Medicare’s Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 to December 7 every year, and anything you change takes effect the following January 1. Your plan has to have your request by December 7 — not postmarked, received. This is a checklist for working through it deliberately instead of in the first week of December.
It is written to be printed. Work down it with last year’s paperwork and your pill bottles in front of you, and the whole thing takes about an hour.
What can I actually change during this window?
More than most people realize. Between October 15 and December 7 you can join, drop, or switch a Medicare Advantage plan; move from Original Medicare to Medicare Advantage or back the other way; and join, drop, or switch a standalone drug plan if you are on Original Medicare. All of it takes effect January 1.
One thing this window does not do: it does not give you a right to buy a Medicare supplement without health questions. That is a separate matter with separate rules, and in Georgia it matters more than in most states — turning 65 in Georgia explains why.
Before October 15 — get your papers together
- Watch for your Annual Notice of Change. If you are in a Medicare Advantage or drug plan, your plan has to send it by September 30. It lists what is changing for the coming year. If it has not arrived by early October, call the plan and ask for it — do not assume nothing changed.
- Read the ANOC with a pen. Circle anything that moved: the monthly premium, the deductible, what you pay to see a specialist, and how your drugs are treated. The document is written to be skimmed past. Read it slowly once a year.
- Write down your prescriptions. Exact names, doses, and how often. Not “my blood pressure pill.” The pharmacy can print you a list of everything you filled this year, which is faster and more accurate than memory.
- Write down your doctors. Every one you actually want to keep, including specialists you see once a year and the hospital system you would want to be taken to.
- Note anything coming up. A surgery, a procedure, a new diagnosis, a move, a plan to spend part of next year in another state.
What should I actually compare?
Four things, in this order. The order matters — most regret comes from comparing the premium first and everything else never.
- Your drugs, one at a time. How a plan treats a specific drug can change from one year to the next even when nothing else about the plan does. This is the single most common reason a plan that worked last year does not work this year.
- Your doctors, by name. Networks change every year, and a doctor who was in network in the spring may not be in January. Check each one against the specific plan rather than the company generally.
- What a bad year costs you. Find the maximum you could pay out of pocket. That is the number that matters if something goes wrong, and it is rarely the number on the front of the brochure.
- The premium. Last, deliberately. It is the easiest number to compare and the least likely to determine whether you are happy in March.
If you are staying put, do this anyway
Doing nothing is a legitimate choice, and for plenty of people it is the right one. But make it a choice rather than a default: read the notice, check that your drugs and doctors are still treated the way you expect for the coming year, and then decide to stay. Plans renew automatically, which is convenient right up until the year something changed quietly.
What if I miss December 7?
Then your current coverage rolls into next year as it is. If you are in a Medicare Advantage plan, you get one more chance between January 1 and March 31 — you can switch to a different Advantage plan, or drop it and return to Original Medicare with a drug plan. That window is only for people already in an Advantage plan, and it allows one change, not shopping all quarter.
Outside those, you would need a Special Enrollment Period, which requires a qualifying event such as moving out of your plan’s area or losing other coverage.
Things worth knowing before the phone starts ringing
From October onward the mail and the calls pick up considerably. A few things that make that season easier:
- You do not have to decide on a call you did not initiate. Anything genuinely worth doing will still be there tomorrow.
- Nobody legitimate needs your Medicare number to give you information. Guard it the way you would guard your Social Security number, because it is one.
- A plan being advertised heavily is not evidence it fits you. Advertising budgets are not the same thing as networks and drug coverage.
- The comparison is public. The official plan finder at medicare.gov lets you enter your drugs and pharmacy and see costs for every plan available where you live, with nobody selling you anything.
The short version
Read the notice when it arrives in September. List your drugs and doctors. Compare on drugs, doctors, and worst-case cost before you look at the premium. Decide by Thanksgiving rather than December 6. And if you decide to stay where you are, decide it on purpose.
Common questions
Do I have to do anything during Annual Enrollment?
No. If you take no action, your current plan continues into the next year with whatever changes it announced. The reason to look anyway is that the changes happen whether or not you read about them.
Does this window let me change my Medicare supplement?
Not by right. Medicare supplements work on different rules, and outside your one-time open enrollment window a change generally means answering health questions and being accepted. Medigap underwriting explains what that involves.
Can I change my mind after I enroll?
Until December 7, yes — the last request the plan receives before the deadline is the one that takes effect. After that, changes depend on which window you are eligible for.
What does it cost to have someone help me compare?
Nothing. The carrier pays the agent, so your premium is identical whether you compare on your own or sit down with someone. What you should expect in return is a comparison that includes options you might not have found alone, and a plain answer when the right move is to stay where you are.
Want a hand with it?
If you would rather not do this at the kitchen table alone, call or text 770-765-7007, or pick a time — bring your drug list and your doctors and we will work down it together. There is no cost for the help, and no obligation attached to asking. We are in Cumming, Georgia, and work with households across North Georgia: Forsyth, Cherokee, Hall, Dawson, Lumpkin, Pickens, Gilmer, Fannin, Union and White counties, plus north Gwinnett and north Fulton.
Dates and enrollment rules on this page come from Medicare directly. The dollar figures that change each January are deliberately left off, because a checklist that goes stale is worse than one that sends you to the source.