Annual Reviews

The Importance of Annual Reviews

Medicare has an Annual Election Period. It happens between October 15 and December 7 of each year. It is a time where you begin getting bombarded with advertisements, you see other insurance agents in pharmacies, you get offers to attend events and seminars and your television commercials become back to back insurance solicitations. At Classic Insurance, we don’t participate in these events, what is commonly referred to as the "Medicare Selling Season." The reason for this is simple: if you have a Medicare Advantage plan or a Part D Prescription Drug Plan, it will be changing its benefits. In some cases, it can be completely different from the benefits you have experienced this year. A plan is allowed to increase its premium, add deductibles, and even drop drugs that it covered in prior years. During this time, we speak with our clients, so they don’t have to attend these events, read all the new advertising, and re-research their plans for the next year. During this annual period of change, we make it as easy for our clients as possible by conducting annual reviews.

We begin with your drug list. Shortly before October, we begin contacting all of our clients and asking them if they would like to update their drug list. We find out if you have had a prescription change, the names, dosages, of what you want to let us know about, and if anything has been switched to generic. If you have an Advantage plan, we also ask your latest list of doctors. All this information is voluntary, of course, and you are not required to give it. But the more we know, the more accurate our recommendation will be. When the Annual Election Period opens, we begin comparing your current plan with the plans available for the next year. As soon as we can, we contact you with these results. Things we look at: are all your drugs covered next year? What’s the best price we can get for your drugs? Are all your doctors remaining in your Advantage Plan network next year? Is there going to be a new deductible next year when there was none this year? How much have premiums changed? We get these answers and contact you again with them. If it is determined it is in your best interest to make a change, we will recommend it. But we will also tell you if it is best you stay where you are.

We feel the annual reviews are what differentiate us from other insurance advisors. Because Medicare is our business, our passion, we take the extra step with our clients. Where the industry labels this a selling season for insurance agents, we stop selling and concentrate on the people who have already bought. Where other agents want you to opt in to their products during this time, we want you to be secure with the products you already have. Where most people are overwhelmed with the choices that become available to them during the end of the year, our clients have a piece of mind thanks to annual reviews when they need it most.

If you want this same piece of mind, if you want security in your choices, and if you want an assurance that your health insurance will remain as stable as it possibly can be for your specific situation, we encourage you to reach out to us.