Letting the Part B window close
Without active employer coverage, waiting on Part B adds a penalty that follows you every month after. Run the numbers with our Part B penalty calculator before you decide to hold off.
Medicare Plans
Medicare Mistakes Cincinnati Seniors Should Avoid
After years of sitting across the table from folks throughout Hamilton County, we keep seeing the same handful of errors. Rarely is it the "wrong" plan. Most of the time it's a missed date, a bad assumption, or a decision made off a mailer.
The big ones
Six mistakes that cost real Cincinnati money
Skipping drug coverage altogether
Not filling prescriptions right now doesn't get you off the hook. Go 63 days or more without creditable coverage and Part D adds a permanent surcharge to your premium.
Assuming last year's network still applies
Hospital and physician contracts get renegotiated every year. Recheck your Cincinnati doctors each fall instead of trusting last year's plan documents.
Choosing by premium alone
A $0 monthly plan with the wrong drug tiers can end up costing thousands more over a year than a plan with a modest premium and better coverage.
Missing your Medigap window
Your one guaranteed-issue Medigap period opens with Part B and lasts six months. Miss it, and Ohio carriers are allowed to ask health questions before covering you.
Signing up from a television ad
National ads push one plan to everyone watching. They can't tell you whether that plan actually works with The Christ Hospital or TriHealth here in Cincinnati.
7. Setting a plan and never revisiting it
The costliest mistake of all is picking a plan and forgetting about it. Coverage resets every January 1, and a fifteen-minute check during Open Enrollment usually catches whatever changed.
Think you've made one of these?
Call 513-286-5596 for a free, no-pressure review
Also worth knowing
Smaller slip-ups we catch often
Some people add a standalone Part D plan while already carrying drug coverage through a Medicare Advantage plan, which can knock them out of that Advantage plan entirely. Others cancel a Medigap policy assuming they can get it back later, then fail underwriting when they try. Retirees from Fifth Third, GE Aerospace and similar employers sometimes never mention a spouse's coverage, and we find out afterward that a Special Enrollment Period was sitting there the whole time.
None of this is complicated once someone points it out. That's what a local independent agent is for. If you're just getting started, read the Medicare overview and work through the Medicare checklist.
Worried you've already made one of these?
Most of these are fixable if we catch them early. Call for a free, judgment-free look at where you stand.