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Minnesota seniors have a little less than three weeks to find and enroll in a Medicare health plan, and there's a lot of chaos in the marketplace right now. 

. There are questions about federal Affordable Care Act subsidies and credits. Choice is abundant. And the system itself is complicated to navigate. 

Kelli Jo Greiner, Medicare product manager for the 

, joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer with advice on choosing insurance. 

“The perfect storm has really hit us this year when it comes to Medicare and all the changes that are happening,” Greiner said. 

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Listen to the conversation by clicking the player button.

How busy have your staff been in answering insurance questions from Minnesota seniors? 

The Minnesota Aging Pathways, which used to be Senior Linkage Line, has been incredibly busy this year. We have never seen call volume like this before. In fact, it's been so high that we actually have contracted with another entity to help us answer calls, and that has really helped us out tremendously to not have such long wait times. 

What are the main questions that folks have? 

Is it worse in rural areas than in urban areas? 

Yes, it is. The rural areas have fewer options to choose from, which some people may think is a good thing. But because people have to find a plan that will cover their providers and their drugs and their pharmacy, it becomes more difficult when you have fewer plan options that are going to meet all of your needs. 

What questions should folks ask when talking to an insurance company or broker? 

I think the other thing, if people are dealing with brokers and agents, is to really have an honest talk with them [and ask] “what really are the best options are for me?”. At Minnesota Aging Pathways, we cannot recommend one plan over another. We provide people with the information, but the decision basically has to be their own, whereas agents can get much more into what would be the best specific plan for me out of what I'm looking at. 

Regarding misinformation and scams, what can seniors look out for? 

One of the things that is happening, unfortunately, is that unscrupulous people out there are actually enrolling people in plans that they have not chosen to enroll in. 

And so the first thing we tell people is, if you get a phone call and somebody is asking for your personal information in any way, shape or form, don't even engage them in a conversation. Hang up the phone. If you're getting emails that just are not making sense and are again asking for your personal information, click off that, don't respond to it. 

And the best thing that you can do in terms of advice about how to handle these situations is to not respond at all. If you give them a segue into giving them any kind of information, it is amazing how they can take that little grain of information and run with it, and next thing you know, you're a victim of a scam or a fraudulent action. So we really want people to know that we need to all be fighting fraud, scams and abuse out there, because there are many of them. 

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“The perfect storm has really hit us this year when it comes to Medicare and all the changes that are happening,” said Kelli Jo Greiner of the Minnesota Board on Aging. 

Expert advice to navigate UCare and Medicare changes while buying health insurance

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