Medicare open enrollment and your parent's health record — what to gather now.
Every person gets one health story, and one private Family Stork email address every clinic already knows how to use. Tired of managing health records for yourself and everyone you love? Family Stork organizes them for you automatically.
Why Medicare open enrollment is a records problem
Most adult children helping a parent with Medicare describe the same experience: you sit down to compare plans on medicare.gov, and the first thing the tool asks for is your parent's medications. All of them. With dosages.
And you don't have the list. Not the full one. You have the three you remember, plus the one the cardiologist added last spring that might have changed. The pharmacy has a partial list. The primary care doctor has another partial list. The specialist who saw your parent twice has a third. None of them match.
This is why open enrollment feels overwhelming — it is not a plan-comparison problem, it is a records problem.
The records checklist for Medicare open enrollment
Gather these before October 15. If your parent has multiple doctors, you will need to contact each one.
1. Complete medication list
Every prescription, every dosage, every frequency. Include:
- Brand and generic names (Medicare plan formularies use both)
- Dosage and how often taken
- Which doctor prescribed it and when
- Any medications recently stopped or changed
Where to find it: Ask the pharmacy for a printout of the last 12 months. Ask each prescribing doctor's office for their current medication list. Compare the two — they will differ. The pharmacy list is usually more complete because it captures prescriptions from every doctor.
2. Current provider roster
Every doctor, specialist, and facility your parent sees regularly. Include:
- Primary care physician — name, practice, and NPI number if possible
- Specialists (cardiologist, endocrinologist, orthopedist, etc.)
- Preferred pharmacy and any mail-order pharmacy
- Any hospital or surgery center used in the past year
- Home health or physical therapy providers
You need this list because Medicare Advantage plans have provider networks. If your parent's cardiologist is out of network on the new plan, switching could mean finding a new cardiologist — or paying out-of-network rates.
3. Recent lab work and referrals
If your parent has ongoing conditions — diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease — gather the most recent lab results and any active referrals. A new plan may require new referrals for specialists. Having lab work on hand means the new primary care doctor (if switching) does not have to start from scratch.
4. Current plan documents
Your parent's current Medicare plan's Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) letter, usually mailed in September. This tells you what is changing for next year — premium, copays, formulary, provider network. Compare it against the new options.
5. Medicare & You handbook
CMS mails it every fall. It lists all available plans in your parent's area. You can also use the Medicare Plan Finder online — but you need items 1–3 above before the tool is useful.
The siblings problem
If you share caregiving with siblings, open enrollment makes the records-scattered problem worse. One sibling has the medication list from the last hospital stay. Another has the cardiologist's number. A third remembers the pharmacy. Nobody has the full picture.
This is what Family Stork solves. One private @families.familystork.com email address for your parent. Every doctor, every pharmacy, every lab sends records to it. The health story builds itself — and every sibling the family invites can see the same timeline. No group text. No "can you forward me that PDF?"
How siblings share a parent's health record →
What to do with the records once you have them
- Compare formularies. Enter every medication into the Medicare Plan Finder. The plan with the lowest premium is not always the cheapest — a single expensive medication on a higher formulary tier can cost more than the premium difference.
- Check provider networks. Look up every specialist and facility on the new plan's provider directory. Call to confirm — directories are sometimes out of date.
- Review referral requirements. Some Medicare Advantage plans require referrals for specialists. If your parent sees three specialists regularly, that is three referrals to arrange every year. Original Medicare does not require referrals.
- Document the decision. Write down which plan you chose and why. Next October, you will need to remember what mattered — and the records to compare again.
Start before October 15
Gathering records takes time. Pharmacy printouts are usually same-day. Getting a complete medication list and recent labs from multiple doctors can take one to two weeks. If your parent has four or five doctors, start calling now.
Or, start a Family Stork record for your parent today. Give each doctor's office the private email address. By next open enrollment, every record will already be in one timeline — no phone calls, no hunting through portals, no asking siblings to forward PDFs.
$99/year — or about $10 a month. One record for every doctor, every sibling, every plan change.
FAQ
When is Medicare open enrollment?
Medicare open enrollment runs from October 15 through December 7 each year. Changes take effect January 1 of the following year. This is the window to switch Medicare Advantage plans, switch from Advantage to Original Medicare (or vice versa), or change Part D prescription drug plans.
What records do I need to compare Medicare plans for my parent?
You need three things: a complete medication list (every prescription, dosage, and prescribing doctor), a current provider roster (every doctor, specialist, pharmacy, and facility), and recent lab work or active specialist referrals. Without these, the Medicare Plan Finder cannot give you accurate cost estimates.
How do I get my parent's medication list from the pharmacy?
Call or visit the pharmacy and ask for a medication history printout for the past 12 months. Most pharmacies can provide this within minutes. If your parent uses multiple pharmacies, request a printout from each one. Compare the lists — prescriptions from different doctors may be filled at different pharmacies.
Can my siblings and I share our parent's health records during open enrollment?
With Family Stork, yes. The family invites each sibling to the parent's record. Everyone sees the same medication list, the same provider roster, the same lab results — no forwarding PDFs, no group text chains asking "what was the name of that specialist?" The family controls who sees what.
What happens to my parent's records if they switch Medicare plans?
The records stay with the doctors — they do not transfer to the new plan automatically. If your parent's new plan requires a new primary care doctor, that doctor will need the full medical history. Having everything in one Family Stork timeline means the new doctor gets the complete picture immediately, instead of waiting weeks for records transfers between offices.