Medicare · Social Security timing · Long-term care · Moab, Monticello & Grand Junction
More than just Medicare.
Medicare is where we start — not where we stop. We help you compare and enroll in the right plan, understand how Social Security and Medicare timing fit together, and plan for long-term care — all coordinated with your financial advisor. Insurance companies pay our fee — so you pay nothing for our services.
One plan, not three errands
Medicare, Social Security & long-term care — planned together
These three decisions are connected: your income shapes your Medicare premiums, your claiming age shapes your income, and a long-term care event can undo both. We help you look at the whole picture.
Medicare
Advantage, Supplement (Medigap) and Part D — compared for your doctors, prescriptions and budget, enrolled on time, and reviewed every fall.
Explore Medicare plans →Social Security Planning
When you claim can mean tens of thousands of dollars of difference over a retirement. Meet with us and get a personalized Social Security analysis — your claiming windows, your Medicare premiums (IRMAA), and your retirement income, mapped together.
Get a Social Security analysis →Long-Term Care Planning
Medicare generally doesn't pay for long-term custodial care — and paying out of pocket can drain a lifetime of savings. We build a long-term care analysis around your assets, then walk through traditional and hybrid coverage that protects what you've built.
Get a long-term care analysis →Want all three looked at in one sitting? Book a private, no-cost Retirement & IRMAA Review — 45 minutes, one-on-one with Brian Penner.
Book a Retirement & IRMAA ReviewWhat's your ZIP code?
We start local — plan availability is set by your county.
How old are you?
This tells us which coverage window you're in.
Which best describes you?
Pick one — you can change this anytime.
How often do you see doctors?
Helps us weigh networks vs. freedom.
Do you take prescriptions?
We match your drugs to the lowest-cost plan.
No cost, no pressure. We do not offer every plan available in your area — for all options visit Medicare.gov or call 1-800-MEDICARE.
How we help
Everything you need, handled with care
Navigate Medicare “red tape”
Parts A, B, C and D, deadlines and paperwork — we translate it all into plain English and handle the legwork.
Understand all your options
Advantage, Supplement (Medigap) and Part D, compared side by side so you can choose with confidence.
Avoid lifetime “gotcha” penalties
Miss a window and you can pay more for the rest of your life. We make sure you enroll on time, every time.
A custom plan for lifetime care
We match coverage to your doctors, prescriptions and budget — and review it every year as your needs change.
All at no cost to you.
How it works
Get the right Medicare plan in 3 steps
Schedule a free conversation
Tell us your doctors, prescriptions and budget. No cost, no pressure — ever.
Get a personal plan comparison
We compare the Medicare Advantage, Medigap and Part D plans we offer against your needs.
Enroll & get ongoing support
We handle enrollment and stay your local advisor for claims, appeals and annual reviews.
Our services
Explore services, plans & options
Medicare Enrollment Assistance
Turning 65 or new to Medicare — we guide every step of your Initial Enrollment.
Plan Comparison
Advantage vs. Supplement vs. Part D, compared for your exact situation.
Annual Coverage Review
Plans change yearly. We check yours every fall so you never overpay.
Social Security & Medicare Timing
Your claiming age and your enrollment window are two different clocks — we map both around your full retirement age.
Long-Term Care Planning
Medicare doesn't pay for most long-term care. We help you plan for that risk before it drains a lifetime of savings.
Retirement Income & IRMAA Awareness
Your income sets your Medicare premiums. We flag IRMAA thresholds and coordinate with your financial advisor.
Claims Support & Appeals
A real, local advocate for when something goes wrong.
Keep Your Doctor
We help confirm your providers and prescriptions are covered before you switch.
Drug Cost Review
Make sure your prescriptions are covered at the lowest total cost among the plans we offer.
Local health picture · CDC county data
Why plan fit matters in Mesa County, CO
The right Medicare plan depends on your health — and conditions like these are common among adults in Mesa County, CO. It's why we check each plan's drug formulary and specialist network against your doctors and prescriptions before you enroll, instead of comparing headline premiums alone.
