[Medicare] Part D Sticker Shock

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cheese_breath
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[Medicare] Part D Sticker Shock

Post by cheese_breath »

My wife and I both received the 2015 information for our Medicare Part D plans. Wife's Humana Enhanced plan premium increases from $45.60 to $49.30, retaining the zero deductible. Not too bad. OTOH, my WellCare Classic plan premium increases from $16.10 to $29.80, and the deductible increases from zero to $320. OUCH! Guess I'll be looking for a new plan. I'd be interested to know how others are doing.
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whlatimer
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Re: Part D Sticker Shock

Post by whlatimer »

Find an independent Medicare insurance broker and let him research offerings for you. This process is inevitable this time each year. Google MedicareBob as a starting point.
gerrym51
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Re: Part D Sticker Shock

Post by gerrym51 »

cheese_breath wrote:My wife and I both received the 2015 information for our Medicare Part D plans. Wife's Humana Enhanced plan premium increases from $45.60 to $49.30, retaining the zero deductible. Not too bad. OTOH, my WellCare Classic plan premium increases from $16.10 to $29.80, and the deductible increases from zero to $320. OUCH! Guess I'll be looking for a new plan. I'd be interested to know how others are doing.

why don't you have the same as your wife? just wondering


are these actually just Part D plans or are they total plans?
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cheese_breath
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Re: Part D Sticker Shock

Post by cheese_breath »

gerrym51 wrote:
cheese_breath wrote:My wife and I both received the 2015 information for our Medicare Part D plans. Wife's Humana Enhanced plan premium increases from $45.60 to $49.30, retaining the zero deductible. Not too bad. OTOH, my WellCare Classic plan premium increases from $16.10 to $29.80, and the deductible increases from zero to $320. OUCH! Guess I'll be looking for a new plan. I'd be interested to know how others are doing.

why don't you have the same as your wife? just wondering


are these actually just Part D plans or are they total plans?
(1a) Because my wife and I have different needs. She is quite ill and requires several prescriptions. The Humana plan best fits her medication needs.
(1b) Because with the exception of pravastatin I have no regular prescription needs. I get the least expensive plan I can find.

(2) These are part D prescription plans, not Medicare Advantage.
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cheese_breath
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Re: Part D Sticker Shock

Post by cheese_breath »

whlatimer wrote:Find an independent Medicare insurance broker and let him research offerings for you. This process is inevitable this time each year. Google MedicareBob as a starting point.
Not necessary. I can wait until Medicare updates their website with all the 2015 plans and choose the best plans then I was just curious if anyone else has encountered the sticker shock I just got on the WellCare plan.
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rixer
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Re: Part D Sticker Shock

Post by rixer »

Do you have the Humana Walmart RX Plan available? At medicare.com it shows it's $12.60 mth but that is for the rest of the year. It isn't clear to me what it will be in 2015.
gks
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Re: Part D Sticker Shock

Post by gks »

cheese_breath,

Same sticker shock here, and although I have monthly prescription needs, this year's premium was about the same as the WalMart prescription cost. Next year may change.

As whlatimer suggested, we use an independent insurance broker to do the research for us. She provides several plans, their costs, and an opinion as to what would be the best plan for us.

Ok, I see you just posted you don't need a broker. So, ignoring that, still have sticker shock.

Good luck with your search

Greg
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Re: Part D Sticker Shock

Post by dolphinsaremammals »

self deleted.
Last edited by dolphinsaremammals on Sat Sep 20, 2014 4:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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cheese_breath
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Re: Part D Sticker Shock

Post by cheese_breath »

rixer wrote:Do you have the Humana Walmart RX Plan available? At medicare.com it shows it's $12.60 mth but that is for the rest of the year. It isn't clear to me what it will be in 2015.
That plan is available to me, but it has a$310 deductible. To my way of thinking it was better to pay an extra $3.50 monthly premium for a plan with zero deductible than a little less for one with a $310 deductible.

BTW, we all understand the new premium I cited is for the 2015 plan, right? I will keep the plan I currently have through the end of this year and look for a new one for 2015 when they are loaded into medicare.gov.
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kaneohe
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Re: Part D Sticker Shock

Post by kaneohe »

rixer wrote:Do you have the Humana Walmart RX Plan available? At medicare.com it shows it's $12.60 mth but that is for the rest of the year. It isn't clear to me what it will be in 2015.
$15.70 next yr with a small increase in deductible to $320.
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Re: [Medicare] Part D Sticker Shock

Post by LadyGeek »

This thread is now in the Personal Finance (Not Investing) forum (insurance). I also retitled the thread.
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mur44
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Re: [Medicare] Part D Sticker Shock

Post by mur44 »

The only way to choose an OPTIMAL Part D plan is to use Drug Plan Finder
at MEDICARE.GOV and enter all the drugs you are taking. The
Plan Finder will list all the plans that are available to you
in the order of lowest total ANNUAL cost to highest.
The top three plans can be compared after making sure that
all your medications are covered without any significant usage
restrictions.

This method ensures that you have the LOWEST ANNUAL COST
for the prescription plan.

In your case, you may want to look into Humana-Walmart plan
offered by Humana.

You may visit your local SHIP (State Health Insurance assistance
Program) counselor for free and unbiased counseling:

https://shipnpr.shiptalk.org/findcounselor.aspx


Disclosure: I am a Certified Volunteer Medicare Counselor
Alan S.
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Re: [Medicare] Part D Sticker Shock

Post by Alan S. »

Expect this in most MA plans as well, since they include the RX coverage, and govt subsidies have been slashed.
http://www.ahip.org/Issues/Medicare-Advantage.aspx

Just received 2015 material for AARP Medicare Complete (UHC).
Monthly premium increased from 29 to 49. Last year it went from 0 to 29.
Several drugs were increased by one tier in a 5 tier system.
A deductible of $220 was slapped on all Tier 3 and 4 drugs
So generic Imitrex for example went from 8/month to 45/month plus a 220 deductible.

