1. Annual Open Enrollment Period
Getting Ready for Medicare’s
Annual Open Enrollment Period
Good Morning everyone and welcome to today’s webinar. Before we begin—I want to let you know that this webinar will be recorded and available on the GWAAR website (Medicare Outreach and Assistance resources page) later today. To keep background noise to a minimum, I am going to go ahead and mute the lines at this time. I will open them up again at the end for questions. In the meantime, please feel free to use the chat box in the lower right corner of the Adobe Connect screen.
Ok, in case you’re wondering why I chose a big wave theme for this PPT. Well—I tried “boogie boarding” once—not surfing but a similar concept. Similar in that there’s the ocean, a board and you need to get ready for what’s coming so you can be on top of the wave—otherwise you will get pummeled by the wave as it crashes down on you. I managed to get pummeled by the wave. (My husband still tells the story of seeing me get rolled by the wave and come up with seaweed in my hair.) In a similar way, as you think about the wave of open enrollment activities that are right around the corner, we need to take the time to prepare so we can be on top of the wave instead of under it. --And since the New Plan Finder was released this week—the first wave of activity is upon us. So today I want to take a look at some things that can help you get ready for this year’s open enrollment.
Medicare Outreach Training
August 2019

2. Agenda Your OEP Team OEP Outreach Plans New Plan Finder
Who’s available to help?
What can they do?
OEP Outreach Plans
New Plan Finder
Next Steps
The presentation today will cover several areas as far as preparing for open enrollment:
Your Open Enrollment Team
Open enrollment Outreach plans
New Plan Finder—just released Tuesday. I will be sharing some information with you today but as we become more familiar with this new tool, additional materials will be provided to assist you with the new plan finder.

3. Your OEP Team Who’s available to help? OEP Activities to be done: EBS
Other Agency Staff
Volunteers
OEP Activities to be done:
Presentations / health fairs
Distributing materials
First--It’s important to know who is available to help you with all the activities during the open enrollment period (and leading up to it). Certainly the benefit specialist will be doing Open enrollment activities, but who else can help?
Often there may be other agency staff who can help in some ways. IS there an ADRC specialist or another staff member that does presentations or attends health fairs? Perhaps that person can take open enrollment materials along and share information with the people they see. And volunteers can be a great help during open enrollment—as well as other times of the year.
Some of the activities to be done include giving presentations, attending health fairs and distributing outreach materials.

4. Your OEP Team
Determine what each team member can do and outreach assign activities.
Volunteers can help in many ways:
Distribute outreach materials
Assist clients with using plan finder for plan comparisons
Assist with mailings
Other office work to free up EBS time
Volunteer work should be supervised by SHIP Counselor and any counseling regarding plans should only be done by SHIP Counselor.
Determine what each team member can do and then assign the activities accordingly.
There are a variety of activities the volunteers can do—from distributing outreach materials to helping with mailings…
It is important to remember that volunteers are not SHIP counselors. Any counseling of the beneficiary should be done by the EBS, not the volunteer.

5. OEP Outreach Plans Print Activities Face-to-face Activities
Social Media
Other Mass Media Outreach
You likely have several different types of activities planned to spread the word about open enrollment. And a variety is always a good idea, so we’ll look at:
Print Activities
Face to face activities
Social media
And other mass media outreach

6. Print Activities Articles for agency newsletter Letters to:
senior centers & newspapers too
Letters to:
senior housing managers
pharmacies
Direct mail OEP postcard reminder to previous clients
Tip: Encourage them to “tell a friend”
Placemats and Home Delivered Meal Flyers
Target—senior dining and home delivered meal clients
Flyers, posters, table tents
Target locations—libraries, senior dining, senior centers, clinics
Church bulletin blurb
Let’s start with looking at some Print activities you can do to help you get the word out. Again, consider assigning the different outreach activities to a particular person. (If its only you, identify what you can do and create your plan for when you will do each activity—get it on the calendar.

7. Face-to-Face Activities
Presentations, Workshops/Enrollment Events
Set up Presentations: Senior housing, libraries, senior centers
Connect with local pharmacists
Do they know when to refer?
Can you set up table in their lobby? Senior Discount Day
Health Fairs
Workshops
Some EBSs run the Plan Finder and then have people come to a group event/workshop to pick up their packet and learn how to understand results and enroll.
Since face to face activities are considered highly effective, you are encouraged to try to set up presentations and other activities wherever you can. If you will be at a health fair, bring open enrollment flyers and other materials to hand out.
*In past years, some benefit specialists would send out the forms that people complete and return, run the plan finder and then hand the results out to people at a workshop.
This is a new year with a new plan finder—so you may have some different experiences. We’ll want to hear about things that work well as well as things that don’t.