Share of adults with each condition (crude prevalence). Source: CDC PLACES county estimates, 2025 release — also available for every Utah, Colorado & Arizona county as machine-readable JSON. Education only, not medical advice.
Benefit from decades of experience
Your personal Medicare & insurance consultant
Brian Penner brings a broad understanding of Medicare, Social Security timing, and long-term care planning — and the patience to make sure you understand every option before you decide.
Meet Brian Penner →For financial advisors, CPAs & attorneys
The Medicare desk for your clients
Your clients' Medicare decisions sit inside your financial plan — IRMAA brackets, Roth-conversion timing, HSA wind-downs, turning-65 windows. We handle the Medicare and long-term care side, keep you in the loop, and never touch the investments — at no cost to you or the client.
How the advisor partnership works →Resources
Latest Medicare guidance
Does Utah's Birthday Rule Apply to Medicare Advantage?
No. Utah's birthday rule is a door between two Medigap plans at the same company — not a door into Medigap, and not a rule about Medicare Advantage at all. Utah Code §31A-22-620(3)(g), added by H.B. 258 and effective May 7, 2025, protects “an enrollee that is enrolled in one of the issuer's Medicare supplement insurance plans,” choosing a plan “offered by the issuer” that is “a comparable or lower tier plan,” for 60 days from the birthday; meet all three tests and the company “may not deny enrollment based on medical underwriting,” miss one and the subsection does not apply. A Medicare Advantage member misses the first — Medicare.gov: “It's illegal for someone to sell you a Medigap policy if you have a Medicare Advantage Plan” — and so does someone who dropped a Medigap policy for an Advantage plan years ago. The six-row table of who the rule reaches and who it doesn't; the federal routes that do exist from Advantage to Medigap without health questions, quoted from Medicare.gov (the two 12-month trial rights, a plan leaving Medicare or your county, a move out of the service area, each with the 60-days-before, 63-days-after application window and only “if you switch to Original Medicare”); and the sentence for everyone else: “there's no federal guarantee that an insurance company will sell you a Medigap policy.” Why leaving an Advantage plan is easy (October 15 – December 7, or January 1 – March 31) while landing on Medigap is the hard part, the order to file things in so you are never in Original Medicare with nothing behind it, and the pre-October decision for a Utahn holding a Medigap policy today: a $0 plan premium is not free, and the birthday rule will not bring you back. Set against the 2026 CMS landscape file's Medicare Advantage offerings across Utah's counties. No premium, carrier or product is named. Education, not advice, from Brian Penner.
Read →
Can I Change My Medicare Advantage Plan After December 7?
If your plan is being discontinued, yes — and the date that matters is December 31, not December 7. Medicare.gov gives members of a plan whose contract “isn't renewed” a Special Enrollment Period “between December 8 and the last day in February of the following year” (February 28 in 2027), and 42 CFR § 422.68(d) sets when that coverage begins: “the first day of the calendar month following the month in which the election is made.” So the same enrollment filed on four different days starts on four different dates: by December 7 or by December 31, January 1 with no gap; in January, February 1; in February, March 1 — and the weeks in between are Original Medicare with no drug plan and no yearly out-of-pocket limit, because “you'll be enrolled in Original Medicare if you don't join another Medicare Advantage Plan before your current plan ends.” Who gets which door after December 7: the non-renewal window belongs only to the person whose plan is leaving (42 CFR § 422.62(b)(1)); a plan that merely changed in the Annual Notice of Change opens nothing; the January 1 – March 31 Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period is one change and “only if you're already in a Medicare Advantage Plan,” so someone who defaulted into Original Medicare cannot use it; and the 5-star window is “one time between December 8 … and November 30,” with no guess made about 2027 ratings. Plus the second clock running beside it — the Medigap application right that ends 63 days after coverage does, March 4, 2027 by our count, and only “if you switch to Original Medicare” — the 59-day drug-coverage gap a late-February enrollment creates against CMS's 63-day penalty line, and what to do, in order, from a Grand Junction kitchen table. No 2027 plan, carrier or star rating is stated, because CMS has not published them. Education, not advice, from Brian Penner.
