Medicare help anywhere in New York

How it works when you're not nearby

1. A first call by phone or WhatsApp: your ZIP code, your doctors, your prescriptions, and any retiree, VA or Medicaid coverage.
2. Before we discuss specific plans, Medicare requires a Scope of Appointment, a short record of which types of plan you want to talk about. It takes a minute and doesn't commit you to anything.
3. The review, usually by video so we can look at the comparison together: each option priced for the year with your prescriptions, your doctors checked by name, and a straight answer if your current plan is already the right one.
4. Enrollment, if you decide to change anything. Calls about Medicare Advantage and Part D plans are recorded, as Medicare rules require of agents.

Please don't email or text your Social Security number, Medicare number or medical records. When a document is needed, we'll agree on a secure way to share it.

What's the same everywhere in New York

A lot of Medicare in New York is set by the state, not the county, so these guides apply wherever you live:

• Medigap in New York: you can buy or switch in any month without health questions, and premiums are community-rated, the same at 65 as at 85. See also switching Medigap plans and Plan G vs Plan N.
• The Medicare Savings Program, Extra Help and EPIC: help with premiums and prescriptions, with no asset test for the Medicare Savings Program.
• NYSHIP retirees, working past 65, the NYS pension and Social Security, and turning 65 on a NY State of Health plan.
• Medicare Advantage vs Medigap in New York and Medicare with Medicaid (D-SNPs).

What changes with where you live

• The plans. Medicare Advantage and Part D plans are sold county by county, with different networks and drug lists; the same carrier's plan in Erie County may be a different plan, with a different network, from its plan in Saratoga County.
• The networks. Your hospital and your doctors decide more than the premium does. I check each of them in the directory of every plan we consider.
• Medigap premiums. The rules are statewide; the prices vary by region.
• Free local help. HIICAP, New York's free, unbiased Medicare counselling, is run through local Offices for the Aging; the statewide line, 1-800-701-0501, connects you to yours.

Meeting in person

In Saratoga, Albany, Schenectady and Rensselaer counties, and north in Warren and Washington counties, I can meet in Clifton Park or at your home; Medicare in the Capital Region has the county and town pages. Everywhere else in New York we work by phone, WhatsApp and video. In English or Turkish; Turkish speakers can start at the Turkish pages.

No fee for Medicare plan help. Request a conversation, or book a call.

Comparing agents? How to check any Medicare agent in New York, me included: the license lookup, the questions to ask and the disclosures to expect.

We do not offer every plan available in your area. Currently we represent 10 organizations which offer 81 products in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE to get information on all of your options. 1-800-MEDICARE (TTY 1-877-486-2048) is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Insurers' legal names and home offices: carriers page.