Winter is coming, which means open enrollment season is here. With 2020 just around the corner, now’s the time to add or change your health coverage through Medicare or the Affordable Care Act (ACA). You have until December 7 (Medicare) or December 15 (ACA) to make any changes. As you compare your options, watch out for scams. Here are some tips to protect your wallet and your personal information this open enrollment season.
Eligible for Medicare?
- Anyone who tries to sell you Medicare insurance while claiming to be an “official Medicare agent” is a scammer. There are no Medicare sales representatives.
- Ignore anyone who says you must join a prescription drug plan to keep your Medicare coverage. The Medicare prescription drug plan (also known as Part D) is voluntary and has nothing to do with the rest of your Medicare coverage.
- Never give information over the phone to someone who says they need it so you can keep your coverage. Hang up on anyone who asks for a quick payment, threatens you, or offers you free equipment or services in exchange for your information.
- If you need help with Medicare, call 1-800-MEDICARE or go to Medicare.gov.
Looking for coverage under the Affordable Care Act?
- Get information, compare plans, and enroll at HealthCare.gov. Check out the new Quality Ratings to see how plans compare to others in your state, based on member experience, medical care, and health plan administration.
- Starting this year, you can also sign up for a plan directly through several certified partners. Make sure the company is on the approved list before giving them your information.
- Need help? Call the Marketplace Call Center at 1-800-318-2596 to ask a question, start or finish an application, compare plans, or enroll. Prefer to meet in person? Use the local assistance tool to find a list of people and organizations in your community who can help you – for free.
- After you apply, you may get a call from the Marketplace asking you to verify or provide information. If you don't want to answer questions over the phone, ask the representative to mail you a letter with instructions for completing your application.
If you spot a scam, report it to the FTC at ftc.gov/complaint. If the scam is Medicare related, report it at 1-800-MEDICARE. The more we hear from you, the more we can help fight scams.
It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.
The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.
We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.
In reply to They seem to call like robo by Marianne Mangan
In reply to I don't answer the landline by Honor
In reply to I don't answer calls from by Munch