Announcer:
It’s time now on KROS for Financial Focus, brought to you by NelsonCorp Wealth Management. The opinions voiced in this show are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Any indices mentioned are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. Registered representative, securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research Incorporated, a broker dealer, member of FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisor representative Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Incorporated, a registered investment advisor, Cambridge and NelsonCorp Wealth Management are not affiliated. Cambridge does not offer tax advice. Now, here’s today’s Financial Focus program.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Good morning and welcome to this week’s Financial Focus, brought to you each and every Wednesday morning right here on KROS. Well, it’s the fourth, yeah, fourth Wednesday of the month. This month is flying by. I have Mike VanZuiden with NelsonCorp Tax Solutions, Nate Kreinbrink with NelsonCorp Wealth Management for this week’s show. Again, this month is flying right by. October is a busy month. Our household, because we have a birthday week last week, which is again, it seems like birthday cake every single night of the week. So, you kind of get to that and that flies by and then you kind of regroup and now you’re at the end of October already. But kind of an exciting time of the year. We have high school playoffs tournament for volleyball. I’ve seen Fulton Golf had a great week out at state.
Mike VanZuiden:
They sure did.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Second day was a little bit down compared to where they were sitting after the first day. But all in all, a great showing-
Mike VanZuiden:
Absolutely. State runner up.
Nate Kreinbrink:
… by the Steamer’s golf team,
Mike VanZuiden:
State runners up. That’s pretty awesome achievement.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Again, a lot of football playoffs, local schools kind of in the area kick it off this week, so want to wish them a very best of luck as they start that tournament trail. Again, kind of a crazy time. College football, you had the World Series starting, the NBA kicked off last night. There’s just… Hockey’s back on now.
Mike VanZuiden:
Absolutely.
Nate Kreinbrink:
If you can’t find something to watch, if you’re a sports fan, you’re not trying.
Mike VanZuiden:
I’m going to age myself a little bit here, but this whole Yankees Dodgers World Series brings me back to the ’70s, and Steve Garvey and Thurman Munson with the Yankee, just some of these old school players that I grew up watching, and now they’re back at it again. The Yankees in the Dodgers in the World Series, a couple of teams that aren’t afraid to spend a nickel-
Nate Kreinbrink:
No. Well, I’ll tell you.
Mike VanZuiden:
… to win. They’re spending some serious cash putting these rosters together.
Nate Kreinbrink:
There’s no shortage of star power either on these teams.
Mike VanZuiden:
There’s not.
Nate Kreinbrink:
And again, again, you kind of like to see that underdog, that small market thing. But again, I would say these are probably been the most consistent teams throughout the course of the season this year. And again, let them duke it out and you see these stars perform at this level. So, hopefully it’s a good series.
Mike VanZuiden:
As a Chicago baseball fan, I’ve moved on to football season. But, yeah, we’ll probably watch that one a little bit.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Again, getting into today’s program, again, we want to kind of focus the fourth Wednesday of each month on Medicare. Again, with where we’re at, timing-wise, we are into what we call open enrollment period. Open enrollment period starts on October 15th and runs through December 7th annually. And basically, what we want to do during this time is look at if you’re already on Medicare, kind of take a look at what you have and maybe see if it’s still the best fit for you for the following year.
Again, this year is kind of no exception to what seems to be the norm anymore, is that there’s changes from year to year to year. Whether it’s the tax code which you do on a regular basis, whether it’s Medicare here, again, you kind of get used to it by the end of the year. And then, oh, by the way, it’s changing.
Mike VanZuiden:
Exactly.
Nate Kreinbrink:
And so again, when we look at these plans, we want to make sure that the plan we have is kind of what we want to look at going forward. And again, as we head into this time period, now is the time to kind of do that.
Mike VanZuiden:
Right. So, this period between October 15th and December 7th, as a consumer in the Medicare space, you have some options. So, this is your opportunity. If you’re in a Medicare Advantage plan and you want to switch to a different Medicare Advantage plan, you have the opportunity to do that in this window. You can switch from traditional Medicare and Medigap to a Medicare Advantage plan if that’s something that you’re interested in doing. This would be the time period for that. And you can also elect or switch between Medicare Part D prescription drug plans and/or cancel your current Part D prescription drug plan. And Part D is one of those segments when we’re talking about change, that there’s been some real significant change for the 2025 plan year. There is now a $2,000 cap on what you pay out of your pocket for prescription drugs that are covered by your Part D prescription drug plan.
Okay? So, that’s a big change compared to where we’ve been in years past. Basically, that $2,000 cap includes your out of pocket costs for prescription drug plans that are covered under your plan. Now, what it does not include is the premiums that you pay for your Part D drug plan or what you pay out of your pocket for drugs that you may be on that aren’t covered by your plan. So, these Part D plans have a formulary and they have medications that are covered, and there are some drugs that are not covered under those plans. So, when you’re looking at that $2,000 out of pocket cap for your Part D plan, it does not include the premium and it doesn’t include any drugs that you may be on that you’re paying out of pocket for that are not covered onto your plan.
