If you've been on Medicare for any length of time, you've started getting the mail by now. Glossy postcards from carriers you've never heard of. Television ads featuring celebrities you'd forgotten existed. A phone call from someone insisting you must act before December 7 or lose access to all your benefits forever. (You won't.)
This is AEP — the Annual Enrollment Period — and it runs every year from October 15 through December 7. Here's what's actually going on, and what you should and shouldn't do about it.
What AEP actually is
AEP is the seven-week window each year when anyone on Medicare can change their plan. Specifically, you can:
- Switch from Original Medicare to a Medicare Advantage plan, or vice versa
- Switch from one Medicare Advantage plan to a different one
- Add, drop, or change a Part D prescription drug plan
- Add or change a Medicare Advantage plan that includes drug coverage
Whatever changes you make during AEP take effect on January 1 of the following year. The current year's plan keeps running through December 31, so you don't lose anything immediately.
What AEP is NOT
A few things AEP is not, despite what the postcards suggest:
It's not your only chance to change plans. There's also a Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period from January 1 to March 31 each year (for folks already on an Advantage plan), and there are Special Enrollment Periods triggered by life events that can come up any time of year.
It's not a deadline you'll be punished for missing. If you do nothing during AEP, your current plan automatically renews on January 1. You won't lose coverage. You won't lose access to Medicare. The phone-bank salespeople telling you otherwise are either confused or being dishonest.
It's not the right time to make a panicked decision. Seven weeks sounds short, but it's actually a generous window for what's at stake. The worst plan changes are the ones made under pressure on December 6.
What you should actually do during AEP
Here's the framework we walk our clients through every year.
First: read the Annual Notice of Change (ANOC). Every Medicare Advantage and Part D plan is required to send you an ANOC in late September, before AEP starts. It's a document that summarizes what's changing about your plan for the next year — premium changes, copay changes, formulary changes, network changes. If you ignore the postcards but read the ANOC, you'll have the most important information.
Second: check your prescriptions against next year's formulary. Plan formularies (the list of drugs covered) change every year. A medication that was covered at a $10 copay in 2025 might be moved to a higher tier in 2026, or dropped from coverage entirely. This is the single most common reason our clients end up needing to switch plans — and it's the easiest thing to verify before AEP closes.
Third: confirm your doctors are still in-network. For Medicare Advantage plans specifically, networks change. A doctor who was in-network this year might not be next year. If you have specialists you want to keep, confirm they'll still be covered before you let your current plan auto-renew.
Fourth: consider whether your situation has changed. Did you move? Did you get a new diagnosis? Did you start a new medication? Did your spouse's coverage change? Any of these can shift which plan is the best fit.
Fifth: if anything is unclear, talk to a licensed agent. This is what we're for. A 15-minute call during AEP can save you a year of being on the wrong plan.
What to ignore
Most of the AEP marketing is noise. Specifically:
The TV commercials with the celebrity insisting you call now. They're paid spokespeople for plans that may or may not be available where you live. The 1-800 number on screen routes to a high-volume call center where the agent's incentive is to enroll you in something — anything — quickly.
The flashy postcards promising "extra benefits" you're missing. Many of those benefits exist on plans you can already get, or have caveats that the postcard doesn't disclose.
The unsolicited phone calls. Medicare agents are not legally allowed to cold-call you about Medicare Advantage or Part D plans. If someone calls you out of the blue trying to sell you a Medicare plan, that's a regulatory violation. Hang up.
A note on Special Enrollment Periods
If you missed AEP entirely or made a change you regret on December 6 at 11pm, you may still have options. Special Enrollment Periods are triggered by qualifying life events — moving to a new address, losing employer coverage, qualifying for Medicaid, certain health diagnoses, leaving incarceration, and others. SEPs can come up any time of year.
If you think you might qualify for an SEP, talk to a licensed agent. We can usually figure out within five minutes whether you're eligible.
The takeaway
AEP is real, important, and worth paying attention to. It's also not an emergency. The pressure tactics in your mailbox and on television are designed to get you to make a fast decision, and fast decisions about Medicare are usually bad ones. Read your ANOC, check your prescriptions and doctors, and call us if anything's unclear.
We don't disappear after enrollment. AEP is a normal part of our year, and we treat it that way — calmly, methodically, one client at a time.