Skip to main content

What happens to my prescriptions if my plan ends?

Your drug coverage ends with the plan — Medicare states that if your plan is leaving Medicare, you must join a new Medicare drug plan to keep drug coverage, and it will not transfer automatically.

Of everything that can go wrong when a plan ends, an interrupted prescription is the most immediate.

What Medicare says

Medicare's drug coverage reminder tells people whose plan is leaving Medicare that they must join a new Medicare drug plan in order to have drug coverage.

A practical sequence

  • List every prescription, dose, and pharmacy.
  • When you compare plans, compare them against that list, not against a premium alone.
  • If you move to Original Medicare or to a Medicare Supplement, you still need a separate Medicare drug plan.

Timing

Open Enrollment runs October 15 to December 7, and a plan termination also opens a Special Enrollment Period, so ask 1-800-MEDICARE which window applies to you before assuming you are late.