Read →
Is Long-Term Care Insurance Tax Deductible in 2026?
Yes, up to an age-based cap — and for most retired Mesa County households, no, not in a way that shows up on the return. IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 sets the 2026 limits on “eligible long-term care premiums” at $500 (40 or under), $930 (41–50), $1,860 (51–60), $4,960 (61–70) and $6,200 (71 or older), per person, measured by your age on December 31; Publication 502 carries the 2025 table and the “for each person” rule. On Schedule A that capped premium meets IRS Topic 502's floor — deductible only “to the extent these expenses exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income” — so at $160,000 of AGI a couple's two caps combined do not reach the floor, and the itemized total still has to beat the $32,200 standard deduction. The doors that actually pay skip the floor: the self-employed health insurance deduction (Topic 502: “an adjustment to income, rather than an itemized deduction,” naming “a qualified long-term care insurance policy”), which also lowers the AGI that sets IRMAA two years out; tax-free HSA withdrawals (Publication 969 lists “Long-term care insurance” first among the premiums an HSA may pay); and Publication 575's $3,000 exclusion for retired law enforcement officers, firefighters and rescue crews paying premiums from a governmental plan. The hybrid-policy trap in 26 U.S.C. § 7702B(e)(2) — “No deduction shall be allowed under section 213(a)” for rider charges taken “against the cash surrender value of a life insurance contract” — and the 7702B-versus-101(g) rider question to put to the carrier in writing. Colorado's own credit under C.R.S. § 39-22-122: 25% of premiums, $150 per policy, only under $50,000 of federal taxable income. And the bigger tax fact: qualified benefits are generally tax-free, up to a $430-a-day per diem limit for 2026, at the stage of life where Medicare.gov's long-term care page reads “Not Covered · You pay all costs.” No premium, rate, product or carrier is stated. Education, not tax advice, from Brian Penner.
Read →Got questions?
We have lots of great answers
What if I’m already on Medicare?
We can still help — at no cost. We’ll review your current coverage, check that your doctors and prescriptions are covered, and compare it against the plans we offer to see if you could be paying less or getting more.
Do you charge for your time?
No. Insurance companies pay our fee, so you don’t pay a thing for our services. You get unbiased, local guidance at no cost to you.
What are “lifetime penalties”?
If you don’t enroll in Medicare Part B or Part D when you’re first eligible (and don’t have other qualifying coverage), you can owe a permanent late-enrollment penalty added to your premium for as long as you have Medicare. We make sure you enroll in the right window so you avoid them.
Is it true I could lose my doctor?
Some Medicare Advantage plans use provider networks, so the wrong plan could mean your doctor is out of network. Before you enroll, we confirm your physicians and prescriptions are covered by the plan you choose.
What about additional coverages?
Beyond core Medicare, we can help with dental, vision and hearing, hospital indemnity, and life or final-expense coverage — so the gaps Medicare leaves are covered too.
Do you only help with Medicare?
Medicare is our focus, but it's not where we stop. We also help with Social Security and Medicare timing education, long-term care planning, life and final-expense coverage, and annuities — coordinated with your financial advisor, CPA, or attorney so your healthcare and your retirement plan work together instead of in separate silos.
Let’s connect
Get your free, personalized Medicare roadmap from a local advisor who has your back.
Official Medicare sources
Verify current-year figures with the federal sources: Medicare.gov, Medicare Plan Compare, Social Security (ssa.gov), and CMS.gov. Education only — we do not offer every plan available in your area.
Last updated . Maintained by the Medicare On Main Data Desk · reviewed by Brian Penner, Independent Medicare advisor (NPN 16493717).