Senior Educators: Integrated Part D Plans

Part D is increasingly chosen as part of an integrated Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug plan (MA-PD). MA-PDs incldue both health insurance and drug insurance in one policy, and generally have a $0 or very low premium. Medicare pays the insurance company to provide this coverage because you have paid into Medicare through your (or your spouse's) career, and because you continue to pay your Part B premium.

The main reason that people buy MA-PDs over standalone PDPs is cost savings. Despite the significant potential savings, MA-PDs contain the full Part D benefit that standalone plans have and sometimes even have extra coverage during the donut hole. Medicare has found that the average Medicare recipient saves $1,000 a year in MA-PD plans versus Original Medicare or a Medigap plan.

Are MA-PDs as good as standalone Part D plans?

Part D that is integrated into a Medicare Advantage plan is, by law, at least as good as a standalone Part D prescription drug plan. In fact, many companies make the integrated drug plans even better than their standalone products because one of the ways to bring down medical costs is by using the right prescription drugs. Plus, MA-PDs include health insurance, which helps protect individuals against uncapped medical expenses associated with original Medicare.

What are the different MA-PD plan options?

There are many types of MA-PDs to fit the many needs of Medicare recipients. Like with standalone PDPs, it’s important to make sure your drugs are on the formulary (included in plans’ list of acceptable drugs). With MA-PDs, there are additional questions that may be important with regards to your general health insurance needs. For a more detailed understanding of Medicare Advantage plans, click here.

How do I choose which plan is right for me?

Many people like help deciding which plan is a good choice for them. Plans vary widely from company to company and from place to place, and when comparing plans between companies it’s important to compare the fine print—not just the premiums. That’s what Senior Educators Insurance Services was created for—to provide free, unbiased assistance to Medicare recipients to help them choose appropriate coverage. To request help now, please fill out the short informational form here so a licensed representative can be well informed about your healthcare preferences. Or simply give us a call at 1-800-505-8575 and speak with a trained and licensed representative now!

If you prefer to do the research by yourself, we’ve created a number of tools to help you do so. First, we have created the Senior Educators Insurance Services’ Top 10 Tips for Navigating Medicare, which captures a very high-level perspective on what to consider based on our years of experience. Second, we have created a plan comparison engine that shows you a list of the plans available in your area. To access that tool, enter your zip code on the side of this page and click the “Find Plans” button. We hope that if you find a plan through our tools, you’ll enroll through our organization, as it’s how we can afford to provide excellent, unbiased information and help.