Preparing for Medicare Open Enrollment

Prepare For Medicare Open Enrollment

You can make changes to your Medicare coverage each year during Medicare’s Open Enrollment, which runs October 15 to December 7. In September, you will start to receive notices with information about any changes to your plan in the coming year. It is important to read and understand these notices, as they can help you decide if you should make changes to your coverage during Open Enrollment.  

Understanding your Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) and Evidence of Coverage (EOC)

If you have a Part D prescription drug plan or a Medicare Advantage Plan, you should receive a notice called an Annual Notice of Change, or ANOC for short, and an Evidence of Coverage, or EOC. Your plan should send you these notices by September 30. If you do not receive these notices, contact your plan to request copies.  

These notices list any changes for your plan in 2025. 

There are three kinds of annual changes to look for in an ANOC or EOC:

• First, look for changes to your plan’s costs for the upcoming year. Costs such as deductibles and copayments can change each year. For example, your plan may not have a deductible in 2024 but could have one in 2025.

• Second, look for changes to the plan’s network. Plan networks can change each year, which means your doctor may not be in your plan’s network for 2025. If you see an out-of-network provider, your plan may not cover any of the cost of your care, so you should see if your providers and pharmacies will still be in network in 2025.

• And third, look for changes to the plan’s formulary, which is the list of drugs the plan covers. Formulary changes can happen from year to year, meaning your drug may not be covered in 2025 even if it was covered in 2024. Even if it is still on the plan’s formulary, the cost of your drug may have changed. After reading about the changes to your coverage for 2025, decide whether your plan will still be able to meet your needs in the upcoming year.