One in three. That’s the share of affected Medicare beneficiaries who take advantage of annual “open enrollment” to check to see how their Medicare Advantage or prescription-drug insurance premiums and benefits compare with others in the market. The open-enrollment period runs the 54 days from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7. If the individual chooses a new insurance plan, its benefits would be effective Jan. 1. Affected persons are those with Medicare Advantage insurance plans or prescription drug insurance plans. Unaffected are those with Medicare supplement (Medigap) policies, whose best bet to change to a more competitively priced policy is to use Oregon’s Medigap birthday rule. KFF, a respected health-policy organization, says 32% of Medicare beneficiaries with Medicare Advantage or prescription drug plan insurance compared plans in 2020, the most recent year for which data are available. Those Medicare beneficiaries ages 65-74 had the highest rate (37%), while those with incomes of $40,000 or more (34%) did among various income categories. Perhaps it isn’t surprising that those age 84 and older had the lowest rate (19%) given both advanced age and the likelihood that they had settled on insurance that they liked. If you would like assistance with reviewing insurance plans from a Senior Health Insurance Benefits Assistance (SHIBA) volunteer counselor, please see the end of this column. You may also review insurance benefits and costs on the Medicare.gov website, which many beneficiaries find intuitive. If you do comparison shop, these are factors to consider for the two insurance types covered during the current insurance-election period.  Medicare Advantage insurance Are your doctors “in network” with the insurance plan – that is, can your doctor bill that insurance? Either your doctor’s office or the insurance company can answer that question.  What is the maximum out-of-pocket medical cost you could incur during the year? How do other costs (doctor copays, inpatient and outpatient hospitalization, temporary skilled nursing, etc.) compare from one plan to another? Assuming that you want your plan to include prescription drug coverage – most people do – be sure that you are enrolling in one that does. The two types – those that include drug insurance and those that don’t – are mixed on the Medicare.gov website. If you travel, what coverage would you have for an emergency in another Oregon county, another state or during international travel? A call to the insurance company may be necessary to get the answer.  What “extra benefits” does the insurance plan offer? For example, some plans offer gym memberships, an annual dental allowance, medical transportation, a quarterly allowance for approved over-the-counter pharmacy purchases, medical alert devices, post-surgery home-delivered meals, or some combination. A call to the insurance company may be necessary to obtain the detail you want. If you already have Medicare Advantage insurance, at a minimum you should carefully review the Annual Notice of Change that the company mailed to you in September. This shows your plan’s changes for next year, perhaps giving you more reason to review plans. For coverage of prescription drugs in a Medicare Advantage plan, it’s worth asking the questions shown below.  Prescription drug insurance Does the insurance cover all your prescription drugs, and at the most competitive price? Would you save money by asking your doctor to write 90-day prescriptions instead of ones for 30 days? The Medicare.gov website can very likely answer that question, which is also true of your pharmacist. Would you save money by using one of the insurance company’s preferred pharmacies instead of a standard pharmacy? Because of insurance companies’ contracts with preferred pharmacies, sometimes your cost there is less. Would you save money using the insurance’s mail-order option instead of a brick-and-mortar pharmacy? My Sept. 25 column for Salem Reporter delivered 12 strategies for saving money on prescription drugs. Jim Sellers of Salem is a certified Medicare counselor with the Senior Health Insurance Benefits Assistance (SHIBA) program. To ask a question to be answered in this column, e-mail [email protected]. To schedule a free SHIBA phone, Zoom or in-person appointment with a volunteer Medicare counselor, call 800-722-4134. STORY TIP OR IDEA? Send an email to Salem Reporter’s news team: [email protected]. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post COLUMN: Make sure to check Medicare Advantage plans during open enrollment appeared first on Salem Reporter.