For the 165,000 Montanans who are on Medicare, the next week and a half is crunch time. December 7 is the deadline for people age 65 and over to pick a Medicare prescription drug plan.
"People a lot of times can save hundreds of dollars just by switching plans," says Kate Cotnoir with Missoula Aging Services.
They've got five full time staff and a couple of volunteers booked solid helping people shop for new plans.
"We have been super busy. We encourage everyone who has a prescription drug plan through Medicare, to review it this time of year. But we've had no trouble filling our appointments."
Cotnoir suggests everyone on Medicare at least review their prescription drug plan every year, because plans can change. Drugs that were covered this year may not be next year. And people need to think about whether they might need more coverage for conditions that could get worse, or if they're planning on having surgery or another procedure.
"I've had a lot of those experiences, actually," said Cotnoir. "Sometimes a person will come in and they'll end up staying with the same plan just because it happened to work out that way this time. But often times they save a lot of money, or they need to switch plans because medication coverage has changed so I do see that on a daily basis."
The open enrollment period, this time when people can make changes to their Medicare drug plans, is only open from October 15 to December 7. Cotnoir says the best thing to do is be ready in the fall and schedule an appointment with someone like her to get one on one help early. Missoula Aging Services' appointments are all booked up now until the deadline. But the agency is offering aclass on the enrollment process in Missoula on December 3rd.
Help with Medicare enrollment is also available in Helena, Butte, and Whitefish.