8. Social Media Facebook Twitter Add posts about OEP.*
Consider linking to Part D forms that can be downloaded, completed and sent to your office.
Consider adding locations of presentations
Twitter
Some beneficiaries may respond to this.
Children of beneficiaries may view message.
As Medicare beneficiaries become more computer savvy, more may be exploring social media for information. Why not use that to your advantage and if your agency has a Facebook or Twitter account, share some OEP info that way as well.

9. Consider Other Types of Media Outreach
Radio
Sample ads on website
Interview with EBS about OEP TV
Share info with local news station
Newspaper
Sample Newspaper ad on website
Radio—especially in rural areas, it may be easier to do outreach over radio or tv.
TV—consider reaching out to your local news to see if they’d do a story about open enrollment—again might be easier to do in a rural area.
Newspaper
In addition to sharing articles, consider running an ad if your budget would allow.
Or, see if a local reporter would write an article about OEP, interview you to discuss why its important.

10. OEP Outreach Plans . Preparing Your Materials
GWAAR Website—Medicare Outreach and Assistance Page:
Open Enrollment Toolkit
Scroll through list of materials
Customize with your local contact information
Tools for Professionals—With New Plan Finder Resources!
New MPF Guidance for SHIPs
How to set up MyMedicare account
Coming soon: Guide to Using New Plan Finder
Now is a good time to be preparing your materials. Of course you can take a look at what you’ve used in years past and update as necessary. WE also have a variety of outreach materials available on the GWAAR website.

11. New Plan Finder Released this week!
New and “Legacy”/Old plan finder both currently active.
Only the new plan finder will be available during this year’s open enrollment period.
Check in out!!!
Well the big news this week is that the New Plan Finder has been released.

12. New Look to Medicare.gov Home Page!
Access the New Plan Finder Here.
IF you’ve gone to the Medicare.gov website in the last two days, I’m sure you noticed the new look.
Can use Legacy Plan Finder until end of September.

13. Option for personal search with beneficiary’s MyMedicare login information
Anonymous Search
This is the home page for the new Medicare Plan Finder. You have an option…..The personal search using client’s MyMedicare login will pull drug list info from their record—that drug list info and dosage will need to be checked.
Keep in mind, If doing an anonymous search, you will need to enter the client’s medications and dosage when you run the plan finder. That drug list cannot be saved unless a MyMedicare account is set up. (And that means that for an anonymous search, you will not be able to enter the drug list at one time and then go in later to just run the plan finder search.)

14. Enter client’s MyMedicare login information
To Create Account click here
So if you click “Login or Create Account” you will be taken to the MyMedicare.gov login page. Yesterday, CMS sent out a document that explains how to create a MyMedicare Account. You will see a link to it in this webinar screen upper right corner. I also have a PPT there with slides that explain how to do it.

15. New Plan Finder—Key Points
Monthly Plan Premium is shown first.
Clients should not select plan based only on premium.
Estimated Total Annual Cost is NOT shown in the new MPF.
May want to either do the math for the client or at least make sure the client knows they should consider both the Estimated Yearly Drug Cost AND the Monthly Premium (x 12) when choosing a plan.
Problems with new MPF?
Plan Finder Intake Form no longer used.
Use new survey link in New MPF Guidance* to report issues.
Let your program attorney know.
For reporting any issues, be sure to distinguish actual Inaccurate data vs. navigation issues.
I know many of you have already been trying out the new plan finder.
For those of you who attended the August 16 CMS webinar on the new plan finder, you heard them say that the new plan finder is designed to be more up-to-date and consumer friendly—so it is designed in a way to be easier for Medicare beneficiaries to understand and navigate. But there are a few things that are important to be aware of—and some things that you’ll want to point out to clients.

16. Click for drug details including drug restrictions.
Results Page
Click for drug details including drug restrictions.
Sorting Options:
Here is a couple screenshots from the results Page. You can see some of the issues I mentioned about the premium being shown first. Also, note the options for sorting.
CMS is currently in the process of producing several other tools to aid with learning the new Plan Finder, including videos and tip sheets. In addition, we previously had a Plan Finder Guide that you could use as a quick reference or to share as a handout for beneficiaries and we will be creating one for the new Plan Finder. As soon as that is ready I will send that out to all of you and it will also be kept in the Open Enrollment Toolkit on the website. –But please bear with us as we are still learning this new tool as well.

