Medicare Part D Considerations

Hundreds of thousands of older Americans who travel for extended periods face an added requirement in the complicated selection of Medicare drug coverage: choosing a plan that goes with them.

As they try to select approved coverage plans by a May 15 federal deadline, government officials and advocates hope "snowbirds" and "sunbirds" -- retirees who live large parts of the year in different states -- are reminded to pick national plans and not the dozens of regional ones that won't cover them or would cost extra at their temporary homes.

States that take in temporary summer residents don't have contingency plans if seniors discover their Medicare choice won't work elsewhere. State and federal officials and advocates say those in that situation would have to wait to change plans until an open-enrollment period in the fall.

Merle Kearns, head of the Ohio Department of Aging, said there's a concentration of snowbirds and sunbirds who split time between Florida's west coast and Ohio each year, but they usually spend more time in their temporary homes than the 90-day maximum pill supply covered by most prescriptions.