Do your Medicare plan shopping early
For many, holiday shopping makes this the busiest weekend of the year. But Medicare recipients who are shopping for new plans need to keep an eye on the calendar because Dec. 7 is this year's deadline for enrolling in Part D and Advantage plans for 2012.
Free help on comparing and choosing plans is available at two workshops sponsored by the Nassau Office for the Aging. The workshops are Wednesday at North Merrick Senior Community Center 1 to 3 p.m. and Thursday at Herricks Community Center 1 to 4 p.m. For information, call 516-227-8915.
To compare and choose plans online, go to medicare.gov. Q1Medicare.com has a new step-by-step tutorial on comparing plans at bit.ly/q1tutorial. And Allsup, a provider of Social Security and Medicare consulting services, has a tutorial at bit.ly/allsup-tutorial.
If you don't want to shop around yourself, Allsup advisers will do it for you, for a fee. The advisers will gather your information, including what medications you take, and come up with suggested plans.
