We now have our 2012 Medicare.gov Plan Finder tutorial online featuring updated screens and site tips. Our Medicare.gov Plan Finder tutorial is designed for people who are not frequent users of the comprehensive Medicare plan search tool and is presented in an easy to use screen-by-screen format illustrating important Medicare site features and offering tips for finding the most affordable health and prescription drug coverage.
People who used the Medicare.gov Plan Finder last year will be pleased to find that the preliminary entry screens (Step 1 of 4) are now even more streamlined and the drug list they saved from last year’s session is still available if they have access to their Drug List ID and Password Date (in Step 2 of 4).
Like past Plan Finder versions, the most common medication strength and 30-day quantity are set as the default dosage for ease of data entry.
The pharmacy selection step (or Plan Finder Step 3 of 4) should not be overlooked this year as more Medicare Part D plans are working with preferred-network pharmacies that offer slightly lower drug prices as compared to the plan’s regular network pharmacies. If pharmacies are not selected in this step, Medicare beneficiaries may notice that in 2012 they are paying unexpected prices for their medications.
If you do not use any medications, you can simple skip through the drug-entry ((using "I don't take any drugs" in Step 2 of 4) and pharmacy-selection (Step 3 of 4) and go directly into the step where you can see all available Medicare plans (Step 4 of 4).
In the final step of the Medicare.gov Plan Finder, you can review stand-alone Medicare Part D prescription drug plans along with Medicare Advantage plans with and without prescription drug coverage. The number of Medicare Advantage plans that you will see depends on where you live (State or County or sometimes, area of a highly-populated County). For instance, some areas will have no Medicare Advantage plans and other areas will have over 50 available Medicare Advantage plans.
You can compare the list of available plans with our Medicare Part D prescription drug finder (PDP-Finder) or Medicare Advantage plan search tool (MA-Finder).
As in past years, once you get into the plan results, users of the Medicare.gov Plan Finder are given a wide assortment of search options, allowing users to keep their plan analysis at a high, overview level or dive deep into the plan details.
Users at the highest level can select to search different plan types and compare up to three Medicare plans side-by-side. Users have the option to then click on the internal links under each plan for more information on the individual plan’s coverage details.
You can click here to see our updated Medicare.gov Plan Finder tutorial or the tutorial can be found at Q1Medicare.com/tutorial.php.
If you have any questions on the tutorial, click here and let us know.