Reminder: Check Your 2022 Medicare Drug Plans—You Have Until December 7 to Change

Some anticoagulants are being dropped from formularies next year

November 22, 2021

  • Summary: You have until December 7 to check your Medicare Drug Plans for changes to medication coverage next year
  • Reading time: 2–3 minutes.

Will your medications be covered next year by your Medicare plan? We’re hearing about formulary changes, especially among the anticoagulants. Medications that have been covered for years are being dropped from some formularies.

If your medications are dropped by the plan, that could be costly, or you could be forced to switch medications. That is called “non-medical switching.” It means that you were forced to change medications by your insurance plan rather than by your doctor. If you’re stable on your medications and they work well, having to switch could be harmful to your health.

You still have time to make Medicare coverage changes for next year. The deadline is December 7, 2021. You can check for any medication coverage changes for 2022 by downloading your plan’s formulary from their website.

Alternatively, Medicare’s Plan Finder makes it easy to check online. And if your medications have been dropped, the Plan Finder can help you find plans that do cover them.

Enter your location, medications and doses, and preferred pharmacies to find drug plans in your area in the Plan Finder. In addition, you’ll find cost information for plans and medications and can compare up to three plans side-by-side.

You can drill deeper into the drug plans to see detailed breakdowns of costs for each medication by pharmacy. You can also see details by drug plan stage, such as when you’re in the coverage gap (donut hole). Finally, you can drill down into the star ratings for each plan, including detailed categories.

This should make it easy to check medication coverage for next year. In addition, if you need to change plans, it makes learning about your options easy and even helps you enroll in a new plan.

You have until December 7, but it will be here before we know it. Use this link to access the Medicare Plan Finder.