Your Turning 65 Medicare Checklist For Wichita

Print this, save it, or just work down it in order. Each block below covers one stretch of time around your birthday, and the tasks in each block run in the order they tend to come up. Most trouble at 65 comes from a date that slipped, not from a bad plan. Find the block that matches today, start there, and keep going. If a question comes up that a list cannot answer, help with Medicare in Wichita is a free phone call away.

Why the order matters

Medicare dates do not bend, and a missed one rarely costs you just once. Take Part B late with no creditable coverage behind you and a surcharge rides on every premium after that. Drug coverage carries its own version. Thinking about waiting on anything? Run your dates through the Part B penalty calculator first.

Every block below counts from your 65th birthday. Doing things in sequence is what keeps the cost low.

Six months before 65

• List the doctors you plan to keep. Your family doctor, each specialist, and the hospital each one uses: Wesley, Ascension Via Christi St. Francis, St. Joseph or St. Teresa, or Kansas Medical Center in Andover. Veterans should add any care at the Robert J. Dole VA.
• Write out every prescription and its dose. Note the pharmacy you use, whether that is a Dillons counter, a Walgreens or CVS, or a neighborhood drugstore. Drug plans treat the same medication very differently.
• Get a grounding in Parts A, B, C and D. Medicare.gov explains them, and so does the Turning 65 guide for Wichita. A little reading now speeds up every choice later.
• Still working? Pull your employer-coverage paperwork. Wichita has big employers, Textron Aviation, Spirit AeroSystems and McConnell Air Force Base among them, and plenty of small ones. Whoever you work for, ask the benefits office whether your group coverage counts as creditable for Medicare, and get the answer on letterhead. Keep the plan summary and the creditable coverage notice in the same folder.
• Find out whether you already draw Social Security. If you do, Parts A and B arrive on their own and there is nothing to file for them.

Three months out: the window opens

• File for Medicare if it is not automatic. Apply online at ssa.gov, call 1-800-772-1213, or set an appointment at the Social Security field office in northeast Wichita. Look up its current hours with the office locator before you go, since walk-ins usually wait longer.

  Source: ssa.gov office locator

• Keep an eye on the mailbox. If Social Security enrolled you automatically, the Medicare card tends to show up about three months before your birthday.
• Line up the two routes. Route one pairs Original Medicare with a Medicare Supplement plus a separate Part D drug plan. Route two is Medicare Advantage. They differ on which doctors you can see, what you pay month to month, and how much you have to recheck each year.
• Look up each Wichita doctor in the plan's own directory, then call the office. Directories lag. The billing desk knows which plans it is accepting this season.
• Want a neutral walkthrough? Book SHICK. Kansas runs free Medicare counseling called SHICK. In Sedgwick County it is offered through K-State Research and Extension, with the Central Plains Area Agency on Aging covering Sedgwick, Butler and Harvey counties. The statewide line is 1-800-860-5260, and fall appointments fill early.

  Source: kdads.ks.gov, SHICK

• Or call a licensed Kansas agent. Ask about cost up front. The answer should be nothing, since carriers pay the agent. Wichita Senior Insurance is at (316) 374-2353.

Two months before 65

• Check each drug against the plans you are weighing. Find every medication on the formulary, note its tier, and see whether your Wichita pharmacy is in the preferred network.
• Leaning Supplement? Price Plan G and Plan N across insurers. Federal rules standardize the benefits behind each letter, so only the premium and the company differ. Shopping carriers is the real work.
• Make the call. By month's end you should be able to name both your route and your specific plan.

One month before 65

• Send in the plan application. A confirmation usually arrives within about a week. File it with your other papers.
• Match the plan start date to your Part A and B start date. Get both in writing. A short gap feels harmless until you need a hospital bed during it.
• Choose how to pay the premium. Bank draft, monthly bill or quarterly bill are the usual options. Pick one now, before a past-due notice picks for you.
• Time the end of old coverage. Cancel any plan Medicare replaces only on the date the new coverage starts, never before.

Your birthday month

• Coverage starts, provided you filed in one of the earlier months.
• Bring both cards to every appointment. Offices need the Medicare card and the plan card until their records catch up.
• Let each doctor's office know. Hand over the new cards at your next visit so the first claim goes to the right place.

The three months after your birthday month

• File now if you still have not. Your enrollment window ends with the third month after your birthday month, and the late rules begin right after.
• Read the first statements carefully. Mistakes are easiest to fix early. Call the plan about any charge that looks off before you pay it.

Your first fall on Medicare

• Circle October 15 through December 7. That yearly Annual Enrollment window is when you can change a drug plan or an Advantage plan.
• Check your plan against the new year's terms. Formularies, networks and premiums shift. Staying put is fine, as long as you chose it after looking.
• Finish any change by December 7. Switches made in the window start January 1.

Mistakes to watch for along the way

Following the list in order removes most of the risk. A handful of slips still catch Wichita retirees every year: assuming a work plan counts as creditable without asking, picking an Advantage plan before looking up the doctors, passing on drug coverage because nothing is prescribed yet, and letting the one-time Supplement window run out. The full set of seven, with fixes for each, sits on the Medicare mistakes page. Local phone numbers for SHICK, Social Security and county aging services are collected on the Wichita senior resources page.

Rather have a licensed agent ring you? Ask for a callback and we return it the same or next business day.