Medicare enrollees aren’t stuck with the same coverage for life. Rather, each year, current enrollees have an opportunity to make plan changes during Medicare’s fall open enrollment period, which begins on October 15 and wraps up on December 7.
During Medicare open enrollment, you can look into moving from one Part D drug plan to another, switching from one Medicare Advantage plan to another, or swapping Advantage for original Medicare and vice versa. It’s a great opportunity to get rid of a plan that’s gotten costly or to sign up for a better that offers coverage at a lower price point.
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But scammers tend to target Medicare participants during open enrollment. And it’s important to recognize what scams look like to avoid becoming a victim.
Don’t get taken advantage of
Just as scammers commonly target seniors on Social Security, so too do they often go after Medicare enrollees. And those scams can take on different forms.
You may, for example, get a call from someone claiming to represent Medicare who can sign you up for a new plan that might save you thousands of dollars in healthcare costs. But Medicare does not, as a matter of course, assign agents the task of contacting seniors to help them save money on their coverage. So if you get a call along those lines out of the blue, be suspicious.
More importantly, do not give out any personal financial details, like your Social Security number, your bank account number, or your credit card…
