4 Must-Know Facts About Medicare & Hurricane Sandy
Editor's note: November is National Family Caregiving Month. This blog post it part of our ongoing coverage of that observance. Also, we'd like to remind you that although we don't repost all of Sally Abrahms' AARP posts, we do think every one of them is valuable! We hope you'll visit http://blog.aarp.org/author/aarpsally/ to read her current work and her archives.
Medicare beneficiaries: If you’ve been impacted by Hurricane Sandy and can’t meet the Dec. 7 annual open enrollment period deadline, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is offering other options.
The best scenario is to select the Medicare plan you want for 2013 in time to ensure your health and prescription drug coverage kicks in by Jan. 1, 2013. But what if you can’t?
- If you can’t select a plan by Dec. 7 you can still enroll in health and drug prescription coverage. Call 1-800-MEDICARE or 1-800-633-4227. (TTY users dial 1-877-486-2048.) It’s manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Telephone reps can help you review the plans and make a selection even after the deadline.
- If you enroll in a plan after Dec. 7 (by calling 1-800-MEDICARE), your coverage will typically start the first of the month after you make the enrollment request. (For example, call before Dec. 31 and coverage begins Jan. 1, 2013.) Important to know, though: Medicare will review each case individually.
- You don’t have to show proof that you’ve been impacted by Hurricane Sandy to have more time. You might live elsewhere but help with health care decisions for a family member, relative or friend who was in the hurricane’s wake. If you’ve already submitted an enrollment request to Medicare, the plan should contact you via mail or phone, to let you know you are enrolled. If they haven’t, you’ll need to call the plan.
- Medicare has stated that if your in-network pharmacy is out of your prescribed medicine, you can access out-of-network pharmacies with no penalties.
Any questions? Call 1-800-MEDICARE. They also have a page set up just for Medicare beneficiaries impacted by Hurricane Sandy.
Sally Abrahms has published in TIME, Newsweek, The New York Times, AARP Bulletin and AARP the Magazine as well as on aarp.org. Follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/sallyabrahms, andplease visit her web site at www.sallyabrahms.com. This article originally appeared on Sally's weekly blog on caregivers for AARP at http://blog.aarp.org/author/aarpsally/
