We now have our
2016 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.
Using a Tablet or Smartphone to view the Medicare.gov Plan Finder?
If you view the Medicare.gov site on a mobile device with a smaller screen, you might notice that your screen is organized slightly differently, but you do not lose any of the functionality or menu options.
However, once you get beyond the Medicare.gov Homepage, the remainder of the Plan Finder is not (as of this time) optimized for different mobile platform screen sizes.
Retrieving a Drug List from Last Year
The Medicare.gov Plan Finder 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.
Watch Preferred Network Pricing!
The pharmacy selection step (or
Plan Finder Step 3 of 4) should be taken seriously as more Medicare Part D plans are working with preferred-network pharmacies that offer lower drug prices as compared to the plan’s regular network pharmacies.
You must select at least one, but no more than three pharmacies in this step, - again with preferred network pharmacy pricing, Medicare beneficiaries may notice that they are paying unexpected prices for their medications.
Skipping the Drug List and Pharmacy Selection
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). So you just jump over the drug-entry step and see a list of Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage plans in your area, skipping ahead over the pharmacy selection step.
In the
final step of the Medicare.gov Plan Finder, you can review stand-alone Medicare Part D prescription drug plans (PDPs) along with Medicare Advantage plans with (MAPDs) and without prescription drug coverage (MAs).
The number of Medicare Advantage plans that you will see depends on the Service Area 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 well over
50 available Medicare Advantage plans.
Using our PDP-Finder and MA-Finder to provide an overview
If you just want to see Medicare plans in your area, 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.
Still have a question for us?
If you have any questions on the tutorial or something else related to the Medicare Part D program,
click here and let us know.