Every October, the same thing happens up and down the shoreline: the mail pile grows, the TV ads multiply, and somebody's neighbor switches plans because a postcard promised a benefit that turned out not to exist in New London County. Annual Enrollment doesn't require urgency. It requires a sequence. Here is the one I run with my own clients, from Old Saybrook to Niantic, every fall.
September: read before you shop
- Find your ANOC letter. Every Medicare Advantage and Part D plan mails an Annual Notice of Change in September. It lists exactly what changes January 1: premium, deductible, drug tiers, copays, network. If you read one piece of Medicare mail all year, read this one.
- Circle three things in it: next year's premium, the drug-coverage pages for the medications you take, and the maximum out-of-pocket. Those three numbers decide whether you need to shop at all.
- Write your current list. Prescriptions with dosages, your doctors, your pharmacy. Ten minutes at the kitchen table; every later step uses this list.
October: check, don't guess
- Re-run your drugs through the official Plan Finder at Medicare.gov once next year's plan data loads in early October. Formularies are rewritten every year — the plan that was cheapest for your prescriptions last fall is often not the cheapest this fall. Compare total annual cost, never monthly premium.
- Confirm your doctors. Call the office or check the plan directory dated for the new year. Networks shift, and the directory on a marketing page is not a guarantee.
- Ignore the countdown clocks. Nothing you choose takes effect before January 1, whether you enroll October 16 or December 6. A decision made calmly in November beats one made from a TV ad in October.
The step almost everyone skips
The Plan Finder re-run. It's the single highest-value 20 minutes in Medicare. Plans count on inertia — the premium creeps, a drug moves a tier, and three years later you're overpaying by hundreds a year for the same prescriptions. If you'd rather not drive the website yourself, I run it with you, free, on a screen you can see.
November: decide
- If your plan still fits — premium acceptable, drugs covered, doctors in network — do nothing. Letting a good plan renew is a decision, and most years it's the right one.
- If something moved against you, compare your short list: another Medicare Advantage plan, or Original Medicare with a stand-alone drug plan — and, if you want gap coverage, remember Connecticut lets you apply for a Medicare Supplement any month of the year, guaranteed-issue. The structural tradeoffs are laid out in the Advantage-vs-Supplement comparison.
- If you're on HUSKY too: dual-eligible plans (D-SNPs) get re-filed annually like everything else — coordination is worth a specific look, not a guess. How the two programs work together.
By December 7: enroll (or confirm you're done)
- Enroll once. If you make several elections during AEP, the last one processed before December 7 wins. Serial switching creates paperwork confusion for no benefit.
- Keep the confirmation number, and expect the new card and welcome packet in late December.
- Missed it? If you're in an Advantage plan, the January 1 – March 31 Open Enrollment Period allows one switch. Otherwise you're generally set until next fall unless a life event opens a Special Enrollment Period.
Where I fit in
I do this review every fall for my clients — ANOC letter, Plan Finder run, network check — whether or not anyone changes plans. It's free, it takes twenty to thirty minutes, and "keep what you have" is the most common recommendation I make. If you want a second set of eyes on that September letter, book a call before the December rush.
Sources and further reading