Skip to content

How we work

Where every number here comes from.

Medicare is a subject where being confidently wrong costs people real money. This page documents how this site is researched, how fast it gets corrected, and who pays for it, so you can judge the work rather than trust a logo.

Every figure traces to a primary source

We do not cite other Medicare blogs, and we do not repeat numbers we cannot find in an official document. Premiums, deductibles, caps, penalties, income brackets, and enrollment dates come from the federal agencies that publish them:

CMSCenters for Medicare & Medicaid Services Annual premium and deductible announcements, Part D program parameters, rate announcements, plan landscape data. MEDICARE.GOVMedicare.gov Coverage rules, enrollment windows, plan comparison, appeal procedures, the official Plan Finder. SSASocial Security Administration Enrollment mechanics, IRMAA determinations and appeals, Extra Help applications, the forms themselves. FEDERALMedicare Savings Programs and Extra Help Income limits, qualification rules, and the state programs that pay premiums.

Every article ends with the specific documents behind it, linked and described, not a generic bibliography. If a claim in an article is not traceable to one of those links, treat it as an error and tell us.

How often we check

  • Every article carries the date its figures were verified. Not a publication date that never moves: the date someone last checked the numbers against the source.
  • Annual figures are rechecked when CMS announces them, usually late October or November for Part B and Part A, spring and summer for Part D parameters. We update within days, not seasons.
  • Pending numbers are labeled pending. When a 2027 figure has not been announced, we say so and name the projection’s source rather than presenting an estimate as fact.

What we will not do

  • We do not sell insurance, hold insurance licenses, or receive per-lead payments for Medicare Advantage or Part D enrollments.
  • We do not run advertising, sponsored content, or affiliate placements inside articles.
  • We do not collect your information for anyone else. The newsletter is a newsletter.
  • We are not connected with or endorsed by the U.S. government or the federal Medicare program.

How this site is paid for

One product: the Turning-65 Decision Workbook, a $24 PDF, sold directly. If you ask us to introduce you to a licensed broker, we may receive a referral fee for that introduction, which we disclose at the point of asking and in the footer of every page. That is the entire business model, which is why the articles can afford to tell you when your current plan is fine.

Corrections

When we get something wrong, we fix the page and log it here with the date and what changed. We do not quietly edit and move on.

September 30, 2026

Corrected: our characterization of 2027 standalone drug plan premiums. Through the summer we wrote that the end of the federal Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration on December 31, 2026 meant standalone drug plan premiums "may jump more than usual," and our re-shop checker treated having a standalone plan as an automatic reason to shop.

On September 28, 2026, CMS published its 2027 plan landscape projecting the average standalone Part D premium rising from $35.09 to about $36, less than one dollar, and stated there is broad pricing stability across the Part D market. We rewrote the affected passages on the open enrollment page, the 2027 changes article, the 2027 premiums article, and the glossary, and changed the re-shop checker’s logic so a standalone plan no longer counts as a shop signal by itself. The accurate framing, now on the site: average premiums held steady, and averages still cannot tell you what your specific plan did.

Telling us we’re wrong

If a number here disagrees with what CMS, Social Security, or your plan documents say, we want to know, and the source wins. Write through the contact page; a person reads it, and real errors get fixed the same week and logged above.