How to Sign Up for Medicare in Idaho

Check whether you are already signed up

If you have been getting Social Security or Railroad Retirement benefits for at least four months before you turn 65, you are enrolled in Part A and Part B automatically. Your red, white and blue Medicare card arrives in the mail about three months before your birthday month. You do not have to do anything.

If you are not drawing those benefits yet, nobody signs you up for you. Keep going.

Find your window

Your Initial Enrollment Period is seven months long: the three months before your birthday month, your birthday month, and the three months after.

Signing up late has a real cost. The Part B late enrollment penalty is 10% of the premium for every full 12 months you could have had Part B and did not, and you pay it for as long as you have Medicare. It does not go away.

Still working at 65 with coverage through your job? You may be able to delay Part B with no penalty, but it depends on how many people your employer has. Do not assume. Call me at (208) 897-2228 and we will check it in five minutes.

Sign up for Part A and Part B

This is the step people mean when they say "sign up for Medicare." It happens at Social Security, not with me and not with an insurance company. I cannot do this part for you, and anyone who says they can is not telling you the truth.

Three ways to do it:

• Online at ssa.gov/medicare/sign-up. This is the fastest way. Most people finish in about 15 minutes.
• By phone at 1-800-772-1213, Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 7 PM. TTY 1-800-325-0778. Tell them you want to sign up for Medicare Parts A and B.
• In person at a Social Security office. Find yours with the field office locator. Make an appointment first so you are not standing in line.

Have these ready: your Social Security number, your birth certificate or proof of citizenship, and, if you are delaying Part B because you are still on an employer plan, form CMS-L564 signed by that employer.

Write down your doctors and your medications

Two lists. That is the whole step, and it is the one that decides whether you end up in the right plan.

• Your doctors. Every one you want to keep seeing, including specialists.
• Your prescriptions. Name, dose, and how often you take it. The label on the bottle has all three.

Plans change their networks and their drug lists every single year. These two lists are what I run every comparison against, so a plan that covers your doctor and your pills does not turn into one that does not.

Pick which kind of coverage you want

There are two roads, and you pick one:

• Original Medicare plus a Supplement plus a drug plan. Costs more every month, costs less and surprises you less when you actually use it. No networks, works anywhere in the country.
• Medicare Advantage. Often a $0 premium, usually includes drug, dental and vision. You stay inside a network and the plan changes a little every year.

Neither one is the right answer for everybody. It depends on your doctors, your medications, how much you travel, and what you can live with paying when something goes wrong.

Enroll in the plan

This is my part, and it is the part that costs you nothing. We sit down, either on the phone or in my office in Boise, and go through the plans that cover your doctors and your medications. If you want one, I enroll you in it right there. It usually takes about an hour.

You never pay me. The insurance company pays me if you enroll, and the plan costs you exactly the same whether you use an agent or sign up by yourself.