MatchYourMedicare: a free Medicare plan comparison built on what happens after enrollment

As featured in Fierce Healthcare. Also covered by HLTH

On October 15, the first day of AEP, careCycle launched MatchYourMedicare: a free Medicare plan comparison tool that ranks plans by what someone is expected to actually spend in a year, based on their own doctors and prescriptions. No commissions, no data sold, no sales calls.

This AEP it matters more than usual. A Johns Hopkins study in JAMA found about 1 in 10 enrollees in individual Medicare Advantage HMO and PPO plans faced a forced plan change in 2026, up from about 1% a year from 2018 to 2024. More people are shopping, and more of them are shopping in a hurry.

I sat down with our CEO, Alex Doonanco, to talk about why we built it and what it means for agencies.

Plans get compared on the wrong number

Agents take plan selection seriously. Needs analysis, medications, preferred doctors. Then the conversation turns to budget, and it tends to go sideways.

"People often compare plans along the lines of simple questions, like what is the premium. If you see a $0 premium plan next to one with a higher premium, or one with a higher Part B giveback, you're going to be inclined to go with the one that appears cheaper out of the gate."

Premium is one line in a summary of benefits that can run 60 pages. Alex's example: someone with osteoporosis who needs four X-rays a year. A plan picked for its giveback might carry coinsurance on imaging, where another charges a flat copay. Over a year, that can outweigh the giveback. Over several AEPs, it compounds.

How it works

1. ZIP code and a few basics, to find every local plan
2. Doctors, to check who's in-network
3. Prescriptions, to price drug coverage
4. Chronic conditions (optional), to sharpen the estimate

Plans are ranked by estimated total yearly cost: premium, copays, and drugs together. Compare up to three side by side. The estimate is built on what people with similar conditions and prescriptions actually spend.

"If you're 73, living in Central Florida, diagnosed with diabetes and taking metformin, you have a specific set of health needs and regular costs you're expected to incur. There are tens of thousands of people who look just like you that we can compare against."

Sometimes the $0 premium plan wins. Sometimes a higher premium plan saves real money. The point is knowing which. An on-screen AI guide can walk through it by voice. No account needed.

Built on what happens after enrollment

careCycle runs member care for Medicare agencies. Our AI employees take the calls after someone enrolls, and over a million seniors have been supported on the platform. So we hear what goes wrong.

"We know when people call in after signing up for a plan and they're asking why a prescription costs more than they expected. We thought it would be useful, at this time in AEP, to take everything we've learned supporting people after enrollment and see what we can do before it."

As Alex told Fierce Healthcare, most of those questions "are answerable in about ten minutes before you sign. Almost nobody asks during the enrollment." MatchYourMedicare moves those ten minutes to the front.

The blind spot in every TPMO disclaimer

Every TPMO has to read a CMS-required disclaimer: "We do not offer every plan available in your area."

"In plain English, that means almost no Medicare advisor can actually help you compare the 20 or 25 different plans that might be available in your ZIP code. They're able to help you compare the ten they're contracted to sell."

The average beneficiary has 28 Medicare Advantage plans with drug coverage for 2027 (KFF). The fix isn't replacing the agent. It's flipping the order: compare everything first, then talk to an agent contracted for the plan you picked.

What it means for agencies

A client who walks in with a short list is a different conversation, and more likely to stay.

"That's high-quality business an advisor can count on sticking. That person is much less likely to take calls or respond to ads from anybody else and switch, because they have confidence the plan they found is the right one for their real health needs."

The alternative, as Alex told Fierce: "It is not unusual to see someone who has switched plans six times in three months. That's not a person shopping carefully. That's a person being worked."Every switch is lost lifetime value for the agency that wrote the first policy. Retention starts before the enrollment.

Use it with your clients this AEP

• The client calling about an ad. Send the link before you re-shop
• The client whose plan is leaving their county. Plan Crosswalk shows who's affected; MatchYourMedicare gives them something to compare with
• The family helping a parent. Thanksgiving is when it happens. Send it to them too

Hi {name}, before we go over plans, try this free tool: matchyourmedicare.com. Add your doctors and prescriptions and it shows what each plan in your area is expected to cost you for the year. No sign-up, no sales calls. Send me your top two or three and we'll go through them together.

Fair questions

Is careCycle competing with agents? No. It doesn't enroll anyone, route leads, or recommend an agent. "This is by no means designed to be a lead generation site. It's designed to make Medicare shopping better."

What if the best match is a plan I don't carry? Then you learn it now, not from the next agent who calls them in February.

What happens to the data? Answers aren't tied to a name or email, never sold or shared with insurers, agents, or brokers, and never used to train AI. careCycle is SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA compliant.

How does it make money? It doesn't. careCycle earns from the software we sell to Medicare agencies, not from this site.

Where this goes

"We do not believe in replacing Medicare agents. We believe in replacing the majority of tasks Medicare agents currently do, so the time they spend with their clients can be quality time."

Five to ten minutes on enrollment instead of 45 on plan research. The rest is about the client. We built member care after the enrollment first. MatchYourMedicare brings the same thinking before it.

Try it

• Shopping, or helping a parent? matchyourmedicare.com
• Running an agency? Send it to your clients. Book a demo
• Full story: Fierce Healthcare

Quotes lightly edited for clarity. Examples are illustrative. MatchYourMedicare is a non-government service powered by careCycle and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. government or the federal Medicare program. For official information, visit Medicare.gov or call 1-800-MEDICARE.