There is nothing special about today’s blogpost. It is just my experience choosing a new Medicare Part D drug plan. My only advice to you is to consider what you require in a drug plan and what the financial ramifications are. Don’t assume that what you used in 2018 is your best choice for 2019.

I now understand one way that Medicare drug plans make lots of money. I am only in my second year of Medicare and it is obvious that it would be easier to stay with what I am doing rather than make a change is logical and financially-expedient. Inertia. Yeah, it’s easier to do nothing than to do something. It can be laziness or just comfort in living with what you know. But you have to remember that doing nothing is a decision and that decision may not be the best decision.

My current drug plan has worked well since I went on Medicare in the spring of 2017. But I have recently started taking an arthritis drug that is not part of that plan’s formulary. It is not a hugely expensive drug; it is just a lesser-prescribed anti-inflammatory. I have received an exception-to-formulary approval for the medicine through 2019 but the monthly co-pay is almost as much as my monthly premium cost. 

So I have wisely gotten off my duff and gone to the Medicare Find-a-Plan website to compare 2019 Part D plans available in my area. I entered my zip code, answered some basic questions, and listed the drugs that I take. I only take 3 drugs under my Part D plan and it didn’t take long to enter the names and dosages. If you have a long list, you can save your drugs to a password-protected drug ID so that you don’t have to enter them every time you visit the website.

I entered my desired pharmacies and selected the option to look at drug plans. You can also use this option to compare Advantage plans.

The wisdom of examining my 2019 choices was immediately apparent. Having entered Walgreens, CVS, and mail order as choices, the cheapest option combining premiums, deductibles, and drug costs was $231 for CVS mail order and $233 for CVS retail. The tenth cheapest plan would be almost $900! Staying with my current plan would be almost $700. Formulary is the name-of-the-game in choosing a Medicare drug plan….

Sometimes money is not the only decision-making factor in choosing a drug plan. As mentioned above, my cheapest drug plan option for 2019 would involve switching to CVS and I have three reasons for wanting to stay with Walgreens.

One, I have used Walgreens for most of my adult life. It has always worked well and my philosophy is “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Two, as someone who uses an insulin pump, my insulin is covered under Medicare Part B rather than through my drug plan. The savings are huge because Medicare pays 80% of the cost of my insulin and my Medigap policy pays the remaining 20% leaving me with no out-of-pocket cost for insulin. Due to Medicare regulations and unawareness of this coverage by many pharmacies, it can be difficult to establish and maintain Part B insulin coverage. Before I started Medicare, I was advised by several Type 1 friends that Walgreens and its national Medicare department is one of the best pharmacies for setting up Part B insulin. I have online diabetes friends who get their Part B insulin successfully from CVS, Krogers, and other pharmacy chains, but once again for me “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” I could probably get Part B insulin at Walgreens and other prescriptions at CVS, but I prefer having my prescriptions with one pharmacy. Convenience for me and I think that the occasional glitches in receiving Part B insulin are more easily resolved because I am well-known at my local pharmacy.

Three, I am a snowbird and leave the cold and snow of Minnesota in late December. The idea of transferring my prescriptions in 2019 to CVS through a pharmacy in Arizona seems overly complicated. I am willing to pay a premium to avoid the potential problems of the switch.

I am mostly sure of the drug plan that I am selecting for 2019. It only has two stars out of five stars and at Amazon that might scare me. But my previous Part D plan only had two stars and it was fine. I am lucky that I do not take expensive drugs and even luckier that I do not pay for insulin through Part D. But even still, a wrong part D plan could be an expensive mistake. If I do nothing, I will be automatically enrolled in my previous plan and that would be an expensive default. FYI I do not have to cancel the old plan; that will happen automatically when I I enroll in a new plan.

This blogpost is certainly not a “how-to” post. However, it is a reminder that if you are on Medicare, don’t assume that what you did in 2018 is the best choice for 2019. I’ve gotten off my duff. Be sure that you do the same. You have until December 7 to make a change or confirm that your current plan is still your best option.