Helping Employers and Brokers Support Employees as Medicare Starts to Matter
Prepare for Medicare® for Employers is a broker-led education and consultation support program for employees approaching age 65, working past 65, retiring soon, or trying to understand how Medicare fits with employer coverage.
Employees often start receiving Medicare mailers and conflicting advice before they understand what actually applies to them. For many, the real issue is not just whether to enroll in Medicare. It is how Medicare coordinates with employer coverage, when timing starts to matter, whether a spouse or dependent is affected, how HSA contributions fit in, and how to avoid mistakes that can create unnecessary confusion or lasting Part B and Part D late enrollment penalties. This program gives brokers and employers a more structured way to help people start in the right place.
A Quick Introduction from Matt Feret
Why this program exists — and why the employer-to-Medicare transition deserves a better starting point.
The move from employer coverage into Medicare is one of the least well-explained transitions in employee benefits.
HR teams are not in a position to advise on Medicare. Benefits brokers may not want employees guessing. This program was built to close that gap with a practical, education-first approach.
What Employees Receive
When employees are pointed to Prepare for Medicare®, they get a dedicated, education-first landing experience built around their real Medicare timing questions — not a generic enrollment funnel.
- A branded, employee-facing landing page with guides, common-situation identification, and a no-pressure path to scheduling
- Access to the Core Medicare Guide and the Working Past 65 Guide, available to view or download
- A clear Learn → Evaluate → Talk sequence so employees can self-identify their situation before deciding whether to talk to someone
- Optional licensed consultation through Brickhouse Agency — no call-center handoff, no obligation to enroll
Why Brokers Use It
Group benefits brokers use Prepare for Medicare® as a structured Medicare education and advisory layer they can deploy for any client, without adding internal staff or building Medicare content in-house.
- A branded, employee-facing page brokers can link to from benefits portals, intranets, or open enrollment communications
- A differentiator that helps win new business and strengthen renewals, because most group benefits firms don’t offer structured Medicare transition support
- Keeps Medicare questions out of HR’s inbox and in the hands of a licensed team
- Deepens client value without requiring the broker to become a Medicare expert
- Built and led by Matt Feret, an industry insider and author of the Prepare for Medicare® series, which gives the brokerage an immediate authority boost
Why Employers Add It
Employers and HR teams add Prepare for Medicare® because employees turning 65 — and working past 65 — are increasingly common, and the Medicare questions that come with that transition don’t belong on an HR desk.
- Gives employees a credible, education-first place to understand Medicare timing, employer coverage coordination, HSA questions, and spouse or dependent coverage
- Reduces the burden on HR and benefits teams without pushing employees into a call center
- Employer-safe — no hard-sell, no enrollment pressure, no steering toward specific plans
- Works alongside your existing benefits broker or group administrator
- Helps employees avoid costly, lifetime Part B and Part D late enrollment penalties that HR teams aren’t equipped to explain
Broker and Employer Inquiries
Reach out to learn more about setting up a program page for your clients or employees.
About Matt Feret & Prepare for Medicare®
Prepare for Medicare® is led by Matt Feret, a longtime Medicare industry insider and author of the Prepare for Medicare® and Prepare for Social Security Insider’s Guide series. Matt spent years inside large Medicare insurance carriers and now uses that experience to help adults make smarter decisions about Medicare, Social Security, and life’s big transitions — without the marketing noise.
Consultation support, when employees want it, is fulfilled by Brickhouse Agency, a licensed Medicare insurance agency.
What Your Employees Are Actually Navigating
These are the specific decisions your employees run into — each with a timeline, a financial consequence, and a narrow window to act. The program is built to walk them through each one.
The Creditable Coverage Decision
Employees who stay on the group plan past 65 still have to decide whether to take Part A, delay Part B, and confirm their prescription coverage qualifies as creditable. Get it wrong and the penalty is permanent — but the decision never shows up in open enrollment materials.
One of the first things we walk through in a consultation.
The Three Enrollment Windows Nobody Explains
Initial, Special, and General Enrollment Periods each have different triggers, different deadlines, and different consequences. Employees usually don’t know which one applies to them until the window has closed. We explain it while the right one is still open.
Medigap or Medicare Advantage
Two fundamentally different paths once Medicare starts — with different network rules, different cost structures, and different long-term portability. Employees often pick whichever mailer was loudest. A consultation walks through the real trade-offs without product bias.
This is the choice employees most often second-guess. We help them make it once.
IRMAA and Your Highly-Compensated Employees
The two-year income lookback blindsides executives and senior leaders at retirement — sometimes adding thousands in Medicare Part B and Part D premiums they never saw coming. A pre-retirement conversation flags it while there’s still planning room.
Often the topic that turns a skeptical executive into a happy referral.
Sequencing Medicare and Social Security
Claiming Social Security and enrolling in Medicare are separate decisions on separate timelines — and when they collide, employees delay retirement, file at the wrong age, or miss a window entirely. We map both tracks together so the retirement date actually holds.
Cleaner retirements mean cleaner workforce planning.
The Six-Month HSA Lookback
When Medicare starts, Part A is backdated up to six months — which can retroactively disqualify HSA contributions and trigger IRS penalties. Employees who file for Social Security at 65 are especially exposed. We catch it before contributions continue into a disallowed period.
A small fix upstream. A big payroll and tax headache avoided.