If your Medicare Advantage plan mailed you a letter in early October, find it this week. If it says your plan is ending, two dates matter: Dec. 31 and Feb. 28, 2027.

In this issue:

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Some Medicare Advantage plans are ending, and NPR laid out the dates on Oct. 24.

Is this you, or Mom? Original Medicare comes from the government. Not sure, or no letter came? Use the phone number in the box below.

Clock 1: Dec. 31. If your plan is ending, enroll by then, NPR says, to have a new plan start on Jan. 1. If your plan is not ending, your deadline is still Dec. 7 (see below).

Clock 2: Feb. 28, 2027. NPR says the special window for people in ending plans closes then.

If you do nothing. Medicare.gov says you will be in Original Medicare if you don't join another Advantage plan before yours ends. NPR says the insurer may instead move you to another of its Advantage plans. And if you land in Original Medicare that way, NPR says, you get it alone, with no supplement or drug plan set up for you.

Before your plan ends, call 1-800-MEDICARE or SHIP, your state's free Medicare counseling program, and ask what happens in your case.

A Medigap door opens. If you leave an ending plan for Original Medicare, you have the right to buy Medigap Plan A, B, K or L sold in your state, without the usual health screening. If you were eligible for Medicare before 2020, Plans C and F are on that list too. If you became eligible in 2020 or later, Plans D and G are on it instead. (Massachusetts, Minnesota and Wisconsin use different plans; ask SHIP.)

That is good news if a health condition has kept you out of Medigap before. If you're on Medicare and under 65, the rules depend on your state, so ask SHIP.

Do this (for you, or your mom):

Daughters, here is one sentence to say: "Can we look at your Medicare mail together this week?"

→ NPR on ending plans · Medicare.gov on special enrollment · Medicare.gov on when you can buy Medigap

For everyone on Medicare: open enrollment runs Oct. 15 to Dec. 7. It's the time to switch Medicare Advantage or drug plans, or move between a Medicare Advantage plan and Original Medicare.

→ Medicare.gov on joining a plan

Take DHA capsules to protect your memory? Read this. DHA is one of the omega-3 fats found in fish oil. Researchers gave people aged 55 to 80 either 2 grams of DHA a day or a dummy pill.

After 24 months, the two groups showed no difference on tests of memory and thinking, or in brain size.

What it does not show. It tested DHA capsules alone, not fish oil in general and not eating fish. The people in it ate very little DHA to start with. They were also relatively young (66 on average) and well educated, and both groups showed little decline, which the authors say may have made an effect harder to detect.

What to do with it. If you buy DHA capsules only for your memory, ask your pharmacist or doctor whether they are worth what you pay. If your doctor told you to take an omega-3, don't stop it on your own.

→ The study (full text)

Flu shots: ask for these by name. In the CDC's report for the week ending Oct. 17, people 65 and older had the highest flu hospital rate of any age group: 4.6 per 100,000. The CDC says the ideal time to get a shot is by the end of October. For people 65 and up, it prefers three vaccines over the standard shot: Fluzone High-Dose, Flublok and Fluad.

→ The CDC on flu vaccines

Dollar General and the register. On Monday, Oct. 26, the FTC and 20 states sued Dollar General. They say the chain routinely charged more at the register than the price on the shelf, the tag or the ad.

These are claims in a lawsuit, not a ruling.

Your move, at any store: look at the receipt before you leave the lot. If a price doesn't match the shelf, show the cashier.

→ The FTC's announcement (it lists the 20 states)

A calmer Halloween with dementia. The Alzheimer's Foundation of America says to skip decorations that scream, speak suddenly or flash, and not to leave the person alone to answer the door. Its helpline: 866-232-8484.

→ The foundation's Halloween tips

An iPhone setting against impersonation scams. On iOS 27: Settings, Privacy & Security, Impersonation Risk Detection, then turn on Share with App Developers. It works only in apps that support it, and anyone who tells you to turn it off may be a scammer.

→ Apple on Impersonation Risk Detection

In the hospital? Ask if you're admitted. On Original Medicare, a skilled nursing facility stay is covered only after 3 inpatient days in a row, and time under observation doesn't count, even overnight. So ask every day: "Am I admitted, or under observation?"

→ Medicare.gov on skilled nursing facility care

For a parent who lives alone. DOROT's Caring Calls pairs older adults anywhere in the U.S. with a volunteer for weekly phone calls: 212-769-2850. For help finding services, call or text the federal Eldercare Locator at 1-800-677-1116.

→ The Eldercare Locator

Last call for savings bonds online. Wednesday, Oct. 28, is the last day you can log in to TreasuryDirect the old way. From Oct. 29 you'll need an ID.me account. Go to TreasuryDirect.gov and click Secure Sign In. You'll need your Social Security number and a photo ID. If you miss the date, your bonds are safe. You just can't get in online until you set up ID.me.

→ TreasuryDirect's ID.me questions

The pork claim: only if you bought pork in certain states. Did you buy raw bacon, or fresh or frozen pork chops, ribs, loins, shoulder or bellies, for your household between June 28, 2014 and June 30, 2018, in one of the places below? Then you may be owed a share.

The pork places:

In Kansas, Tennessee and South Carolina, the dates start June 28, 2015.

Organic, "no antibiotics ever," marinated, seasoned, flavored and breaded pork don't count, but seasoned or flavored bacon does. There is no set amount per person; shares depend on how much you bought.

File online by Thursday, Oct. 29, at the official settlement site, overchargedforpork.com (run by the court-appointed administrator, Epiq).

An FTC check, only if you made money transfers at Walmart. The Federal Trade Commission is mailing checks to 65,022 people, more than $9.8 million in all. They go to people who made certain money transfers at Walmart between January 2015 and December 2024.

If a check comes, cash it within 90 days, as printed on the check. Questions go to the refund administrator, Rust Consulting, at 1-833-472-1990.

The tell: anyone who says you must pay or send money to get your refund. The FTC says it never asks for that, and anyone who does is a scammer.

→ The FTC's refund page

The 2027 Part B premium: not out yet. Medicare has not yet announced it. In 2026 the standard premium is $202.90 a month and the deductible is $283. The last three years' figures came out between mid-October and mid-November. We'll print the new numbers the week they're released.

→ Medicare.gov on costs

Apple lets you name a Legacy Contact for your account. When you set it up, you get an access key. Later, your contact would need that key and a death certificate to get in.

Saved passwords in iCloud Keychain do not pass along, so keep a separate plan for those. And you can name more than one Legacy Contact, but any one of them can decide alone what happens to your data after your death, even delete it for good. So pick people you trust.

Use Gmail? Google's Inactive Account Manager lets you pick up to 10 people to receive your data if your account goes unused for a length of time you choose.

Do this:

Forward this to the person you would name, with one line: "Can we each do this?"

→ Apple on Legacy Contacts · Google's Inactive Account Manager help

Until next week,

The Senior Road

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