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
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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?
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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?
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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. Call your key providers directly, since plan directories are not always current. This is especially important if you see specialists regularly.
Questions to answer- · Are my primary doctor and specialists still in-network for next year?
- · How do I verify this directly with the provider's office?
- · What would change about my costs if a provider left the network?
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- Start with the Annual Notice of Change
- Check the drug formulary and pharmacy network line by line
- Confirm your providers are still in-network
- Use the official plan finder to compare options
- Know what can and cannot change during each window
- Keep a simple record of your review each year
- Set a recurring reminder rather than relying on memory
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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.