Medigap and part D plans

[bluelight]

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?

 

[RetiredHappy]

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.

 

[aja8888]

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.

 

[bluelight]

Thank you. I assumed that was the case but didn't want to get into any unexpected issues if it wasn't.

 

[Ian S]

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.

 

[bluelight]

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.

 

[Sunset]

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).

 

[bluelight]

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.

 

[Chuckanut]

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.

 

[Katsmeow]

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.