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
My Medicare Advantage Plan Is Ending. What Do I Do?
You never lose Medicare itself — a discontinued plan is one private contract not being renewed, and everything else stays put. What changes is that you owe the situation one decision before December 7. The two fall envelopes and how to tell them apart (an Annual Notice of Change is not a non-renewal letter), the four doors open on January 1 and what to check before picking each, the real calendar including the December 8–February Special Enrollment Period and why it is a backstop rather than a plan, the 63-day guaranteed-issue window that matters more in Colorado because the state has no birthday rule, and the quiet default that costs the most: doing nothing lands you in Original Medicare with no drug plan and no out-of-pocket maximum. Mesa County context from the official CMS CY2026 landscape. Education, not advice, from Brian Penner.
Read →
When Should I Stop HSA Contributions Before Medicare?
Six months before your coverage starts — not six months before you sign up. Those are different dates, and the gap between them is where the penalty lives. Almost every version of this answer is “six months,” and that is right, but it is six months before the wrong date in most people’s heads. The number that matters is not when you file the Medicare application; it is when Part A coverage STARTS, and Medicare gets to pick a start date in the past. Two published sentences, never written to be read together, do all the damage. Medicare.gov: “Your Part A coverage starts 6 months back from when you sign up or when you apply for benefits from Social Security (or the Railroad Retirement Board),” though it “can’t start earlier than the month you turned 65.” IRS Publication 969: “Beginning with the first month you are enrolled in Medicare, your contribution limit is zero.” Put them side by side and the IRS can decide, retroactively, that you were ineligible during months in which you were working, covered by a high-deductible plan, and watching payroll contributions land exactly as planned. Nobody chooses the backdating; it happens automatically to anyone enrolling after 65, and nothing in the enrollment process stops to ask whether you have an HSA. The second mistake costs money on its own: 2026’s $4,400 self-only and $8,750 family limits, plus the $1,000 catch-up at 55, are monthly limits wearing an annual costume. Publication 969 figures your real limit month by month based on your coverage on the FIRST day of each month — so an August 1 Medicare start means seven twelfths, and front-loading the account in January can put you over in a year you never over-contributed by the annual standard. Plus four worked Utah situations with the exact last month to contribute, why claiming Social Security IS a Medicare enrollment, the last-month rule’s testing period and its 10% additional tax, how to undo an excess contribution before the 6% excise tax repeats, and the one Medicare premium an HSA still cannot pay. Education, not advice — and not tax advice — from Brian Penner.
Read →
Does Medicare Cover Therapy and Mental Health Counseling?
Yes — and the more useful question is who is allowed to bill for it, because that list got longer and almost nobody was told. Part B covers individual and group psychotherapy, psychiatric evaluation and medication management, at 20% of the Medicare-approved amount after 2026’s $283 Part B deductible. Medicare.gov’s wording carries two conditions worth reading twice: coverage is for psychotherapy “with doctors (or with certain other Medicare-enrolled licensed professionals, as the state where you get the services allows).” The provider must be ENROLLED in Medicare — a paperwork status a practice either has or does not — and licensed to do that work in Colorado. Then the roster itself: psychiatrists or other doctors, clinical psychologists, clinical social workers, clinical nurse specialists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, marriage & family therapists, and mental health counselors. Read the last two again. They can bill Medicare directly, and for decades they could not, which funneled every retiree on Original Medicare toward a handful of psychologists and psychiatrists and a months-long wait. In a county this size those two categories are where most working therapists actually sit — which makes one phone call the highest-value move on this page: not “do you take insurance” but “are you enrolled in Medicare.” There is no published session limit; the constraint is financial, at 20% of every visit with no annual out-of-pocket maximum on Original Medicare. The free yearly depression screening has a condition people miss — it must happen “in a primary care doctor’s office or primary care clinic that can provide follow-up treatment and referrals,” so the same questionnaire at a specialist’s office may not be the covered benefit. And inpatient care carries the only meter in Medicare that never refills: Part A “only pays for up to 190 days of inpatient psychiatric hospital services during your lifetime.” Plus telehealth psychotherapy from home through December 31, 2027 — a real date, not a permanent rule — and why 24.5% of Mesa County adults reporting depression makes the provider list matter more here than in Denver. Education, not 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).