Page 1 - Cover letter and appendices for Michael D Johnson

October 29, 2019

Mr. Michael D. Johnson
655 S. Rimpau Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90005

Dear Mr. Johnson:

Because you plan to get a Medigap policy, it will be simplest if you can acquire it during the first
six months you have Part B. During that period -- the Medigap open enrollment period -- you
will not need to answer questions about your health or disclose pre-existing conditions. The
Medigap open enrollment period is briefly explained in Appendix A.

After this open enrollment period has past, you will be asked health-related questions and will
be denied coverage because of your upcoming surgery. If you wait until the end of January
when your current SCE-sponsored supplemental coverage ends, you will get a guaranteed issue
period, also described in Appendix A (see the last page of this appendix).

To be able to use this guaranteed-issue period, you will probably need to submit paperwork
showing that you are involuntarily losing your supplemental coverage. And as an added task
you will need to coordinate coverage for your surgery and follow-up between two types of
supplemental coverage.

Your six-month Medigap open-enrollment period began on June 1 and will end November 30. It
would be great if you can get your policy before November 1, if that’s possible. The reason is
that if you purchase your policy during the month of November, your coverage will not begin
until December 1, the day after your Medigap open enrollment period has closed.

I am not clear about exactly how Medicare interprets this six-month rule because virtually all
our clients over the years have timed the purchase of their Medigap policies to coincide with
the start of Part B. As shown in Appendix A, the Medicare web site indicates that people can
purchase a Medigap policy without disclosing pre-existing conditions during the first six months
that they have Part B.

But it doesn’t specifically address what happens if the enrollment does not go into effect until
after the six months has elapsed. By waiting until November to enroll, it’s possible that the
insurance company might say you aren’t enrolled until December 1 when the policy goes into
effect.