Not exactly. Some Medicare plan providers (such as Aetna) are considered to be “national”, meaning that these companies offer stand-alone Medicare Part D prescription drug plans in all 50 states - but the plans can be slightly different in each of the 50 states (meaning different premiums or co-payments) .
However, there are really no Medicare Part D prescription drug plans (PDPs) offered across the country.
Instead, Medicare Part D plans are offered within
34 Medicare PDP Regions and when you change your permanent residence outside of that Medicare region (or service area), you are granted a
Special Enrollment Period (or
SEP) during which you can join another Medicare Part D plan in your new area.
For instance, if you live in
Pennsylvania and move to
West Virginia, you will still remain in the same Medicare plan region (Medicare PDP Region 6) - and would not be moving outside of your plan's service area - so your plan would not change.
Whereas, if you live in Florida (
Region 11) and move to Georgia (
Region 10 ), you are changing Medicare PDP Regions and will need to enroll in a new Medicare Part D plan that is available in Georgia.
On a practical level, there are many Medicare Part D plans that are exactly the same (or almost the same) in one Medicare PDP Region as in another Region.
For instance, some of the most popular Medicare Part D plans in
California may be very similar to the popular Part D plans offered in
Ohio – although you may pay a little more or less for your monthly premiums or find slight differences in co-payments or drug coverage.
If you are considering moving to another state, you can get an idea of which plans are available in different states by using our PDP-Finder, found at
PDP-Finder.com. Just choose a state to see all available Medicare Part D plans or you can "check" the National Plans box in the search form to see which plans are offered in all (or almost all) Medicare regions across the country.
For example, you can
click here to see all New York Medicare Part D plans that are offered in most other Medicare regions. Once you click on the link, you can change the state to your own home state (in the State drop-down box) and then click the "Click to Find Plans" button.
You can also call a Medicare representative at 1-800-633-4227 and ask for assistance finding the most Medicare Part D plan (or Medicare Advantage) plan that covers your health and prescription needs.