Medicare Open Enrollment Online — This Fall's Plan Finder Walkthrough

One free website does the math — if you feed it your real drug list

Every fall, everyone on Medicare gets the same seven-week window — October 15 through December 7 — to review their Part D drug plan or Medicare Advantage plan and switch if something better exists. Most people do nothing, and most years that's when the quiet stuff happens: a premium creeps up, a drug moves to a pricier tier, a pharmacy loses its "preferred" discount. The plan that fit perfectly two years ago can stop fitting without ever sending more than one letter about it.

The government's answer is genuinely good: the Plan Finder at Medicare.gov estimates your total yearly cost — premiums plus your actual prescriptions at your actual pharmacy — for every plan in Portage County. And new for this shopping era, it's starting to show whether your doctors are in a Medicare Advantage plan's network, right inside the tool. This guide teaches the tool. It recommends no plan and no insurance company, ever — I don't sell insurance and nobody pays me a commission.

Before you sit down — gather these first

• Your red, white & blue Medicare card (you'll need the number).
• Your current plan's member card and the Annual Notice of Change letter that arrived by September 30.
• Every prescription — line the bottles up, or ask the pharmacist for a free 12-month printout (name, dose, refill rhythm).
• Your pharmacy names, your doctors' names, and your Medicare.gov username and password — or 20 minutes to create the free account.

The walkthrough in one paragraph

Log in at medicare.gov and click "Find health & drug plans." Confirm your zip code, enter (or confirm) your drug list — the account can pull in prescriptions you've filled in the last 12 months — then choose up to five pharmacies, including mail order if you use it. The results list every plan in the county. Set the sort to "lowest drug + premium cost" and compare on the estimated total yearly cost, not the monthly premium — a $0-premium plan can cost more over a year than a $40-a-month plan once your copays are counted. Check the boxes on your top two or three and hit Compare.

New: check your doctors inside the Plan Finder

For years the tool couldn't answer the question that decides everything — "is my doctor in this plan's network?" Starting with the fall 2025 shopping season, Medicare began showing in-network doctors and facilities for many Medicare Advantage plans right in the Plan Finder, and as of January 2026 plans must send Medicare their directory data and vouch for its accuracy. Some plans still link out to their own directories. Either way, before you enroll because of a doctor, call that office and ask: "Will you be in-network for this plan next year?" Two minutes, and the front desk answers it all day every October.

The drug-cost cap, in plain numbers

Since 2025 there's a hard yearly limit on what you pay out of pocket for covered Part D prescriptions: $2,000 in 2025, $2,100 in 2026, and $2,400 for the 2027 plans you're shopping this fall (it's indexed each year). Hit the cap and covered drugs cost $0 for the rest of the year — automatically. There's also an opt-in Medicare Prescription Payment Plan that spreads those costs into monthly bills from your plan instead of one big pharmacy-counter hit. It smooths the total; it doesn't shrink it.

What open enrollment can and can't do

• Can: switch Advantage plans, switch Part D plans, or move between Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage. Change your mind freely until December 7 — the last choice on file wins.
• Can't: sign you up for Medicare the first time, or change a Medigap supplement (those have separate rules — call OSHIIP before dropping one).
• The safety net: people already in a Medicare Advantage plan get one more change January 1 – March 31.

Free help that doesn't earn a commission

• 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) — the official helpline; they'll compare plans with you and can enroll you by phone.
• OSHIIP, 800-686-1578 — Ohio's free Medicare counselors, run by the Ohio Department of Insurance. Unbiased, one-on-one, and they sell nothing.
• Direction Home Area Agency on Aging, 800-421-7277 — serves Portage, Summit, Stark and Carroll counties.
• And one warning: Medicare never calls you out of the blue to sell a plan or "verify" your number. Hang up on incoming Medicare calls — my full Medicare scams guide covers every fall flavor. For the everyday Medicare.gov account (claims, cards, statements), see the Medicare portal guide.

What's in the printable PDF

• What open enrollment can and can't change — including the Medigap supplement trap.
• The September ANOC letter: what to circle before you compare anything.
• A key-dates calendar, including the little-known January 1 – March 31 Advantage window.
• A one-page prep checklist (cards, drug list, pharmacy names) — cut it out for the kitchen table.
• A fill-in drug-list worksheet that copies straight into the Plan Finder.
• Creating (or logging into) your Medicare.gov account, step by step, with a spot to record your username.
• The full Plan Finder walkthrough: entering drugs, picking pharmacies, reading Part D results, comparing Advantage plans.
• The new check-your-doctor provider directory — how to use it and when to verify by phone.
• A fill-in plan-comparison worksheet: current plan vs. Plan A vs. Plan B.
• The drug-cost cap ($2,400 for 2027 plans) and the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, explained honestly.
• Every free helper: 1-800-MEDICARE, OSHIIP, the Area Agency on Aging — none earn commissions.
• The scam page: nobody legitimate calls YOU selling Medicare.

Why I wrote this

I'm the computer guy, not an insurance guy — I don't sell plans and nobody pays me a commission on anything in this guide. But every fall I get calls that start with the Plan Finder and end with a password reset, a frozen browser, or a printer that won't print the comparison. So I wrote the walkthrough I wish everyone had open next to the keyboard, added the worksheets I hand out at senior-center talks, and put the free unbiased helpers — OSHIIP, 1-800-MEDICARE, the Area Agency on Aging — on their own page. The tool is genuinely good. The decision stays yours. — Bill