Six Weeks to AEP: Your September Medicare Prep Checklist

Every year, Medicare gives you one guaranteed, everyone-qualifies window to change your coverage: the Annual Enrollment Period, October 15 through December 7. And every year, a predictable thing happens — most people don’t think about it until the commercials start, the mailbox fills up, and the window is already half gone.

Here’s the thing we’ve learned from years of AEP seasons on the First Coast: the quality of your decision in November is mostly determined by the homework you do in September. Not because the comparison itself is slow — with the right inputs it isn’t — but because the inputs take time to gather, and the calendar (ours and every other agent’s) fills fast once the window opens. So here’s the six-step checklist we give clients in early September.

1. Build a real medication list

Not “the blood pressure one and a couple of others.” A written list: every prescription, the exact name, the dosage, and how often you take it. Include anything you expect to start or stop next year if a doctor has told you so.

This matters because drug coverage is where plans differ most, and where the money hides. Two plans with identical premiums can produce wildly different totals at the pharmacy depending on how each one tiers your specific medications. In 2026, out-of-pocket spending on covered Part D drugs is capped at $2,100 — but what counts as covered, and what tier it sits on, varies plan by plan. An accurate list is the single input that most improves a plan comparison.

2. Read your ANOC the week it arrives

By September 30, your Medicare Advantage or Part D plan must mail you an Annual Notice of Change describing exactly how your plan’s premium, deductibles, drug list, network, and benefits change on January 1. It’s the document that tells you whether auto-renewing is safe this year or whether something meaningful is shifting under you.

We published a full walkthrough yesterday — how to read your ANOC in 15 minutes — but the short version: check the premium, the deductibles, your drugs’ tiers, your doctors’ network status, and the maximum out-of-pocket. Anything that changed meaningfully goes on your list of reasons to compare.

3. Confirm your doctors — all of them

Write down every provider you’d genuinely mind losing: primary care, cardiologist, oncologist, the hospital system you’d insist on, your preferred pharmacy. During AEP, each plan you consider gets checked against that list — not just “does it have a big network” but “does it have my network.”

This is especially live in Northeast Florida, where hospital systems and Medicare Advantage plans renegotiate every year. A plan that looks great on paper isn’t great if it turns your primary care doctor into an out-of-network expense.

4. Add up what this year actually cost you

Premium is the number on the billboard; it is not the number that matters. Before AEP, pull together a rough total of what your coverage really cost you in 2026:

That total is your benchmark. When you compare plans in October, you’re not asking “which premium is lowest?” — you’re asking “which plan would have cost me the least, all in, living the year I actually lived?” Those are different questions with, frequently, different answers.

5. Get your scam radar up now

AEP season is the busiest season of the year for Medicare fraud, because scammers know everyone’s mail and phones fill with legitimate-looking plan marketing at exactly this time. The ground rules:

• Medicare will not call you out of the blue to sell, verify, or “update” anything.
• No legitimate caller needs your Medicare number, Social Security number, or bank details to “check your eligibility.”
• Pressure and deadlines mid-call are the tell. Real enrollment help never requires deciding while someone waits on the line.
• Work with a person you can name, call back, and — ideally — sit across a table from.

We wrote about the rise in these calls in detail in our scam-calls guide. One September conversation with the family members who answer the phone at your house prevents most of it.

6. Book your review early

If you want help comparing — from us or from anyone — book it in September or the first days of October. Every agent’s calendar compresses violently once October 15 hits, and the closer to December 7 you get, the more the process becomes triage instead of analysis. The clients who consistently end up in the right plans are the ones sitting down in the first half of the window with their homework already done: medication list, ANOC, doctor list, and cost benchmark in hand.

Frequently asked questions

When exactly is AEP? October 15 through December 7, every year. Changes take effect January 1.

What can I actually do during AEP? Switch Medicare Advantage plans, move between Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage, and join, drop, or switch Part D drug plans. Medigap has its own underwriting rules outside AEP — worth understanding separately if that’s on your mind.

What happens if I do nothing? Your current plan auto-renews into its next-year version, with every change your ANOC described. That’s fine when it’s a verified decision — expensive when it’s a shrug.

Is there a second chance if I pick wrong? Medicare Advantage enrollees get the MA Open Enrollment Period (January 1 – March 31) to make one switch, and certain life events trigger Special Enrollment Periods. But the clean window with the full menu is AEP — better to get it right the first time.

Does any of this apply if I’m turning 65 soon instead? Your first enrollment runs on its own clock — the Initial Enrollment Period around your 65th birthday — separate from AEP. Start with our new-to-Medicare guide.

Six weeks is plenty — if you start now

None of the six steps above is hard, and none takes more than an afternoon. Together they turn AEP from a blizzard of mail and commercials into a short, well-informed decision. That’s the entire trick: September is for gathering, October is for deciding.

If you’d like a partner for the deciding part, get on the calendar now while September appointments are still easy to come by. Book a free, no-obligation AEP review or call 904-654-5450. Kate Spilsbury (RSSA®, CMIP®) is an independent agent based in Jacksonville serving Northeast Florida and Camden County, GA, and helping neighbors walk into AEP prepared is what this season is about for us.

This article is educational and not medical, tax, or legal advice. Enrollment periods and plan rules are current as of 2026 and can change; confirm dates and details with official Medicare resources. Mere Benefits is not connected with or endorsed by the U.S. government or the federal Medicare program. We don’t offer every plan available in your area.