The Annual Medicare Review: What to Check Before Open Enrollment Ends
A yearly checklist for reviewing your plan's changes, coverage, and network before the enrollment window closes.
Current Medicare enrollees who want a repeatable process for reviewing their coverage each year rather than letting the plan auto-renew unexamined.
Plans change their costs, drug lists, and networks every year, but coverage often auto-renews quietly if no one reviews it, which can leave people paying for a plan that no longer fits.
- Why the Annual Notice of Change is the first document to read
- How to check for drug formulary and pharmacy changes
- How to confirm your providers are still in-network
- How to compare plans using the official plan finder
- What can and cannot be changed during each enrollment window
- What records to keep from the review
- A simple year-over-year comparison habit
- 1
Start with the Annual Notice of Change
Every Medicare Advantage and Part D plan sends an Annual Notice of Change each fall describing what will be different in the coming year — premiums, deductibles, covered drugs, and network. This letter is easy to set aside, but it's the single most useful document for deciding whether to stay or switch. Read it before comparing anything else.
Questions to answer- · What specifically is changing in my plan next year?
- · Which changes affect me directly versus generally?
- · Did I actually receive and read this year's notice?
- 2
Check the drug formulary and pharmacy network line by line
Plans can move a medication to a different pricing tier, remove it from the formulary, or change which pharmacies are preferred, sometimes with real cost impact. Go through your current medication list against next year's formulary rather than assuming nothing changed. If a medication was added mid-year, confirm it's still covered going forward.
Questions to answer- · Is every medication I take still covered, and at what tier?
- · Has my preferred pharmacy remained in the preferred network?
- · Would a different plan cover my medications at lower cost?
5 more sections in the full guide.
Here is exactly what is still to come. Add your name and email above to keep reading on this page and print a copy. Two fields — never account balances or account numbers.
- Confirm your providers are still in-network
Provider networks for Medicare Advantage plans can change year to year, and a doctor who was in-network last year isn't guaranteed to be in-network next year.
Includes: “Are my primary doctor and specialists still in-network for next year?”
- Use the official plan finder to compare options
Medicare.gov's plan finder lets you enter your medications and preferred pharmacies to compare estimated costs across available plans in your area.
Includes: “What does the plan finder show for my specific medications?”
- Know what can and cannot change during each window
Different enrollment periods allow different kinds of changes — switching Advantage plans, changing drug coverage, or moving between Original Medicare and Advantage are not always available at the same time of year.
Includes: “Which enrollment window are we currently in?”
- Keep a simple record of your review each year
A short written record — the date you reviewed, what changed, and what you decided — makes next year's review faster and gives you something to reference if a claim or bill looks wrong later.
Includes: “Where will I keep this year's review notes?”
- Set a recurring reminder rather than relying on memory
Because the review window is the same general time each year, a recurring calendar reminder is often more reliable than trying to remember when open enrollment starts.
Includes: “When will I set my reminder for next year's review?”
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Official sources
Rules change. Confirm anything that affects a decision against the current official source.
Where this fits in our work
This guide accompanies our medicare planning work. Joe Donti meets with Arizona households by appointment — in the Scottsdale office, by phone, or on Zoom.
Related reading
This guide is general education and is not individualized investment, tax, legal, Medicare, or insurance advice, and it is not a recommendation to buy or sell any product or security. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Insurance and annuity guarantees depend on the claims-paying ability of the issuing carrier. Rules and figures change — confirm current details with the official sources above and with your own tax, legal, or insurance professional.