Medicare agent for Chatham

Where Chatham residents get care

• Chatham-Ghent Family Care, at 31 Dardess Drive in Chatham (518-392-6650), primary care on weekdays from 8:30 to 4:30. Columbia Memorial Health runs primary care at this site, as part of the Albany Med Health System.
• Columbia Memorial Health, at 71 Prospect Avenue in Hudson (518-828-7601), with Rapid Care centers in Catskill, Copake and Valatie. The system's accepted-insurance page gives Columbia Memorial Hospital its own list, separate from Albany Medical Center's.
• Specialists in Albany. If you see specialists in Albany, check them separately: being in the same health system does not mean the same plan contracts. The Albany Medical Center page sets out that hospital's own accepted-insurance list.

With a Medicare Advantage HMO, your primary-care doctor, your specialists, the hospital they admit to and, after a hospital stay, the rehab or nursing facility all have to be in the plan's directory for the year. Original Medicare with a Medigap policy has no network, so any provider that accepts Medicare works. Columbia Memorial has no page of its own here; I check it, the Chatham practice and each of your doctors by name in the plan's directory.

What's particular about Chatham

• A village in two towns, one plan list. The Village of Chatham, with its Village Hall at 77 Main Street, lies within the Towns of Chatham and Ghent; the Town of Chatham's Town Hall is at 488 State Route 295. All of them are in Columbia County, and so is all of the land in the 12037 ZIP area, so every Chatham address sees the Columbia County plan list: 48 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027. A move out of your plan's service area, or to an address with new plan options, opens a Special Enrollment Period that runs for two full months after the move.
• Getting to appointments. CARTS, run by the Healthcare Consortium, gives Columbia County residents free door-to-door rides to non-emergency medical appointments, weekdays 8 to 4 except holidays; call 518-822-8020 as soon as the appointment is booked, because rides are limited. The county's Office for the Aging arranges rides for residents 60 and over who can't drive (518-567-3677). The county's Chatham-Hudson bus runs on Tuesdays and Fridays from Depot Square through Ghent to Hudson (Johnston Transportation, 518-672-4901), and will go up to three-quarters of a mile off route if you call by 4 p.m. the day before. If that's how you get around, the plan's doctors have to be somewhere those rides reach.
• Medigap is priced like Albany. New York's Department of Financial Services compares Medigap premiums by region, and its Albany region covers ZIP codes starting 120–123 and 128–129, which takes in Chatham's 12037. In New York you can buy or switch Medigap in any month without health questions; the current premiums for the region are on their own page.
• Retiree and employer coverage first. State, school district and hospital retirees, and people still working at 65, have coverage that coordinates with Medicare in its own way. Whether an individual plan adds to it or cancels it comes before any comparison; NYSHIP retirees and Medicare while working past 65 cover two common cases.

Chatham Medicare facts for 2027

• Plans: 48 Medicare Advantage plans are sold in Columbia County for 2027, and I can enroll you in 43 of them. Every 2027 plan in Columbia County.
• Hospitals: which carriers' plans each one lists for 2027: Albany Medical Center.
• Social Security office: Hudson Social Security Office, which serves Columbia and Greene counties: Hudson, Chatham, Ghent, Kinderhook, Valatie, Copake and Craryville, plus Catskill, Coxsackie, Athens, Cairo, Greenville, Hunter and Windham. Medicare Part A and B sign-up runs through Social Security.
• Before you choose: Medicare Advantage vs Medigap in New York · reading your 2027 Annual Notice of Change · turning-65 checklist.

How we work from Chatham

My office is in Clifton Park, and I work with Chatham residents by phone, WhatsApp and video. A first call takes about fifteen minutes: your ZIP code, your doctors and where they are, your prescriptions, and any retiree, VA or Medicaid coverage. Nothing is decided on a first call.

What a Chatham plan review covers

1. Every doctor you see, checked against each plan's current directory, including Chatham-Ghent Family Care, Columbia Memorial and any specialists in Albany.
2. Prescriptions priced through each plan's formulary for the full year, at the pharmacy you actually use.
3. Retiree, employer, VA or Medicaid coverage and exactly how each option would interact with it, plus a screening for the Medicare Savings Program and Extra Help.
4. A written comparison with total yearly cost, gone through together by video or phone, and a plain statement of whether your current coverage should be left alone.

No fee for Medicare plan help. Request a review, or read the wider Medicare page for all of Columbia County. Nearby: Kinderhook and Valatie · Hudson.

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.

Run a business here too? Business insurance in Chatham.

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.