Don't Make This Part D Mistake!

Hi, I'm Jim and I was retired. I finished my Part D shopping for 2025, but I also learned an important lesson about preferred pharmacies and doing your due diligence for every prescription you fill. Now, in this video, I'll review the choices I found here in New Jersey and the Medicare drug plan that I selected, and I'll also explain the pitfall that I discovered so you don't make this Part D mistake. Stay tuned. By the way, a shout out to everybody at the Head of the Charles River Regatta, one of the premier fall events in rowing. I was there 10 years ago for the 50th. I'm wishing everybody a great row today and this weekend. Even though my Cygnus Saver premiums were dropping from $16.80 in 2024 to $9.90 in 2025, I shopped for my Part D coverage based on total prescription costs plus premiums for the full year for the drugs that I'm currently taking. So, I completed that process. I showed you a little bit of how I was shopping in the preview phase, and I've concluded that WellCare is going to be the plan that I select in 2025. The premiums are $2.30 a month and they cover all of my drugs. Now, in the past, I've always used mail order with 90-day supplies as the cheapest way of getting my generic drugs filled. But I discovered in shopping this year, and it's true after October 15th when enrollment started, that the mail order prices were sometimes higher, substantially higher, than the retail prices for the different plans that I was reviewing. WellCare was one of the few that I could find where the price for retail drugs and mail order were the same, very low and affordable for me. But that's something you should check out. Again, make the decision based on how you want to receive the drugs. But why pay more for mail order if you can get a 90-day supply around the corner at a retail location? Maybe that's what they're saving money on. But there's something there that makes mail order no longer the best buy. Before I enrolled in the plan, though, I checked out WellCare's website and I discovered that their mail order pharmacy was Express Scripps, which is the Singa-owned company that I'm currently using to get my mail order pharmacy drugs filled. So, it should be the same process in the coming year as I've received in the past year. Now, I went on to compare the prices on the WellCare website to make sure that they were the same that I was seeing in the Medicare.gov website before I hit enroll. I also downloaded and reviewed the full formulary for WellCare plans and an explanation of benefits. And I suggest if you're switching insurers, you should do the same as well. Even if you're not switching insurers, you should probably take a look at that full formulary and the explanation of benefits to see if anything substantial has changed. Now, I also had a regular doctor's visit this month. I see an internist twice a year and I mentioned that although I haven't needed to take nitroglycerin for angina pain in the past year, the pills that I had on standby are probably outdated. So, he filled a new prescription before I see my cardiologist. I picked up the prescription from the preferred pharmacy, a Walgreens around the corner from me. Well, I was shocked to pay $57 for these little white pills. Yet, when I compared the prices on the 2024 plans, again on and on Cigna's website, I could have used an in-network pharmacy, CVS, which was down the street and those same drugs would have just cost me $8.25. So, what exactly does preferred mean? Hey, before I go any further, please like and subscribe to this channel and share it with a retiree. It'll help this channel appear higher in the search algorithm. So, I will suggest that every time you get a new drug prescribed or even one that's like you used to take and now you're taking again, make sure the drug is in the formulary and what tier it is with your current insurance plan. Go to the website and check it out and check out what the price is at the preferred pharmacy versus an in-network pharmacy to make sure that preferred is really preferred for you. Now, this could also be like an antibiotic that you're prescribed. Check it out to make sure that you go get the best price under your current Part D drug coverage. I will conclude with my standard warning. I am not a Medicare broker. I'm not a financial planner. I have no initials after my name. So, take these as entertaining ideas from one educated consumer to another. Always do your own due diligence and seek out a professional if you need one. Bye.