Encore Management

The Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Finder

The Primary Web-Based Tool to Compare
Stand Alone Prescription Drug Plans 

www.medicare.gov

Here are the step-by-step instructions on how to use the Drug Plan Finder:

• First select Compare Medicare Prescription Drug Plans.
• Then select Find and Compare Plans.
• If you don’t have your parent’s Medicare card,  do a General Plan Search by selecting Begin General Search.  Otherwise select Begin Personalized Search. 
• Enter your parent’s ZIP Code as plan options are defined by location.  Answer questions.
• Review Current Coverage and Consider Options.  Continue.
• Select Enter My Drugs and enter your parent’s drug information including exact drug name, dosage, and 30-day supply.

The beauty of the Drug Plan Finder is that you can save your work and then return to it and modify it without having to reenter detailed information.  To do this:

• Choose a Security Password Date.
• You will then be assigned a Drug List ID.  Print out this page for future reference.

You will next come to Select a Preferred Pharmacy or Pharmacies.  No is recommend so that plan options are not limited.  Continue.

Plan options will be sorted from least expensive to most expensive plan based on total estimated annual drug costs including premiums, deductibles, copays and coinsurance.  Think of this as getting a list of the total cost of all of your holiday gifts if the same gifts were purchased from some 50 different retailers.  You should be most interested in the least expensive plans.'

The five least expensive total estimated annual cost plans will show up initially.

• But, if you select Plans per page you can change this to All.
• You can do side-by-side comparisons of up to 3 plans by checking the box next to the plans of interest in the Compare up to 3 plans column.
• Then select Compare. 
• Drill down to more detailed information.

Once you have analyzed options and decided on a plan, it is best to go to the plan’s website to enroll.