The Basics of Choosing a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan

The Medicare prescription drug program is a welcomed benefit but unfortunately picking the right plan has proved for many to be frustrating and difficult. One must pick one of the plans from possibly dozens depending on where you live. While each plan provides a minimum level of benefits defined by Medicare, each plan can vary on coverage for certain types of drugs. The most important thing to keep in mind when choosing a plan is you want to pick one that covers the medications you are currently taking.

Each plan develops a list of drugs that they will cover. This list is known as a formulary. Using the Internet, you can see if a plan’s formulary covers the medications, you use. The best way to do this is to go to the Medicare formulary finder website at http://formularyfinder.medicare.gov/formularyfinder/. This website is one part of the Medicare.gov site that provides extensive information about the prescription drug program.

Before accessing the formulary finder website, you should make a list of the prescription medications you are currently taking on a regular basis. Look at the prescription labels on the medication bottles and write down the name of each drug. Also, write down the amount you are taking. Maintenance drugs are typically sold in 30-day supplies. So if you are currently taking a drug provided in 5 mg tablets and you take 3 of them a day, then you probably need to purchase 90 tablets, 5mg each, per month. Write down this information next to each drug’s name. This will help you when entering your information into the formulary finder website and will help you find a plan that will cover the drug quantities you need.

At the Medicare formulary finder website you can enter your drugs by name or you can select each drug from an alphabetical listing of prescription medications. After providing this information, the website will display a listing of plans in your state that have all or some of your drugs on their formulary. So now instead of having to choose one plan from a long list of plans available in your state, you have a list of only those plans that include the medications you need. This is a great start to choosing the right plan.