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Medigap and part D plans
Old 10-17-2021, 05:40 PM   #1
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Medigap and part D plans

I will be starting Medicare in Dec 2021 and have started looking at plans. I will most likely going with AARP Medigap plan G, my husband has been with them for many years without issue.

Part D gets trickier for me. I'm on 14 maintenance medications. Most are the lowest dosage available. Sometimes I think that I have ended up on these meds due to side effects of another med, but regardless this is what I am living with right now. Per Medicare.gov the lowest cost choices for mail order are Humana Walmart and AARP preferred.

Is there any issue with mixing Medigap and Part D plans?
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Old 10-17-2021, 05:44 PM   #2
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Originally Posted by bluelight View Post
I will be starting Medicare in Dec 2021 and have started looking at plans. I will most likely going with AARP Medigap plan G, my husband has been with them for many years without issue.

Part D gets trickier for me. I'm on 14 maintenance medications. Most are the lowest dosage available. Sometimes I think that I have ended up on these meds due to side effects of another med, but regardless this is what I am living with right now. Per Medicare.gov the lowest cost choices for mail order are Humana Walmart and AARP preferred.

Is there any issue with mixing Medigap and Part D plans?
No issue. They are separate.
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Old 10-17-2021, 05:45 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by bluelight View Post
I will be starting Medicare in Dec 2021 and have started looking at plans. I will most likely going with AARP Medigap plan G, my husband has been with them for many years without issue.

Part D gets trickier for me. I'm on 14 maintenance medications. Most are the lowest dosage available. Sometimes I think that I have ended up on these meds due to side effects of another med, but regardless this is what I am living with right now. Per Medicare.gov the lowest cost choices for mail order are Humana Walmart and AARP preferred.

Is there any issue with mixing Medigap and Part D plans?
No problem as Part D is a separate plan. I have been switching yearly based on lowest cost plan. I have been on Medicare 13 years now.
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Old 10-17-2021, 05:56 PM   #4
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Thank you. I assumed that was the case but didn't want to get into any unexpected issues if it wasn't.
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Old 10-17-2021, 08:34 PM   #5
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Since you are planning on mail order for your ongoing prescriptions, if the plans cost about the same, you might look to see if one has a more convenient local in-network preferred provider that you might rather use for the occasional one and done prescription.
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Old 10-17-2021, 10:51 PM   #6
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Since you are planning on mail order for your ongoing prescriptions, if the plans cost about the same, you might look to see if one has a more convenient local in-network preferred provider that you might rather use for the occasional one and done prescription.
Thanks. I've checked that, I can use the same local pharmacy for the one offs. Now I need to go over all my meds and see if Good Rx can be a better deal than insurance for some.
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Old 10-17-2021, 11:09 PM   #7
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I have found when picking part D , besides entering in the medications currently used, is to select about 4 possible pharmacy brands.
Often 1 pharmacy brand is preferred and therefore considerably cheaper than the others.

When helping some older relatives, I noticed they had a favorite pharmacy, but when the price difference was large enough, were happy to switch to another (grocery pharmacy, Walmart, Costco, CVS, Walgreens, etc).
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Old 10-18-2021, 07:44 AM   #8
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I have found when picking part D , besides entering in the medications currently used, is to select about 4 possible pharmacy brands.
Often 1 pharmacy brand is preferred and therefore considerably cheaper than the others.

When helping some older relatives, I noticed they had a favorite pharmacy, but when the price difference was large enough, were happy to switch to another (grocery pharmacy, Walmart, Costco, CVS, Walgreens, etc).

Yes, I ran the comparisons between multiple pharmacies. I always get 3 months at a time, so I don't care if I have to go a bit out of my way. I was surprised to see that in a few cases, Costco is cheaper than even mail order.
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Old 10-18-2021, 09:07 AM   #9
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No changes to my Plan D or Medigap policy. The price for both is up by less than one dollar for 2020.

I'll take that deal.
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Old 10-18-2021, 07:19 PM   #10
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I have found when picking part D , besides entering in the medications currently used, is to select about 4 possible pharmacy brands.
Often 1 pharmacy brand is preferred and therefore considerably cheaper than the others.

When helping some older relatives, I noticed they had a favorite pharmacy, but when the price difference was large enough, were happy to switch to another (grocery pharmacy, Walmart, Costco, CVS, Walgreens, etc).
Most (maybe all) Part D providers have preferred pharmacies and standard pharmacies. There is usually a considerable cost savings by using a preferred pharmacy.
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