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Medicare beneficiary Thomas Devich did everything right. He read his Annual Notice of Change and used the Medicare Plan Finder to compare his drug coverage for the coming year. He even called the insurance companies directly to double-check the numbers.
But instead of getting a clear answer, he ran into something far more confusing: every source gave him a different price for the exact same prescriptions.
What he saw on the Medicare Plan Finder didn’t match what the plan websites showed — and neither matched the prices he was quoted by company representatives. The numbers bounced around from one source to another, even when he was looking at the same drug list.
If you’ve ever checked your medications on the Medicare Plan Finder and then seen different prices somewhere else, you’re not imagining things. Conflicting drug costs are surprisingly common, and there are real, understandable reasons the Plan Finder can show figures that seem… well… all over the place.
Devich described it this way:
“We checked the three lowest-cost drug plans and got three different prices — none of them matched what Medicare showed.”
The good news is that you don’t need to understand every behind-the-scenes detail to get reliable information. What matters most is how you enter your prescriptions and how you interpret the results the Medicare Plan Finder provides.
Here are three easy steps to get accurate Medicare Plan Finder results:
1. Make sure you enter your prescriptions correctly
When you start typing a drug name into the Medicare Plan Finder, a drop-down list appears with similar options. Many medications have several versions or strengths. If you accidentally click the wrong one — or enter an incorrect dosage or refill frequency — the results you get from the Plan Finder won’t be accurate.
Even small selection mistakes, such as choosing the wrong formulation of a drug, can cause confusing results.
Related: How a few little mistakes can end in a Medicare late enrollment penalty
2. Select several pharmacies to compare
The pharmacies you choose can make a big difference in your Plan Finder results. Insurance companies have different arrangements with pharmacies, and some plans prefer specific pharmacy networks. Depending on the plan, one pharmacy may offer the lowest price for a medication while another might charge much more.
Since the Plan Finder lets you select up to five pharmacies, it’s a good idea to enter several — your usual pharmacy, a couple of major chains, a warehouse store if you’re a member, and a mail-order option. You may find that one location is best for most of your prescriptions, but another is significantly cheaper for a specific drug.
In fact, one person I assisted was using a pharmacy close to home for all her prescriptions. When we compared prices across several locations, she discovered she could save nearly $1,000 a year by filling just one of her medications at a different pharmacy, a short bus ride away. She decided the extra trip was well worth the savings.
You don’t have to use the same pharmacy for everything. If it saves money, you can ask your doctor to send certain prescriptions to different pharmacies.
3. Look at more than just the monthly premium
It’s natural to focus on the monthly premium, but that number alone doesn’t tell you which plan will cost the least overall. The Medicare Plan Finder calculates your total yearly cost — premiums plus what you’ll pay for your medications — and sorts the plans in that order.
If you click “Plan Details,” you can see whether all your drugs are covered and how much each one will cost at the pharmacies you selected. This section also shows whether a pharmacy is considered preferred or standard in the plan’s network, which can make a noticeable difference in price.
The total cost shown by the Plan Finder assumes that you will use one pharmacy for all your medications. But when you review the drug-by-drug breakdown, you may find that switching a single prescription to another pharmacy could reduce your overall annual cost in a meaningful way.
Related: Why does Medicare Advantage keep calling me to schedule a home visit?
Can you trust the Medicare Plan Finder?
Thomas’s experience isn’t unusual. Medicare counselors regularly see situations where the information on the Plan Finder doesn’t match what a plan’s website or representative shows. The same thing can happen with provider directories, especially in Medicare Advantage plans. It can be frustrating when you’re trying to compare coverage and the numbers don’t line up.
But it’s important to understand why this happens. The Medicare Plan Finder doesn’t generate its own drug prices or provider lists. It relies entirely on the information insurance companies upload. If a plan updates its data late — or uploads incorrect information — that inaccuracy gets reflected on the Plan Finder. As the old computer saying goes, “garbage in, garbage out.”
Even with those limitations, the Plan Finder is still the best tool available for doing an initial comparison of prescription drug and Medicare Advantage plans. It gives you a solid overview, and then you can call the plans you’re considering to confirm the details that matter most for your situation.
Don’t forget: Medicare open enrollment is closing soon. Are you ready for 2026?
The bottom line
There are many reasons drug costs can vary from one source to another, but most of the confusion comes down to how insurance companies update their information and how the Medicare Plan Finder processes what you enter. Once you take a careful, step-by-step look at your medications, your pharmacies, and the plan details, the results start to make much more sense.
Have a Medicare question? Abe Wischnia is a registered Medicare counselor with the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), and he’s always happy to help. You can reach him through Consumer Rescue’s “Ask Abe” page.