So, I think that’s really important to note. I think, with some of these changes, these formularies have had some changes made to them, so it might be a good time for somebody that’s on a Part D plan to take a look at what you’ve got and take a look at what might be out there to make sure you’re in the best plan for you and your current situation, and in the current environment we find ourselves in with the Medicare Part D plans.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Right. And I think too, when you start looking at these drug plans, again, I don’t think, there’s a lot of plans that we’ve seen that that have stayed the same, where again, the coverage from last year was the best plan going into 2025, it is the best plan. Again, as you mentioned, we’ve seen it where some are completely different. And where we’re seeing that is, again, on these drug plans, they rate their prescriptions as far as the coverage. So, you have a tier one, a tier two, a tier three with some of this coverage. Tier one is usually the most coverage as far as the less you’re going to pay out of pocket. What we’ve seen with some of them that have had changes for 2025 is possibly a drug that was in a tier one in 2024 is now in a tier two for 2025, meaning that the insurance company isn’t going to pay as much for that prescription as what they did in the years past.
But again, now we have that $2,000 cap that’s going to come into play. So, again, we want to just kind of again, take a look at these things and see, kind of like we said, is it still the best plan for me? In some cases, yes, don’t change a thing. Just stay with where you’re at with what you’re taking. Still covered, pharmacy’s still the in-network and the preferred one. So, again, some of them, it’s not that case, and that’s where we want to do. And sometimes, you add up or something came up during the course of the year where, again, now you’re taking a new prescription this year that you maybe didn’t have when you started this plan. Well, when we add that prescription now starting for the new year, starting January 1st, now maybe we want to look at a different plan.
So, a lot of things go into it, but again, that’s where you want to just take a look at where this are. We mentioned drug plans with the other main coverage. So, whether you’re Advantage or MedSup, if you’re an Advantage plan, we want to make sure we look at those networks.
Mike VanZuiden:
Absolutely.
Nate Kreinbrink:
I mean, those networks as far as, okay, my doctor was in a network last year, it’s not in a network this coming year. Now is the chance to change.
Mike VanZuiden:
Make that change, make that change. And really, the only thing, I think it makes sense for most people to take a look at things, and you’re out a little bit of time to come and sit with somebody that knows the landscape, to look at what you have, compare it to what’s out there now. But that small-time investment may turn into a significant dollar amount that’s saved. So, I just would encourage people to think about where you’re at and if you need, or if you’re looking to have somebody take a look, we’d be glad to help you with that.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Right. And I think you said sometimes it’s just that peace of mind knowing that we took a look at it. And if you don’t, you’re always sitting there wondering, is there something better out there? Am I on the right plan? Should I have been doing something different? Well, when you sit down and take a look at it, you kind of know that, okay, I’m on the best plan for me at this point. When we say the open enrollment period, that is the time period for people that are already 65 or older and on Medicare at that point in time. Again, this still applies to those that are turning 65 in the next probably couple of months to 12 months. I mean, these are going to start coming up to you.
And also, for those individuals that may be looking to retire in the coming months and are going to lose their coverage through work, again, that’s a different time period. That’s your initial enrollment period. Again, that can be done at any point in time when you first become eligible. This is just for those individuals that are already on plans that maybe want to look to switch for the coming year.
Mike VanZuiden:
Absolutely. And any changes that are made, so this annual enrollment period that we’re in now, this October 15th to December 7th period, any changes that are made during this period, those changes will become effective 1/1 of 2025. So, you come in, you look, we decide we’re going to change a drug plan, that sort of thing, those changes will take effect with the new year. So, that’s important to note as well when you’re out there shopping.
Nate Kreinbrink:
It’s all great stuff. And again, as we look at this, sit down with somebody, give us a call. We’d be happy to kind of navigate some of the waters with you, kind of take a complicated subject and hopefully simplify it as much as we can. I mean, to kind of get you on a route and kind of throw out all the fluff that you don’t need to know, and this is kind of what we’re looking at here and see where they kind of come into it.
Mike VanZuiden:
And I think a lot of people, the Medicare space is so, can be so complicated and there’s so many changes going on. I think, for a lot of people, you don’t have a lot of knowledge about it, right? So you know need it, so you get on it and once you’re on it, you’re like, “I’m there.”
Nate Kreinbrink:
Yeah.
Mike VanZuiden:
And just don’t want to think about it again. I understand that. There’s, “Hey, I’m happy with where I’m at, and those changes.” But if you’re not, it’s an opportunity to come in and talk about it. But some people, just once you’re on, “I don’t want to mess with it again. I’m good. Everything’s taken care of.”
Nate Kreinbrink:
And again, as with financial, as with investing, as with financial planning, again, it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. Just because your coworker is on this plan and has this, doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s the best one for you. You may be on a different prescription or have a different doctor than what they do that, again, makes it completely different with it.
Mike VanZuiden:
Absolutely.
Nate Kreinbrink:
So, again, don’t just go by word of mouth and say, “This is what everybody has. This is what I’m going to have,” because there’s some criteria that may make it not the right plan for you to look at it.
Mike VanZuiden:
Very true.
Nate Kreinbrink:
All good stuff. Give us a call if you’ve got any questions. Did want to mention here before we run out of time, that every Friday, NelsonCorp Wealth Management and NelsonCorp Tax Solutions are wearing jeans for charity. Money raised in the month of October will be donated to the Mississippi River Eco-Tourism Center at the Rock Creek Marina. Mike, appreciate you joining me today.
Mike VanZuiden:
Thanks for having me.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Again, Nate and Mike bringing you this week’s financial focus. Thanks for tuning in and have a great rest of your week.
Announcer:
Financial Focus is a production of NelsonCorp Wealth Management in Clinton and Davenport. The opinions voiced in the show are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Any indices mentioned are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. Registered representative, securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research Incorporated, a broker-dealer member of FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisor representative, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Incorporated, a registered investment advisor. Cambridge and NelsonCorp Wealth Management are not affiliated. Cambridge does not offer tax advice. For more information, visit our website at www.NelsonCorp.com.