The Medicare jungle...

I just moved from NYS to MD with a Medicare PPO plan and thught I knew my rights. How wrong i was.

I thought when you moved to another state you had six months to find new insurance without being subject to underwriting.

I dutifully notified my old company of change of adress and got a letter asking me to confirm i had made the change.

All well and good so i started to seriously investigate plans in my area but found all sites that promised information woulldn't do it without a phone #. Within minutes I has an agent on the phone and they were relentless.

i finally liked one agent who did not slip i sneaky health questions. When you change within a special enrolement period which moving out of state is they can't ask about you health and put you through underwriting and hence higher premiums. (I am very expensive these days).

I was supposed to receive a letter from the old company telling me how long I had to apply for new insurance. So i call the company this morning and was told firmly I only had to the end of the current month. Apparently you are disenrolled at the end of the month you inform them of your move. So with less than a week to go till thend of May I paniced big time.

Called the agent I liked and explained the situation and told her i would go with one of the policies she had suggested. She walked me through everything again and filled out the application and i was able to give a voice signature so I should be OK come June 1.

So if you are thinking of moving Mom or Dad cross state lines set up the Medigap insurance ahead of time with a starting dateof your choice but don't notify the old insurer till late in the game and end up with only a few day like me.

I simply would never have found out thinking I could use my old policy for another six months. The disenrollement letter still has not arrived and the customer service rep my agent and i had a three way call with said it had not even been sent yet.

Luckily DH has neglected to follow my advice and notify the company he has moved so there is a bit more breathing room for him. If we both share the same plan we will get a family discount so every little helps. The new plan costs over $200 a month each but there are no deductibles or co-pays for anything at all and last year I had spent my max of $5K in co-pays by Oct.

FYI all medicare plans offered by
ins cos have to provide the same benefits they can just charge more. The plan I choose was Plan F which is expensive up front but will probably be cheaper considering all the health problems I have and frequent hospitalizations and expensive tests. I have already had two hosp stays this year already and lots of procedures.
Any other information others may have would be very welcome

So was the issue specifically with the PPO Plan but not with basic Medicare?

Oh, joy - another issue to deal with, as if moving isn't complex enough.

This is good information to know; after I wrap up my father's estate, I'll be moving, probably out of state, so I'll have to focus on getting a Medigap Plan before I leave.

Veronica; thanks for the head's up! I don't recall that we had a problem when we moved mom from NYS to Connecticut, but I suppose her plan was more portable, perhaps because she remained within the Tri-State region.

Good health to you, my dear!