Medicare Annual Enrollment (AEP) and Open Enrollment (OEP): What You Can Change, and When

Medicare Annual Enrollment (AEP) runs October 15 through December 7. Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment (OEP) runs January 1 through March 31. Two windows, two different sets of rules, and a lot of mail from carriers in between.

Here’s what actually changes in each window, what you can do about it, and how we help people sort through it without the pressure-sale routine.

What is AEP?

The Annual Enrollment Period is the big one. From October 15 to December 7, anyone with Medicare can make changes that take effect January 1 of the following year.

During AEP you can:

• Switch from Original Medicare to a Medicare Advantage plan
• Switch from a Medicare Advantage plan back to Original Medicare
• Switch from one Medicare Advantage plan to another
• Join, drop, or switch a standalone Part D prescription drug plan

This is the only window in the year when everyone with Medicare has full freedom to move around. If you’re sitting on a plan you don’t love, this is when you fix it.

What is OEP?

The Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period runs January 1 through March 31. It’s narrower than AEP and a lot of people don’t know it exists.

During OEP, if you’re already enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, you can:

• Switch to a different Medicare Advantage plan (one time)
• Drop your Medicare Advantage plan and return to Original Medicare, with the option to add a standalone Part D plan

You cannot use OEP to switch from Original Medicare into a Medicare Advantage plan for the first time. OEP is for people who already made an MA choice during AEP and realized after the new year that it isn’t working for them.

Why you should review every year

Plans change. Every year. The plan that fit you perfectly in 2024 may not be the same plan in 2026 — even if the name on the card hasn’t changed.

Things that shift year to year:

• Premiums — the monthly cost can go up, down, or stay flat
• Networks — your doctor or specialist may be in-network one year and out the next
• Drug formularies — the tier your medication sits on (and your copay with it) can move
• Maximum out-of-pocket — the ceiling on what you’ll pay in a bad year can change
• Extra benefits — dental, vision, OTC allowances, fitness benefits, and grocery cards come and go

The carrier sends you an Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) every September. Most people glance at it and toss it. The changes that matter are usually buried on page six.

A healthcare review with us is a real conversation — we look at your current plan, your doctors, your prescriptions, and the plans available in your zip code, and we tell you in plain English whether you should stay or switch.

Mistakes people make

After a few thousand of these conversations, the same patterns come up:

Auto-renewing without looking. “It was fine last year” is not a plan. Last year’s plan isn’t this year’s plan.

Picking the lowest premium. A $0 premium plan can cost you more out-of-pocket than a $40 premium plan if your specialist isn’t in-network or your drug got bumped to a higher tier.

Trusting the TV commercial. The plan the celebrity is pitching may not even be sold in your county.

Waiting until December 6. Last-minute decisions in a window that closes the next day are how people end up on the wrong plan for a full year.

Assuming OEP is a second AEP. It’s not. It’s narrower.

How a healthcare review with us actually works

It’s a real conversation. We look at your current plan, your doctors, your prescriptions, and the plans available in your zip code, and we tell you in plain English whether you should stay or switch. No commission-chasing. No pressure. If your current plan is the right call, we say so.

What a review looks like: you book a time, we confirm your doctors and prescriptions, we pull up the plans available in your zip code and compare them side by side (premium, network, formulary, max out-of-pocket, extras), and we tell you what we’d do in your shoes. If your current plan is still the right plan, we say that. We don’t switch people for the sake of switching.

No pressure. No scripts. If we’re not the right fit, we’ll tell you that too.

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