Page 2 - Cover letter & Medicare evaluation for Mr. Carl Zambon

can sign up on the phone, specifying that you want your coverage to go into effect
on the same date that your Part B coverage will start. You may be asked to submit
documentation that you are losing your employer coverage.

2) Choose which of the two stand-alone drug plans described below in the Rx drug
coverage section that you want to enroll in. Then call that plan to enroll, effective
the same date your Part B coverage will begin. The phone numbers of these two
plans are shown on page 4 of your evaluation and in the Rx drug coverage section
below. You’ll be asked to provide documentation that your current employer plan
includes “creditable drug coverage.”

You should receive your new enrollment cards within two or three weeks after you call.

At least two of your physicians accept Medicare

Two of your physicians – Dr. Morris and Dr. Pokrywka – are listed in the Medicare provider
directory, as shown in Appendix A. I could not find Dr. Mellis in the directory, although I did see
that the St. Joseph Medical Group at the University of Maryland is listed as a Medicare
provider. I believe that Dr. Mellis is or was affiliated with the St. Joseph Medical Group, and if so
he likely accepts Medicare. But you should verify that with his office.

No Advantage plans in Baltimore county appear to meet your needs

As mentioned, there aren’t any Advantage plans in your area that appear to be a good match
for what you need. There are only 17 Advantage plans in Baltimore County (the national per-
county average next year is 27 plans). Four of these 17 plans are Kaiser Permanente plans, and
if you were in one of these plans you would need to switch to Kaiser physicians.

Another four plans are sponsored by Erickson retirement communities, and you need to live in
one of these communities to enroll in one of these plans. And the few plans that might be good
matches do not appear to have at least two of your physicians in their networks.

Appendix C is a list of the 17 Medicare Advantage plans in Baltimore County, ranked by their
estimated annual costs for the Rx drugs you take. See the comments on each of the lower-cost
plans and which of your physicians are listed in each plan’s network directory. Sometimes these
directories are out of date, and if you would like to call your three physicians’ offices and see
which Advantage plans they accept, I’ll be glad to include an Advantage plan in your evaluation
if there is a plan that all three of them accept.

Understanding how Medigap policies work

Since there are no Advantage plans that appear to meet your needs, your only other option is
to get a Medigap policy and enroll in a stand-alone drug plan. Perhaps the best feature of

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