Activity 4: Enrolling in a Medicare Plan
You will be turning 64 next month and will qualify for Medicare. Over the last several years, you've been receiving advertisements and brochures from the AARP with information regarding options available for Medicare coverage. At first you were annoyed at the frequent reminders that you were growing older, but now you need to take a deeper dive into your coverage options. You're familiarizing yourself with the various parts of Medicare, Medicare Advantage Plans, and drug coverage options. You see that under Part D, you have the option of choosing a prescription drug plan (PDP) or a Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug Plan (MA-PD). You discover that several Medicare Advantage Plans are holding an open enrollment period soon. Star ratings are available for each plan, which you intend to use to guide your decision-making process. There's much to consider, but you want to enroll soon to protect yourself should any health problems arise in the near future.
A. Describe the differences between Medicare Parts A, B, C, and D including eligibility criteria for each.
B. Describe difference between a PDP and an MA-PD.
C. Describe what an open enrollment period means for Medicare Advantage plans and identify how these plans can accept enrollment requests.
D. Describe what Medicare Star ratings are, including the categories that are measured and the data sources typically used to generate ratings.
