January 26, 2006

Q:  I meant to sign up for a Medicare prescription drug plan, but it turns out I signed up for a Medicare PPO for basic benefits and drug coverage by mistake. I want to be in regular Medicare for my basic benefits, rather than a PPO. What do I do? --Hannah

Dear Hannah:

With so many plans available to people on Medicare this year, it is certainly easy to make a mistake like this. Many of the companies that offer Medicare prescription drug plans are also offering other types of Medicare plans, such as HMOs and PPOs. As your experience shows, this can sometimes be confusing.

Fortunately, you can make a change, if you think you’ve made a mistake. You can disenroll from the particular Medicare PPO that you’ve selected in one of three ways: 

• Send a signed written letter by mail or fax to your PPO requesting to be disenrolled; 
  
• Visit your PPO’s website and disenroll online (if the organization offers this option); or,
  
• Call 1-800-MEDICARE and ask to be disenrolled from your PPO.

You can disenroll from this PPO anytime between now and May 15. After you submit your request, you will be disenrolled by the first day of the following month and covered under the traditional Medicare program from that point forward.

As for your drug coverage, you might want to research Medicare prescription drug plans before disenrolling from your PPO and sign up for a plan that will help cover your drug expenses. If you sign up in the same month as you disenroll from your PPO, your drug coverage will begin the first of the following month, so you won’t have a gap in coverage. It is important to note that if you drop your PPO and pick up a drug-only plan, you will not be able to make any more changes to your drug coverage for 2006.

This column was prepared by the Kaiser Family Foundation, an independent, non-profit private foundation based in Menlo Park, Calif., that is not affiliated with the Kaiser Permanente health plan. Do you have questions about the new Medicare drug benefit? Send your questions to Medicare Q and A. The Kaiser Family Foundation. 1330 G St., NW. Washington, DC  20005 or MedicareQ@kff.org. 

(c) 2006, Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.