign something. The next morning I went to CVS and talked to the pharmacist, and after she explained it, I have to say, I am very favorably impressed. She said about a year ago the Medicare/Medicaide bean counters came in and did an audit. They were not in the least concerned about what we charge for drugs, what they were looking for was fraud. She said, just in our store alone we have about 10,000 customers who get controlled meds and a very large percentage of those ppl are either on Medicaide or Medicare but what they were actually checking was to see if the customers on our list were actually alive. She says, you know only too well that many of our customers are physically or mentally shutins and they rely on a third party to pick up their meds, but what the bean counters were finding was that some of the customers had died, but the third party was still routinely picking up the prescription. In fact, they found one that was picking up a very highly controlled med for a person who had died 3 yrs before. Needless to say, those meds were being used to support a personal habit or being sold on the street. She said, "you can still have a third party pick up your meds, but our store has a new policy where we ask every customer to come in at least once every 6 months and sign a letter confirming they are still alive & well, and on that letter we can confirm the names of ppl that we are authorizing to pick up meds for us, and if you cannot physically come in, call us and we can have our delivery man bring the form to you." She turned and walked over to one of the clerks and got a paper which she brought back to show me. "Look here, we now get a list from the county coroners office once a week listing everyone who died in our county in the last 7 days, and when we get that list we have one of the clerks post the info on our computer to insure no one can get any meds for that person." She then told me that although this is a policy in thier store, they are rapidly convincing other pharmacies in the area, both CVS & others to adopt the same policy. Not only will it help control the ammount of prescription meds that are ending up on the street, it will ultimately help reduce medical costs as well... Personally,,,I am all in favor of it.

I am embarrassed that I didn't remember that the deductible was 'in there' as part of the annual premiums. (Maybe I'm old?) It's annoying to have to shop Part D *every year*. It's a rare year that one or both of us can stay with the same plan from year to year. Our medications change -- maybe go generic (hahaha). DH's doses change. One plan considers XYZ Med a Tier Two; another says it is Tier Three. Each plan has its 'preferred' pharmacy chain. (Most years our plans have *different* preferred pharmacies -- two trips required.) Mail order is often more, rather than less. In 2017 I discovered that one of DH's meds costs the same whether the tablet is a 2mg or a 5mg. His MD is fine with buying the 5mg and using a pill splitter to get four doses. BTW, I am giving up on finding a cheaper alternative to Advair. Symbicort is only $25 cheaper per month (retail); I don't know how I'd react to it; and I'm charged the same out-of-pocket for it as for Advair. Good thing I hadn't already spent my 'savings'.

Elmer, neither of my parents lived long enough to be covered by Medicare. My mother was 53 and my father was 56 when they died 33 days apart in 1970. My husbands parents both had died before we met very early in 1981 (his mother in 1969 and his father in 1980). I really had no one to talk to about it who had personal experience with it (I am more than a year older than my husband). I have had plenty of experience being given information by others (people who are paid to know the facts) that I then relied on, only to find out too late that they were wrong and didn't know what they were talking about. Some of these errors in trust ended up costing me financially. Therefore, when it came time to think about signing up for Medicare, I didn't want to trust anyone else for the information. I wanted to read and learn for myself, to have a full understanding of how things really work when it comes to Medicare. I've said plenty of times before, and I'll say it again now, that I know my husband and I are incredibly lucky to be State of California retirees. There are many health insurance plans from which to choose when you are an active employee, and when you retire, you keep the same plan unless you choose to change to a different plan. (And you can change every year during Open Enrollment, if you so desire.) You can retire from State service at the age of 55 (earlier if you are disabled), but when you turn 65 you must sign up for Medicare unless you are covered by your still-employed spouse's health care plan. In my case, my husband was still actively employed when I turned 65, so I was exempted from the Medicare requirement. However, knowing now what I didn't know then, I should have chosen to switch to Medicare immediately because the State's monthly contribution to health insurance more than covers the monthly premium for Medicare and our Medicare Supplement policy, but didn't fully cover the monthly premium for our PERSCare Anthem Blue Cross PPO policy. We were paying $527.74 out of pocket (well, a payroll deduction from my husband's monthly pay), which was over and above the $1,125 the State contributed each month, as well as having a yearly deductible (which is waived for preventative care), and a $20 copay for office visits. Now, we pay NOTHING. (Well, that's not quite correct -- we do have to pay the IRMAA fee for the prescription drug coverage [which is part of our Supplement policy], but that's because our income is over the threshold amount for paying just the regular premium. Although the State reimburses us for the monthly IRMAA for Medicare Part B, the law doesn't allow for reimbursement of the IRMAA for Part D. But the Part D IRMAA is less than $30 for the two of us.) My husband retired a year and a half after I did, but he didn't turn 65 for another year. But, as soon as he retired, I had to sign up for Medicare because I lost the "coverage by a still-employed spouse" exemption. Our PERSCare Anthem Blue Cross PPO policy became our Medicare Supplement policy when we started coverage with Medicare. One thing that is admittedly odd is that the State pays more towards retiree health benefits than it does for active employee health benefits. But, since we're retired, that's ok by me. :-) The State contributes $1,349 each month. Our PERSCare Anthem Blue Cross PPO Medicare Supplement Policy is $779.52 for the two of us, leaving $345.48 extra. Out of that extra, the State reimburses us for our Medicare Part B premiums and the Medicare Part B IRMAA fees. There is still some $ left over, but the State keeps that. Our Supplement policy covers the deductibles for Medicare Part A and Part B, and it pays the 20% of the allowed fees that Medicare doesn't pay. We do not pay a copay for office visits. Since I have been on Medicare, the ONLY thing medically related for which I have had to pay anything at all has been prescription medicine - and that's a minimal amount because of our Supplement plan. (One generic med that I used to pay $5 for now costs me $0.58.) ANYWAY, folks need to know the truth about how Medicare works and what doctors can and can't charge you (over and above what Medicare pays), so they can make an intelligent, informed choice about (1) whether or not to get a Supplement plan and (2), if so, which plan to choose. Dr. Kahan's book has a great full-page chart showing the various supplemental plans and what they do and don't cover. By the way, Medicare Supplement plans (which are also called Medigap plans) all have to meet specific criteria and they are standardized, Different insurance companies may charge different premiums, but all "Plan A" plans have to cover the same stuff at the same rate, all "Plan K" plans have to cover the same stuff at the same rate, etc. "Plan F" plans are considered to be the "Cadillac" (or in my case, the "Lexus") plans because they cover virtually everything. That's what our PERSCare plan is. Oh, that limiting fee that I mentioned in an earlier post -- the fee over and above what Medicare pays to a nonparticipating provider -- is covered by our Supplement policy.

It will depend on the policy where the deductible is paid. Rather than worrying about that I would check each companies formulary to see what they cover for each of your medicines along with any co-pays for that medicine. Reason why I posted the "where" is some consider the co-pay as going to the deductible others want the deductible paid before the co-pay starts. Knowing how much your regular medicines will cost is a good starting point then follow Elmer's suggestion on the ones that you think you may want.