Reminder: Check Your 2023 Medicare Drug Plans—You Have Until December 7 to Change

Some anticoagulant and antiarrhythmic medications will not be covered next year

November 21, 2022

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

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

If your plan drops your medications, that could be costly, or you could be forced to switch medications. That is called “non-medical switching.” It means 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 for you, having to switch could be harmful to your health. (Insurance companies should not be playing doctor, changing your doctor’s decisions.)

If you find that is the case, you still have time to make Medicare coverage changes for next year. The deadline is December 7, 2022.

You can check for any medication coverage changes for next year by downloading your plan’s formulary from their website.

Alternatively, Medicare’s Plan Finder makes it easy to check online, especially if you log in and your medications are already listed. In addition, it will show what your plan will cost and cover next year.

And, if any of your medications have been dropped, the Plan Finder can help you find plans that 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 plans side-by-side.

You can drill deeper into the drug plans to see detailed breakdowns of costs for each medication by pharmacy and drug plan stage (such as the donut hole).

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.

And, if you’re eligible for Extra Help with drug costs, you can find out more.

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