If you're on Medicare in Broward County, you know the rhythm by now. Every October the mail starts arriving. Glossy envelopes from carriers you've heard of and a few you haven't. Annual Notices of Change from your current plan, somewhere between 30 and 50 pages each. A few neighbors swap stories about who's switching to what. And then, on October 15, the Annual Enrollment Period opens.
Most clients ask me whether they really need to do anything during AEP. The honest answer is: probably yes, even if you don't switch plans. Florida's Medicare Advantage market is one of the most competitive in the country, which is good for prices and bad for stability. The plan that was a perfect fit in 2025 may have quietly stopped covering your cardiologist, dropped your drug, or moved a tier. The annual review is where you catch that.
This is the checklist I work through with every Medicare client in the months leading up to AEP. Doing this prep work in the summer means October 15 is calm instead of frantic.
§ 01What AEP actually lets you do
The Annual Enrollment Period (October 15 to December 7) is the one window where you can do almost anything with your Medicare coverage and have it take effect January 1. Specifically, during AEP you can:
- Switch from Original Medicare to a Medicare Advantage plan (Part C).
- Switch from one Medicare Advantage plan to another.
- Drop Medicare Advantage and return to Original Medicare.
- Join, drop, or switch a stand alone Part D prescription drug plan.
What AEP does not let you do, in most cases, is move into a Medicare Supplement (Medigap) plan without underwriting. That's a separate rule set, and it trips up a lot of Florida retirees who assume AEP gives them carte blanche.
§ 02What's actually changing for 2027 coverage
The plan year you're enrolling into during AEP 2026 is the 2027 plan year. A few things to know going in:
The $2,000 Part D out of pocket cap is still here
The Inflation Reduction Act capped Medicare Part D out of pocket spending at $2,000 starting in 2025. That cap remains in place for 2027 and adjusts upward slightly with inflation. For Floridians on expensive specialty drugs, this is the single most important Medicare change in a decade. It does not, however, lower the monthly premium of the plan itself, and some carriers have offset the cap by raising premiums or tightening formularies. Read the formulary.
Medicare Prescription Payment Plan
Also still in effect: you can opt to spread your annual Part D out of pocket costs across the year in monthly installments. Useful if you'd otherwise hit your deductible all in January when your savings account is also recovering from the holidays.
Medicare Advantage plan turnover
Expect another year of carriers pulling out of certain Broward County zip codes or restructuring their PPO networks. Plans don't usually warn you with anything other than the Annual Notice of Change, and that notice can be deeply confusing. The summer review is where we read it together.
Drug pricing negotiations
The second round of Medicare drug price negotiations is in effect. If you take any of the negotiated drugs, including some common diabetes, blood thinner, and heart failure medications, your costs may shift meaningfully. Whether you save depends on your plan's specific formulary tiers.
The Annual Notice of Change is not junk mail. It's the single most important piece of paper your carrier will send you all year. Read it. If it's incomprehensible, that's why I'm here.
§ 03The summer prep checklist
By the time AEP opens on October 15, you should have all of this in a folder (paper or digital, doesn't matter):
- Your current plan name and member ID. Sounds obvious, except half my new clients can only find the prescription card and not the medical card. Find both.
- Your full medication list, with dosages. Not just the name. A 10mg tablet of one drug may be a different formulary tier than a 20mg of the same drug. Take a photo of the bottles.
- Your doctors, by name and specialty. Especially the specialists. Primary care doctors are usually easy to keep. Cardiologists, oncologists, and endocrinologists are where networks get narrow.
- Your usual hospital. In Broward County, the big networks include Memorial Healthcare System, Broward Health, Cleveland Clinic Weston, and HCA. They are not all in every Medicare Advantage plan.
- Any out of state addresses where you spend more than a couple of weeks a year. Snowbirds, this matters. Some plans cover you nationally, some really don't.
- Your Annual Notice of Change. Mailed in late September. Open it.
If you only do one thing
Check the drug formulary, every year.
The most common reason a Florida client gets blindsided in January is a drug that moved tiers, got a new prior authorization requirement, or was dropped from the formulary altogether. Your plan can do all of these without breaking any rules. The only protection is the annual review.
§ 04Medicare Advantage vs Original Medicare in Broward County
South Florida is one of the most Medicare Advantage heavy markets in the country. Over 60 percent of Medicare beneficiaries here are on Advantage plans, compared to about half nationally. The reasons are real: $0 premium options, dental and vision benefits bundled in, transportation and gym benefits, and tightly integrated provider networks in the major systems.
The trade off is real too. Advantage plans use networks, prior authorizations, and step therapy. If your medical situation is stable and your doctors are all inside Cleveland Clinic or Memorial, an Advantage plan is often a strong fit. If you're juggling specialists across multiple systems, traveling frequently, or anticipating major surgery, Original Medicare plus a Medigap policy and a stand alone Part D plan often pays for itself in flexibility.
There is no universal answer. The answer is yours, and it depends on:
- Whether your doctors are concentrated in one health system or spread across several.
- How often you travel, and where.
- Whether you take expensive specialty drugs.
- What you can afford in monthly premiums (Medigap is more predictable but more expensive month to month).
- How much administrative work you tolerate (Advantage plans require more pre approvals).
§ 05The five AEP mistakes I see every year
- Switching to chase a $0 premium. A $0 premium plan with a $3,500 in network out of pocket maximum is not free, and the marketing usually obscures that. Read the maximum out of pocket, not the premium.
- Ignoring the Part D formulary. A plan with a great medical network can still be the wrong plan if your insulin or your blood thinner is on a high tier or requires step therapy.
- Picking a plan based on the dental benefit. The dental benefit is almost always limited and capped. It's a nice add on, not a reason to choose a plan.
- Assuming Medigap is open to you. Outside your initial Medigap open enrollment (the six months after you first get Part B at age 65), most carriers in Florida will require medical underwriting. That can mean denial. Plan accordingly.
- Waiting until December 6. The marketplace and carriers get overwhelmed in the last week. Glitches happen, applications get lost. Aim to enroll by mid November.
§ 06What happens after December 7
The deadline passes, and a few things shift:
- From January 1 to March 31, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period (MA OEP) lets you switch from one Advantage plan to another, or drop Advantage and return to Original Medicare. You only get one change.
- Certain Special Enrollment Periods kick in if you move, lose other coverage, qualify for Extra Help, or have other life changes.
- Five Star plans (rare in Florida, but they exist) can be joined any time of year.
- Outside these windows, you're locked in until next AEP.
The lesson: AEP is a window, not a barrier. If you miss it but qualify for a SEP, we can still move. But planning around AEP is just easier and produces better outcomes than scrambling later.
§ 07How I run an AEP review
Here is what a Medicare review with me looks like, start to finish. Total time, usually under an hour spread over two short calls.
First call, before October 15: we go through your current plan, your drugs, your doctors, and your Annual Notice of Change. I take notes. We talk about anything you want to add or drop (dental, vision, hearing, fitness). I model your current plan's projected 2027 costs based on the public data already released.
Between calls: I pull a comparison across the Florida Medicare Advantage and Part D plans that match your situation. I screen out plans that drop your doctors, your hospital, or your drugs. I look at maximum out of pocket and total expected annual cost, not just premium.
Second call, after October 15: we walk through the two or three plans that fit. You ask questions. You pick. I handle the enrollment, you get your new card in the mail, you go back to your day.
No fee, no upsell, no captive contract with a single carrier. Carriers pay agents equally for most plans. The point of working with me is the independence and the year over year continuity.