Hey guys, Amy here. I wanted to hop on really quick. I actually just got off the phone with one of my clients in Austin and she asked me a question about Part D drug plans. So we are in the process of getting her ready and prepared to transition into Medicare. She said, “I don’t take any prescriptions. So do I even need to sign up for a Part D drug plan?” So since I get this question pretty frequently with people who are making that transition into Medicare, I figured, let’s just address it right now.
The answer is yes, the answer is no. So no, you are not legally bound to take a Part D prescription drug plan. Like how you need to take Part A and B of Medicare, you don’t need to take Part D. However, if you do opt-out of Part D initially when you’re first eligible, and then eventually, let’s say five years down the road, your prescriptions have increased, the pricing has increased and you say, “Okay, I want a drug plan now,” well, that five years, you’re actually accruing a monthly penalty. It’s 1% per month of the national average. and that penalty, whatever it comes out to be by the time that you do sign up for Part D drug plan, that gets tacked on to your drug plan premium for the rest of your life.
So a lot of my clients who aren’t taking prescriptions right now will actually, in fact, sign up for the cheapest drug plan for their zip code solely to get out of the penalty later on.
So, I hope this was helpful for you as you’re diving into these questions with your Medicare transition, but come join us at Medicare, We Care and we’ll talk to you there.