The 7 Biggest Medicare Mistakes Lawrence Seniors Make

None of the seven below are exotic. They happen to people who were busy, who assumed a rule worked the way it sounds, or who took an answer from a television advertisement. Two of them attach a charge to your premium permanently. Read them in order, and if one is already your situation, ask before you act, because Lawrence Medicare guidance costs you nothing. Carriers pay the agent.

1. Missing your Initial Enrollment Period

The mistake is letting your seven-month Initial Enrollment Period close without signing up and without creditable employer coverage in place. The cost is a Part B late enrollment penalty of 10 percent of the standard premium for each full 12 months you were eligible with no creditable coverage behind you, charged for as long as you hold Part B. The standard premium in 2026 is $202.90 a month.

The fix. Put the window on the calendar: the three months ahead of your birthday month, the month itself, and the three behind it. If you are staying on an employer plan past 65, ask the benefits office for a letter confirming that coverage is creditable. The Turning 65 guide for Lawrence lays that window out month by month, and the Part B penalty calculator will size a gap that has already happened.

2. Contributing to an HSA after Medicare starts

Medicare enrollment ends your eligibility to put money into a Health Savings Account. Keep contributing past your start date and you lose the tax advantage on those dollars, and can owe the IRS a penalty on top.

The fix. Stop contributions at least six months before the month your Medicare begins. Part A can be backdated by up to six months when you enroll after 65, which puts the real cutoff earlier than people expect. Give that date in writing to the benefits office and to the account custodian.

3. Choosing Medicare Advantage without verifying your doctors

The mistake is enrolling in a Medicare Advantage plan on premium alone, without checking whether your specific doctors are in network. What it costs is forced provider changes in the middle of treatment, and lost access to LMH Health, KU Med, or specialists you have seen for years.

The fix. Call each doctor's office and ask whether they take that exact plan next year, and confirm the hospital too. Directories are not always current. If keeping every doctor matters more than extra benefits do, a Medicare Supplement in Lawrence answers the network question differently, because it pays alongside Original Medicare rather than inside a network. That route has a clock: your Medigap open enrollment runs six months once you hold Part B at 65, and after it a Kansas carrier can ask medical questions.

4. Assuming Medicare covers everything

Original Medicare is not a complete health plan and was never built as one. Routine dental, vision, and hearing care sit outside it, and so does long-term care. Treating it as total coverage means meeting those bills at full price.

The fix. Decide what you want covered before you pick a route. Some people pair a Supplement with standalone dental and vision policies. Some Medicare Advantage plans fold dental, vision, and hearing benefits in instead. Long-term care is a separate product from either one.

5. Skipping Part D because you take no medications

Turning down drug coverage at 65 because you are not on any prescriptions today is one of the easiest ways to pick up a permanent charge. The Part D late enrollment penalty is 1 percent of the national base premium, charged for every full month you spent without creditable drug coverage, and once it attaches it stays for life.

The fix. Take the least expensive Part D plan you can find during your Initial Enrollment Period, even if you take nothing today. Health needs change. The penalty does not. How the drug plans work here, including the $2,100 yearly limit on covered drug costs in 2026, is on the Part D page for Lawrence.

6. Not reviewing your plan every year

Advantage plans and Part D plans renew themselves quietly, and every year they change premiums, formularies, networks, and benefits. Letting one roll over unread is how people end up paying for coverage that stopped fitting two years ago.

The fix. Read the Annual Notice of Change that arrives by September 30, and read the drug list and the network pages before the premium, because those change more often. Then use Annual Enrollment in Douglas County, October 15 to December 7, to switch to a plan that fits better. Staying put is legitimate once you have checked.

7. Taking Medicare advice from the wrong sources

Television advertisements, celebrity endorsements, unlicensed advisors, and well-meaning neighbors all hand out Medicare advice, and none of them carry the result. What it costs is plans that do not fit your situation, missed enrollment windows, and avoidable lifetime penalties.

The fix. Ask a licensed Kansas agent who represents several carriers, so the comparison covers more than one company's shelf. A single-carrier source can only show you what it sells. SHICK, the Kansas Senior Health Insurance Counseling program, sells nothing at all, and its counseling appointments are listed with the other Lawrence senior resources.

The Four Pillar Review Catches Most Of These

Doctors, prescriptions, budget, lifestyle. Adam asks about those four, in that order, on a first call. The doctor list catches numbers three and seven. The prescription list catches five. Your Part B start date catches one and two. Almost nothing on this page is hard to avoid when somebody asks the right question early enough.

Prefer a callback? Request one here and Adam will call within one business day.