And the icing - Primary care MD must now get a referral from the plan before I can see any specialist, eg my dermatologist. Old fashioned 1980s style HMO control.

Will check alternatives, but since this is the largest insurer nationwide, most of the other players will probably follow like lemmings.
Last edited by Alan S. on Sat Sep 20, 2014 4:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ddunca1944
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Re: Part D Sticker Shock

Post by ddunca1944 »

rixer wrote:Do you have the Humana Walmart RX Plan available? At medicare.com it shows it's $12.60 mth but that is for the rest of the year. It isn't clear to me what it will be in 2015.
I have this plan (I do not take any pres drugs, so shop for the cheapest plan a ailable). Received notice today tjat the premium is increasing 25% ($17 and change). I doubt I'll be able to find a plan with a lower premium though.
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Munir
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Re: Part D Sticker Shock

Post by Munir »

kaneohe wrote:
rixer wrote:Do you have the Humana Walmart RX Plan available? At medicare.com it shows it's $12.60 mth but that is for the rest of the year. It isn't clear to me what it will be in 2015.
$15.70 next yr with a small increase in deductible to $320.
There is no deductible (and no co-pay) for Tier 1 & 2 medications. Looks like an excellent deal expecially for people not using expensive trade name medicaitons above Tier 2.
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Re: Part D Sticker Shock

Post by kaneohe »

Munir wrote:
kaneohe wrote:
rixer wrote:Do you have the Humana Walmart RX Plan available? At medicare.com it shows it's $12.60 mth but that is for the rest of the year. It isn't clear to me what it will be in 2015.
$15.70 next yr with a small increase in deductible to $320.
There is no deductible (and no co-pay) for Tier 1 & 2 medications. .
What's your secret? I've always paid something , even at Walmart.
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Munir
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Re: Part D Sticker Shock

Post by Munir »

kaneohe wrote:
Munir wrote:
kaneohe wrote:
rixer wrote:Do you have the Humana Walmart RX Plan available? At medicare.com it shows it's $12.60 mth but that is for the rest of the year. It isn't clear to me what it will be in 2015.
$15.70 next yr with a small increase in deductible to $320.
There is no deductible (and no co-pay) for Tier 1 & 2 medications. .
What's your secret? I've always paid something , even at Walmart.
I exclusively use their mail-order pharmacy Rightsource.com, and all my medications happen to be tier 1 or tier 2. I've never used the local Walmart pharmacy or any other local pharmacy. My total Part D expense has been the monthly premium of $12.60 in 2014 and will be $15.70 in 2015. I use about 9 prescription medications.
kaneohe
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Re: [Medicare] Part D Sticker Shock

Post by kaneohe »

Munir.........thanks for that tip. My regular Rx is not the lower 2 tiers and when I've had opportunity to use Tier 1/2, I've needed them now but maybe someday I'll be
able to make use of that.
dolphinsaremammals
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Re: [Medicare] Part D Sticker Shock

Post by dolphinsaremammals »

OP, take a look and see if your wife's meds have moved into higher tiers.

The big updates booklet showed up from AARP MedicareRX.

The monthly premium has gone from something like $40 to $48, but the patient pays for tier one and tier two meds actually dropped for my plan.

The bad news for me is the three meds I take monthly went into tier four, even the two generics. So for two of them my out of pocket cost in the initial period went from (round numbers) $75 to $95, and for the third from $40 to $95. The manufacturer's price for at least one has been steadily increasing, so in the donut hole this will be worse.
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Re: [Medicare] Part D Sticker Shock

Post by Hexdump »

Based upon this thread (thanks to all who contributed), and my packet of "sticker shock" that I just received in the mail, I started looking around for a new plan.
I found this site https://medicare.oneexchange.com/ to be very helpful though it has some problems. What was curious was that it did not include my present plan which the Medicare site had shown as a choice.
Even though this site has "Medicare" in the URL, I wonder if they are associated with them.
I am going to go back to Medicare and look again.
The prior recommendations from medicare.gov listed a plan with zero, 000, no favorable ratings.
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Re: [Medicare] Part D Sticker Shock

Post by drawpoker »

I am with WellCare Classic Plan and the notice I just got said premium was going from $21.90 to $32.80 for 2015.
I consider that a 50% increase, quite a sticker shock looking at it strictly from percentages. Ughhh. Haven't had a chance to look through the whole encyclopedia-sized book that came with it, something about deductible going from $-0- now to $320, but, if I am reading the thing right, this only applies to Tiers 2-5.
Am not taking anything at all except 1 el cheapo generic b.p. drug that costs next to nothing. Hope I can stay that way. :oops:
Alan S.
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Re: [Medicare] Part D Sticker Shock

Post by Alan S. »

Looks like people better check their renewal materials ASAP, so they can schedule appts with their MD to determine an acceptable change from the drug tiers that are either subject to new deductibles OR for drugs that have been assigned to higher tiers, where co pays can easily be 5 times as high as before. It will probably take awhile for the press to become aware of this and publish some articles. Many people don't read the advance notices, but that could prove costly for them.

If these cost increases are affecting Part D, you can be sure that they will also show up in MA plans as well and also for employer plans.

Having generics that have been around for years elevated into a higher tier is very irritating. The plans are always trying to push people into generics wherever possible, but as soon as they have success there, some of these generics end up in higher tiers.
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