Medicare Plan Finder Walk-Through
What is the Medicare Plan Finder?
The Medicare Plan Finder is a great tool to help you choose the best drug coverage available to you through Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D plans in your area. It will not help you compare supplement plans.
The site works best for comparing Part D plans. In a matter of minutes it can tell you which plan will cover all your drugs for the lowest cost. It takes into account copayments, coinsurance, premiums, and of course checks to make sure all of your drugs are in the formulary. It then gives you a list of plans that will deliver the best coverage for the least cost. Since there can easily be over 20 drug plans in each service are, this is saving you a huge amount of work.
The site also works pretty well as a way to narrow down your Medicare Advantage plan options, which is very helpful if you live somewhere with a lot of MA plans.
The site is straightforward and easy to use, so if you feel comfortable online I suggest you go right to the site and skip this tutorial. If not, then click the link below to go to the plan finder page, and follow along with the instructions below.
https://www.medicare.gov/find-a-plan/questions/home.aspx
Step by Step Plan Finder Guide
When you arrive, the Plan Finder website should look like the picture below:
Fig. 1
In this walk-through I’ll be showing you how to use the ‘Basic Search’, which I highlighted in the image above. Enter your zip code, then click ‘find plans’.
Fig. 2
On the ‘Enter Information’ page above, answer both questions (1) (2) and then click ‘Continue to Plan Results’ (3). If you indicated that you receive your coverage from a Medicare Health Plan, you will have to choose which plan you have (below). If you choose any of the other options you will skip this step.
Fig. 3
If your plan is on the list select it and click continue, if it is not don’t worry just select ‘I don’t know what plan I have’ and click continue.
Fig. 4
Alright now we are all back on the same page. This is where we input our drug list to get our personalized plan recommendation. Begin typing the name of your drug in the auto-complete field (1). You should see a list of drugs appear directly below. When you see the name of your drug, click on it.
Fig. 5
When you see the name of you prescription in the dropdown menu, click on it. You will then see the above dosage selection window. Answer each question and then click ‘Add drug and dosage’
Fig. 6
Each drug you add will be added on to your drug list (highlighted in red above). When you have added all of your drugs to the list, click the ‘My Drug List is Complete’ button.
Fig. 7
After completing your drug list you will be asked to select a pharmacy. If you do not see your pharmacy on the list, there are a few things you can do. Try increasing the search radius (1), search for your pharmacy by name (2), or use the map to find your pharmacy (3). If you are not committed to any specific pharmacy, just select a few (4) you would be willing to use and then click ‘Continue to Plan Results’ (5).
Fig. 8
Now that you have input your location, drug list, and pharmacy preferences, the Plan Finder is ready to give you your results. The last step is to narrow down these results a little bit. If you are looking for a Part D plan to go along with a Medicare Supplement Plan and/or Original Medicare, select the checkbox next to ‘Prescription Drug Plans (with Original Medicare)’ (1). If you would like to compare Medicare Advantage plans with Prescription Drug Coverage (MAPD Plans), check the box next to ‘Medicare Health Plans with drug coverage’ (2). The third option (3) refers to an older type of Medicare Advantage plan that does not include Part D, and some other specialty plans. This option is not applicable to most people.
Once you select what type of plan you are looking for, you can further narrow your list of results by using the filters on the left (4). This is especially helpful if you are trying to narrow down a large selection of Medicare Advantage plans. Click the plus sign to expand the criteria you are interested in and then adjust the parameters to your liking. If you are looking at MA plans, I suggest that you use the Star Rating filter to eliminate plans with less than 3.5 stars, use the premium filter to indicate the maximum premium you are willing to pay, and leave the others alone. If you filter out too much you might miss out on a plan that could save you money.
When you have completed this page click ‘Continue To Plan Results’ (5).
Fig. 9
These are the best plans selected for you by the Plan Finder. Your current plan (or Original Medicare if you selected that) is displayed first, along with the yearly cost of your drug coverage on that plan (1).
Below that are your top recommended plans. The plans are ordered by yearly cost, which includes the premium, deductible, copays and coinsurance for the drugs you entered earlier. Keep in mind that the yearly cost is based on your drug costs, not you medical costs, because Plan Finder does not know what medical bills you will get in the coming year.
The left column displays the total cost for the plan, but for some reason separates it into two categories: retail and mail order (2). By default the plan finder sorts plans by retail pharmacy cost; if you are open us using a mail order pharmacy, try sorting the list by mail order cost to see if you can find a plan with a mail order pharmacy that beats the cheapest retail pharmacy (3). Check the fourth column to make sure that all your prescriptions are on the formulary (4) and see if any of them are restricted (5). You can click the blue ‘yes’ or ‘no’ next to each to see a list of which drugs are off formulary or restricted.
For Part D plans, there is usually no reason to not choose the first plan on the list. If you would like to enroll right away you can click the ‘Enroll’ button (6) next to your chosen plan to begin that process.
If you are comparing Part D plans, that’s as far as you need to go. If you are looking at MAPD plans, you may have noticed that the results page is not a great way to compare the medical benefits of a plan. To compare medical benefits, select up to three plans you want to compare by clicking the checkbox in the red square next to the plan name. Then click the ‘Compare Plans’ button (7). If you do not know your top 3 MA plans, check out my ‘How to Choose a MA Plan’ course to get a short-list of MA plans. Choose the top three plans that are on your list to compare.
Fig. 10
The plan comparison page allows you to compare plans from various perspectives. Click the ‘Health & Drug Benefits’ tab (1) to compare medical benefits. Choose a few benefits that are important to you and compare them across the plans. Also take a look at your drug costs (2), and the star rating of each plan (3).
Easy as that! Now that you have the facts, you can contact your independent broker to get a local perspective on the plans. When you have made a decision, they will take care of the enrollment process for you.