Reading your ANOC letter before AEP
The Annual Notice of Change arrives in September and tells you exactly how your plan will differ in January. Almost nobody opens it.
By Desmond Okoye, Cedar Landing Benefits
Every Advantage and Part D plan must send an Annual Notice of Change by the end of September. It is the single most useful document your insurer will send you all year, and it is routinely mistaken for marketing and binned.
It takes about ten minutes to read properly. Here is where to look.
Four things to check
First, the premium and the deductible. Second, the drug list: is every medication you take still covered, and is it on the same tier? Third, the provider network: are your doctors and your hospital still in it? Fourth, the extras — dental, vision and over-the-counter allowances change quietly and often.
Any one of those changing is a reason to compare. Two or more changing usually means the plan you chose last year is not the plan you will hold in January.
Why September matters
The Annual Enrolment Period runs from 15 October to 7 December, with changes effective 1 January. Reading the notice in September gives you a fortnight to make a list of questions before the phones get busy.
By late November, every advisor in the country is at capacity. The households that get the most careful attention are the ones that called in early October with a letter in their hand.
An estimate for planning, not a quote. Medicare and the Marketplace set your real figures.
Have a question this raised?
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