This is a reminder to reach out to your doctor and schedule your annual Medicare wellness visit if you haven’t already.

It’s important to keep up to date with your annual wellness visit so your doctor can note any health changes from year to year. During your visit, you will talk to your doctor about preventive services that may be right for you as part of your prevention plan. Preventive screenings can help you detect many health conditions early when treatment is most effective.

Remember: You pay nothing for your annual wellness visit and many other preventive services if your doctor accepts the Medicare-approved payment amount for the service. You can also log in or create your Medicare account to view your eligible preventive services.

Fall Enrollment for Medicare is approaching. It runs from October 15 – December 7 every year. During this time, you can make changes to your health insurance coverage, including adding, dropping, or changing your Medicare coverage. Even if you’re happy with your current health and drug coverage, Fall Open Enrollment is the time to review what you have, compare it with other options, and make sure that your current coverage still meets your needs for the coming year.

If you are interested in enrolling or making changes to your current plan, click the button below.

September is National Service Dog Month. Service dogs work with people with disabilities and certain conditions, such as autism, blindness, PTSD, epilepsy, or diabetes. Guide Dogs of America provides tips for people who come across service dogs at work:

• Do: Keep in mind the handler is supported by the service dog for daily life, offer help when appropriate but do not insist, do use an encounter with a service dog team as an opportunity to educate children
• Don’t: Pet the service dog without permission, be offended if the handler says no to petting the dog or chatting about the dog, feed the dog, talk to the dog, make sounds to get the dog’s attention, stare at the dog

Thanks to the prescription drug law that went into effect this year, even more vaccines are free for people with Medicare Part D — an average savings of up to $70 in out-of-pocket costs each year. This means more people with Medicare being protected against disease and severe illness.

Examples of vaccines now covered under Medicare Part D include:

• Shingles
• Tetanus/diphtheria (Td)
• Tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (whooping cough) (Tdap)
• Hepatitis A
• Hepatitis B

*Flu shots, COVID-19 vaccines, and pneumococcal shots are still covered by Medicare.