Sedgwick County, Kansas
Medicare Help Across Sedgwick County, Kansas
For Maize and Goddard on the west side, Valley Center, Park City and Bel Aire up north, Derby and Haysville to the south, and Andover just past the line. Most of Medicare works the same in every one of these towns. One part does not, and this page shows which.
Search for Medicare help from Derby or Bel Aire and most of what comes back is written for Wichita itself. This page is for the rest of Sedgwick County, plus Andover on the Butler side. Almost everything on the Wichita pages applies to you as written. The single exception is spelled out below, town by town. For Wichita Medicare guidance from wherever you live, the cost to you is nothing, because the carrier pays the agent.
What stays the same across the county
Your town does not change these three things.
- Signing up for Parts A and B. Social Security handles that, not an agent. Its Wichita office is on North Cypress Street, and most of the same business can be done online or by phone. Source: dcf.ks.gov, Social Security offices
- Free counseling and rides. SHICK, the free Medicare counseling program that sells nothing, books local appointments through K-State Research and Extension at 316-660-0126. The county's transportation service carries eligible older riders from the smaller towns around the county into Wichita; call 316-660-5150 to ask about a rider form. Source: sedgwick.k-state.edu, SHICK; sedgwickcounty.org, Transportation
- The plan review itself. We go through your doctors first, then your prescriptions, then the budget, then how you like to get care. The return address on your mail does not change a single step.
The hospital names that come up are the same from every town: Wesley Medical Center in north-central Wichita, the Ascension Via Christi campuses, Kansas Medical Center in Andover, and the Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center for veterans. Whichever one you care about, check it in the plan's own directory before you enroll.
Town by town
Population figures below are rounded and come from the 2020 census unless noted.
Derby
About ten miles southeast of downtown Wichita, with McConnell Air Force Base on its northern edge. Derby is the second-largest city in the metro, a little over 25,000 people in 2020. The town started out as El Paso and took the Derby name for good only in 1956, after mail kept landing in Texas. The county lists a senior center in Derby.
Source: sedgwickcounty.org, Senior Centers
Haysville
Roughly nine miles south of downtown, home to about 11,000 people. W. W. Hays platted the town site in 1891, and orchards once earned it the nickname Peach Capital of Kansas. Haysville has its own senior center on the county's list.
Source: sedgwickcounty.org, Senior Centers
Park City
About eight miles north along Broadway and I-135, with roughly 8,300 residents. Today's Park City incorporated in 1980 and keeps a marker for the Chisholm Trail, the cattle route that crossed this ground from 1867 to 1884. Wesley in north-central Wichita is the big hospital on this side of the metro. A Park City senior center is on the county list.
Source: sedgwickcounty.org, Senior Centers
Bel Aire
Northeast of Wichita, north of K-96, and among the quickest-growing towns here: about 8,300 people in 2020 and close to 10,000 by recent estimates. Bel Aire won the right to incorporate in 1980 after a court fight with Wichita that went to the Kansas Supreme Court. It has a senior center on the county list.
Source: sedgwickcounty.org, Senior Centers
Valley Center
Nine or ten miles north, in the river valley that gave the town its name when it incorporated in 1885. About 7,300 people lived here in 2020. Valley Center has its own senior center, and Wesley is the nearest of the large Wichita hospitals.
Source: sedgwickcounty.org, Senior Centers
Maize
Northwest along K-96, about ten miles out. Maize began in 1886 as a rail stop and has grown fast since, from about 5,700 people in 2020 to around 6,500 a few years later. The county's senior-center list has no Maize entry, so ask the county information line, 316-660-5120, for the closest one. Ascension Via Christi St. Teresa, on the far west side of Wichita, is the nearby campus.
Source: sedgwickcounty.org, Senior Centers
Goddard
About ten miles west, and the smallest town on this page at roughly 5,100 people in 2020. Goddard dates to 1883 and carries the name of a Santa Fe railway officer. A Goddard senior center is on the county list, and St. Teresa is the closest Via Christi campus.
Source: sedgwickcounty.org, Senior Centers
Andover: across the county line
Andover sits east of Wichita in Butler County, not in this one. It more than doubled in population between 2000 and 2020, reaching about 14,900, and it is the only town here with a hospital inside its own limits, Kansas Medical Center. The county's ride service does not list Andover among the towns it serves. For Medicare, the county line matters for one kind of plan only, and the next section explains which.
Where the county line matters
Medicare Advantage plans are approved one county at a time. The carrier files each plan for a list of counties, and a plan on sale in one county may be missing from the next one over. So an Andover address shops from the Butler County list, while a Derby, Maize or Goddard address shops from this county's list. Some plans show up on both lists and some do not. A plan your friend in Wichita likes may be one you cannot buy from Andover, and the reverse can happen too.
Drug plans sold on their own (Part D) and Medicare Supplement policies follow a different rule. Both are sold statewide in Kansas. The drug plans open to an Andover address match the ones open to a Haysville address, and a Kansas Medigap policy pays the same way in any town in the state. The county line never touches either one.
That is the full difference. Your county decides which Advantage plans are on the menu, and nothing else.
Tell us your town first and we will start from the plans actually sold at your address.
Call us (316) 374-2353 Request a callHow to get started
Gather your doctor list and your prescription bottles, and have your town ready. The county comes first because it sets the Advantage list before any other comparison starts. If fall plan mail prompted the question, the Open Enrollment page walks through that calendar. For rides, aging services and other contacts, see the Wichita senior resources directory.
Rather have a licensed agent ring you? Ask for a callback and we return it the same or next business day.
Questions from outside Wichita
I live in Andover. Can I join the Advantage plan my brother has in Wichita?
Only if the carrier filed that plan for Butler County too. Get the full plan name, including the letters after it, and look up which counties it serves before you compare benefits.
Do I need to come into Wichita to meet with an agent?
No. We work by phone or video, so a review from a porch in Goddard or Valley Center runs exactly the way it would from a downtown apartment.
We are moving from Derby to Maize. Does our Advantage plan move with us?
Yes. Both towns sit inside the area the plan was filed for, so you only report the new address. A move across a county line works differently and opens a special window to pick from the plans sold at the new address.
Living outside Wichita and want a plan review?
Name your town and we will compare plans by phone, at no cost to you.
Call (316) 374-2353 Or request a callback