Your Key to Medicare Success: Planning Ahead

Isn’t it amazing how your birthdays sneak up on you the older you get?

I see so many people who don’t want to think about their 65th birthday because when they were younger, 65 was considered old, but it’s actually pretty young.

65 is right around the corner for many of us, and so is Medicare.

Too many people come to me last minute and need to make their Medicare decision immediately. But, unfortunately, there are a lot of things that we can no longer do to help them in such a short time period.

Ideally, you want to start your Medicare process 9 to 12 months before you want to join Medicare. You can take specific steps that depend on your unique situation to start planning ahead.

Let me tell you a quick story.

I worked with a surgeon in Vermont, and he had plans to retire within the following year. So, he was trying to figure out what to do with Medicare.

We started with a timeline call where we talked about his future plans and what would impact his Medicare decision. We covered how his transition from his employer plan to Medicare would go and what steps were needed when. But, one of the biggest things we were looking at was that he was planning to have back surgery within the next year or two.

I started his research by calling the back surgeon he would use and found out they wouldn’t take Medicare. At all.

So he had three options:

1. He could have surgery now to have his employer plan cover it.

2. He could have surgery after he joined Medicare and pay $40,000 to $50,000 in out-of-pocket expenses.

3. He could find a different surgeon that will accept Medicare.

The point of this story is that because we started a year before he wanted to join Medicare, he was able to be thoughtful and strategic about his Medicare decision.

Do not make the mistake of going into your Medicare decision at the last minute. This will likely result in a decision you’ll regret in the future.