General Enrollment Period If you didn’t sign up for Part A and/or Part B when you were first eligible, you can sign up between January 1 and March 31 each year. Your coverage would begin the next month. However, you may have to pay a higher premium for late enrollment. Late Enrollment Penalties • Part A — If you are not eligible for premium-free Part A and didn’t sign up when you were first eligible, your monthly premium may go up 10%. You will have to pay the higher premium for twice the number of years you could have had Part A but didn’t sign up for it. • Part B — If you did not sign up for Part B when you were first eligible, you may have to pay a late enrollment penalty for as long as you have Medicare. Your monthly premium for Part B may go up 10% for each full 12-month period that you could have had Part B but didn’t sign up for it. Annual Open Enrollment Medicare offers an opportunity to make changes during Open Enrollment from October 15 to December 7 each year; changes are effective on January 1. During this open enrollment period, Medicare beneficiaries can do the following: • Change from Original Medicare to a Medicare Advantage plan and back again. • Switch from one Medicare Advantage plan to another Medicare Advantage plan, including switching from a plan that does not offer prescription drug coverage to one that does, and vice versa. • Join a Medicare prescription drug plan, switch from one Medicare prescription drug plan to another, or drop Medicare prescription drug coverage.
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