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Turning 65 is the one time Medicare hands you a hard deadline with real money attached. The good news: it's genuinely manageable once someone lays it out in order. That's what this page does — and if you'd rather just talk it through, we're a phone call away.
Your Initial Enrollment Period covers seven months: the three months before your 65th birthday month, the birthday month itself, and the three months after. When you act inside that window affects when your coverage actually begins, so earlier is almost always better.
Sign up any time before the month you turn 65 and your coverage generally starts the first day of your birthday month. Sign up during your birthday month or in any of the three months after, and coverage starts the first day of the following month. Either way, coverage always begins on the first of a month.
That one-month lag is the reason we tell people to handle this early. If you want coverage in place the day you turn 65, the paperwork needs to be done before your birthday month starts. (This rule was simplified in 2023 — signing up late in the window used to delay coverage by up to three months. If you read that somewhere, it's out of date.)
One wrinkle: if your birthday falls on the first of the month, Medicare treats you as though you were born the month before, which shifts your whole window back by a month. You can confirm your exact dates using Medicare's own coverage start tool.
The most common mistake we see: assuming enrollment happens automatically. It does for some people — generally those already drawing Social Security benefits — but not for everyone. If you're not certain which category you're in, that's the very first question to answer.
This is where we see the most expensive mistakes. Whether you can safely delay parts of Medicare depends on how many employees your company has and what kind of coverage you carry. Some people can delay without penalty. Others assume they can, don't, and end up paying a late enrollment penalty for the rest of their lives.
The general rule: if you or your spouse are actively working and covered by an employer group health plan with 20 or more employees, you can usually delay Part B without penalty. When that employment or coverage ends, you get an eight-month Special Enrollment Period to sign up. Retiree coverage and COBRA do not work the same way — that distinction catches people every year.
There's no way to sort this out from a website, because it turns on the details of your specific employer and coverage. Call us before your birthday and we'll walk through it in about twenty minutes. You can also read Social Security's guidance on when to sign up.
This region has one of the highest concentrations of military retirees in Louisiana, and turning 65 works differently when you have TRICARE for Life or VA health benefits in the picture. How those coordinate with Medicare — and what you're required to do to keep them — catches a lot of people off guard.
James served in the Air Force, so this is familiar ground rather than something we look up. If you're retired military and approaching 65, call before your birthday. There are timing requirements here that don't apply to civilians.
Once you're enrolled in Original Medicare — Parts A and B — you have a choice about how to round out your coverage. Broadly, people go one of two directions:
Keep Original Medicare, add a Medicare Supplement policy, and add a separate prescription drug plan. Generally lets you see any provider nationwide who accepts Medicare.
Receive your coverage through a Medicare Advantage plan offered by a private insurance company approved by Medicare. These plans generally use provider networks, so checking your doctors first matters.
Neither direction is automatically better. Which one fits depends on your doctors, your prescriptions, how much you travel, and how you prefer to handle costs. Anyone who tells you one answer is right for everybody isn't paying attention to your situation.
Separate from your Initial Enrollment Period, there's a one-time Medicare Supplement Open Enrollment Period. It lasts six months and begins when you're 65 or older and enrolled in Part B. During that window, your health history generally can't be used against you.
Once it closes, applying for a supplement may involve medical underwriting. This is the most time-sensitive decision in all of Medicare, and it's the one we most often wish people had called us about sooner. Medicare explains the window here.
That's it. With those four things we can have a conversation that's actually about you, rather than about Medicare in the abstract.
We're based in Bossier City and work throughout Shreveport and Northwest Louisiana, which means we know which provider networks matter around here — the health systems and physician groups people in this area actually use.
Being independent means we represent several carriers rather than one, so the comparison we run goes across options rather than toward a predetermined answer. And because we live here, you can call us next year when something changes. There's never a cost to you.
However you're feeling about all this, the first step is just a conversation.
About your doctors, your prescriptions, whether you're still working, and what matters to you. No plan talk yet.
We check your providers and medications against what's actually available in your ZIP code, then explain the trade-offs plainly.
We handle the paperwork if you enroll, and we're still here next October when it's time to review.
We're based in Bossier City and meet clients throughout the region — in person locally, or by phone and video.
Our home base. In-person appointments throughout Bossier Parish, including Airline Drive, Benton Road, and the Barksdale area.
Ten minutes across the river. We work with clients throughout Caddo Parish, from Broadmoor and South Highlands to the Youree Drive corridor.
We regularly drive out to meet clients turning 65 in the smaller communities east and north of Bossier City.
Serving Webster Parish, where local provider network coverage can differ meaningfully from the Shreveport–Bossier metro.
DeSoto Parish clients south of Shreveport, including the Highway 171 communities.
North Bossier and Caddo Parish, where fewer agents make the trip. We do.
Provider networks are decided locally, and which doctors and hospitals participate can change from one ZIP code to the next. That's the single biggest reason to work with someone who lives here rather than a national call center.
Bossier City, Louisiana 71111 · Serving Bossier, Caddo, Webster, and DeSoto Parishes
Phone: (318) 300-3180 · Email: j_flynn@medihealthinsgp.com
Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Central
James Flynn, NPN 21393713 · Krysti Flynn, NPN 22202514 · Licensed in Louisiana
A conversation with a licensed advisor costs you nothing and takes about twenty minutes. No pressure, no sales pitch — just straight answers about how Medicare works for you.