If you have not already, you may soon be receiving a letter in the mail from your friendly Medicare insurance company saying they are leaving town! This has already happened in my area, and is sure to be coming to a town near you. The assumption from some clients is that these companies are going out of business; however, that probably is not the case. For example Universal which was operating as a PFFS in our county did not get approval for this year so it is no longer available here. They are still in business in other counties in the state. The impact though is significant for those of you that have a plan that is leaving or is no longer available.
You will NEED to shop for another plan ASAP. You will not be left without coverage because CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) will automatically enroll you into another plan if you do not select one. Do you really want the government selecting your health care for you? Well, I'm sure they would select the best one for you so on second thought, no need to rush out and choose one for yourself (wink, wink).
Anyway, a great source of information for shopping the 2011 Medicare Advantage plans is http://www.medicare.gov/. Here you can compare plans, and at least get an idea of the best one. I still recommend using a local agent to help you, and I would also try to find one that works with several of the plans versus one that is representing only one of the plans. That way the agent should not try to steer you to one plan versus another. I'll do a separate post on why you should use a good agent instead of trying to do this on your own.
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