Medicare question: Traditional or Advantage approach better for MPNers

My husband is changing this year from Silver Script to United Healthcare AARP Walgreens. We are saving $600.0 by switching. His prescriptions come by mail and they use Optum RX. For an occasional prescription it is cheaper to use Walgreens.

Yes, it is good to check each year! Eileen

A Part D insurance which seems good one year may be too expensive the following year. These drug insurance price changes keep us on our toes!

Regarding Walgreens, after a retired judge friend advised getting the free Citizen’s App I observed that the Walgreens in my neighborhood has become a high crime area, so I usually avoid it.

Thanks for the suggestion to get RX by mail. Wish I could! Due to mail theft in my semi-rural area, I must use a secure locked mail box. Not all RX containers can slide in the mail slot, so they get tossed on the ground. I’ll never forget the time my car rolled over an expensive bottle of Lipitor. Crunch!

Check your increasing Part D charges, friends! It will probably save you hundreds of dollars by changing your Part D EVERY YEAR, which still have time to do until December 7.

Hi Eileen, Interested in your choice, as I just threw in my hat to Traditional Medicare, with G and D supplements. I saw the Silver Script Aetna listed at something like $1.61 /month premium compared to the AARP Walgreens United HC premium of $29 in my area. I took the Walgreens one, although I could not actually see the disadvantage of Silver Script in the price of drugs I MAY be (still no idea!) taking this next year. (I took the kind suggestions of forum folks and put in both the lowly HU and the exorbitant Pegasys.) I could not get my Medicare advisor to explain that discrepancy in premiums. Unless it is a privacy issue, can you say how Aetna's Silver Script let you down? I'm guessing your husband's meds were just not on the Aetna plan, or was it more a problem with the overall program?

My husband has to go through Alight because he has retiree benefits from AT&T. He has had Silver Script for several years and no problems with it. He does 90 day mail orders for four prescriptions. He has one expensive prescription…Farxiga. He can also pick up prescriptions at CVS, etc.

For 2023 the only silver Script plan available to him is going up from $32 to $39. The Walgreen AARP plan is $32. If he gets his drugs from Silver Script cost would be $2300 for 2023 including the plan. Walgreen AARP would total $1700 including the plan.

We live in a northern suburb of Philadelphia, PA. The lower cost Silver Script is not available to him. Drug plans seem to charge different rates in different areas.

If you can get such a low cost Silver Script plan I would probably go with it if it covers your current drugs. You can always change for 2024. Congrats on your decisions.

Eileen

One good thing about HU is it is very inexpensive. I am just starting to order from my online pharmacy,

I just saw my hematologist. She is letting me go another month taking 500 mg HU every other day. My platelets were 498 two weeks before seeing her (six month labs ordered by primary). I am really hoping I can continue every other day as I feel much better than taking every day. Maybe my body is adjusting to it?

Eileen

I have smoldering multiple myeloma, 6 autoimmune diseases, diabetes and many more. I have to take a lot of medicines. I have traditional Medicare A & B and AARP United Healthcare Part D and I continued by Government Health Insurance (GEHA) after I retired as a back up. Medicare pays 80% on hospital, doctors, test etc. My GEHA pick up the 20%. Now my only problem is drug coverage from GEHA used to great. Then CVs bought it and they are paying less and less of the 20%. One by one, I have been paying more of the 20% and sometimes all of the 20% because GEHA-CVs will not cover the brand name or it is not on their formulary. I got a letter from GEHA telling me that I would have to pay $600 a month for Januvia for a preferred patient (me) or $900 a month if a non-preferred patient! I called about and they said wait until January to confirm. I cannot afford $600 a month. But my primary for Part D has to pay first and after I know how my primary Part D pays I can find out what the remainder will be and how much my GEHA will pay if any of the remainder. I looked up the current monthly cost of Januvia and it was $1,889.99. The cost goes up and down.

If you have Advantage, you have to use the in-networks and go through a gate keeper for specialist. With Traditional Medicare, you get to choose the specialist, no gatekeeper. And if you have a rare cancer, with Advantage, you cannot count on seeing a specialist who has experience in treating it.

Thank you. After reviewing other options, I chose to stay with my current Plan D and Plan G. Still the right choices for me...Aetna