As your parent ages, one of the key concerns for caregivers is insurance coverage, specifically medication coverage.  Does your parent have adequate insurance coverage and do you understand what’s covered by the policy/policies?  With the variety of choices being offered by Medicare, here are some facts concerning prescription coverage.   

Medicare Part D Fast Facts
There are two ways to get Medicare prescription coverage:

1. Join a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan- this usually involves paying a separate premium in addition to your Part B premium
   2. Join a Medicare Advantage Plan that includes prescription
   drug coverage

As caregiver, you may re-evaluate your parents’ plans and change plans every year. Open enrollment, the period when you can change a plan without penalty, occurs from November 15th- December 31st.

When choosing or reviewing a plan, you should consider the medications and doses that your parent uses and the name of the pharmacy that they use.  If they use multiple pharmacies, recommend that they have all their medications at one pharmacy.

There are 4 tiers of categories for coverage

1. Lowest copay: covers most generic drugs
2. Medium copay: covers preferred (brand name drugs that are less costly, but as effective as other drugs). There is a formulary of medications that are covered under this plan and substitutions may need to be made
3. Higher copay: covers non-preferred brand name drugs
4. Highest copay: covers unique high cost medications.

Remember, many plans require a copayment and also have a coverage
gap. This means that once you have spent a certain amount of money, you
will have to cover the costs of your medications up to a set limit.
You should get a letter within a week of enrolling in the program. You may
use this letter as proof of membership until your card arrives.

Resources: 
To compare plans, go to Medicare’s website: www.medicare.gov.  There is a box on the right hand side of the page that allows you to compare plans based on
personal information that you enter.

For help with filling out paper work and comparing plans, go to the State Health Insurance Assistance Program's (SHIP) website at www.shiptalk.org and enter your state.