17. Steps You Can Take Now: Print last year’s drug list for past clients.
Drug list ID and password date no longer effective during this OEP.
SHIP counselors will be allowed to record and store Medicare beneficiary’s MyMedicare passwords and log-in information. 
Learn how to set up MyMedicare Accounts.
Inform past and/or new clients how to set up account (consider sharing handout)
Attend CMS training on 9/5 regarding the new Plan Finder*.
Practice running the new plan finder—become familiar with the flow and features.
Practice printing results.
So here are a few things you can be doing to prepare for open enrollment.

18. Next Steps:
Prepare the beneficiary
Counselor preparations
Forms

19. Beneficiary Preparation
Provide list of items to have ready:
MyMedicare Account information (so they can enter their username and password) or be prepared to help them set one up or do anonymous search.*
Medicare number and effective dates for Part A and/or Part B
Date of birth
Zip code
List of drugs that includes dosages and quantities
For liquids, get size of bottle (mL, fluid ounces)
Name and address of preferred pharmacy
Name of current Medicare plan (if applicable)
Status of enrollment in Extra Help, Medicare Savings Program, Medicaid
Sample Part D Forms—Revised—available on website
Again, I believe many of you already do this, but if not, this is something you’ll want to consider. If someone comes in for an appointment, but they don’t have the right materials with them, it may mean another trip to your office, as well as a bit of frustration and worry. To avoid wasted time and all the other issues, provide them a list of items to have ready for the appointment, whether it is in person or on the phone.
The items listed would be what you’d want to be sure they bring along. A customizable Part D form is available in the OEP Toolkit. This is just a sample, please feel free to revise or use one that you have created.
*SHIP counselors will be allowed to record and store Medicare beneficiary’s passwords and log-in information for the new Plan Finder tool. 

20. Counselor Preparation
Have client contact form ready.
Do complete intake.
Remember--Drug List ID number and password date will no longer be effective for this OEP.
Use MyMedicare accounts when possible.
Or may need to do “anonymous” search.
Allow extra time for Part D sessions.
Either using client’s MyMedicare username and password.
Or will need to enter all drugs when doing the plan comparisons.

21. Counselor Prep: Forms Part D form Part D Form Version 2 with Letter
Part D Telephone referral form
As in past years, there are some sample forms that you can use for open enrollment. Information about drug list id and password date have been removed from these forms as they will no longer be effective during this year’s OEP.

22. Counselor Preparation
Be sure to attend the Fall Medicare Training!!!
10/1 or 10/4
A few Plan Finder reminders before OEP:
Part B v Part D medications—Meds covered by Part B should NOT be entered in Plan Finder as it will just skew the results.
Off-Label usage of medications
Always Print the Confirmation Page!
For more in-depth coverage of the new Plan Finder, Part D issues and other important Medicare updates and details, be sure to attend the Fall Medicare Training! But here are a couple Plan Finder issues I do want to mention:
Part B v Part D medications. Meds covered by Part B should NOT be entered in Plan Finder as it will just skew the results. Example: Insulin used in an insulin pump is covered under Part B, and since insulin is very expensive, entering it into the Plan Finder could change the plan recommendations for the entire year.
Off-Label usage of medications—be aware this can be an issue—happens more during the year, not necessarily during OEP.
Always Print the Confirmation Page! Says the client was enrolled into XYZ Plan on __date, etc.
If you missed the 8/16 CMS webinar on the new Plan Finder, another one has been scheduled for Thursday 9/5 !

23. Medicare Outreach Coordinator, GWAAR
Questions?
Debbie Bisswurm
Medicare Outreach Coordinator, GWAAR
Well, hopefully this has been helpful as you begin to prepare for that big open enrollment wave. Now that the new plan finder has been released, I encourage you to continue to practice with it so you can become as familiar with it as you can prior to open enrollment. Remember, there are many resources out there to help you with your outreach, —and as we learn more about the new plan finder, we’ll be providing additional information and materials to help you during the coming months. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if I can be of assistance.
At this point I am going to open it up for any questions. (Unmute lines.)
______________________
Ok, if there are no more questions, we’ll conclude the webinar at this time. Have a good day everyone.