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Thursday, November 10, 2005

Medicare drug benefit sign-up process [corrected]

The sign-up period to get in the new Part D Medicare drug benefit program begins on Tuesday, November 15, 2005. It ends December 31, 2005 May 15, 2006. That's about 45 days.

There are two ways to join a Medicare prescription drug plan. Paraphrasing from the FAQ, which covers 238 questions and answers over 12 (+ 238) web pages:

  1. Directly with the plan of choice. It should be noted that most companies offering these plans have more than one plan. Many of the plans will offer a sign-up process on the web. And, there's always regular mail. Or,
  2. Directly with Medicare at either Medicare.gov or on the phone at 1-800-MEDICARE (since I can't stand alpha phone numbers, it translates to 1-800-633-4227) or, for text telephone users, at 1-877-486-2048. So far, I haven't seen anything about enrolling by mail, but they gotta have it.

More later.

CORRECTED on 14 Nov 2005: To enroll without penalties, the sign-up period ends May 15, 2006. I don't know where I was getting December 31st.

Posted by Marie at November 10, 2005 8:46 PM