How we keep MedicareAdvantageExplained accurate and trustworthy.
A cost calculator is only useful if the numbers behind it are right. This page covers where our figures come from, how a page gets fact-checked before it goes live, and what happens when something needs correcting.
Naomi Foster leads the health coverage published here. She spent close to a decade as a registered nurse before shifting into healthcare writing, and that clinical background shapes how she approaches Medicare Advantage: less on marketing language, more on what a plan's summary of benefits actually obligates it to pay for. She writes and fact-checks every article on this site for Encore Editorial.
Every tool starts from a published, industry-standard formula, the same addition-and-capping logic Medicare uses for its own out-of-pocket maximum rules. We test each calculator against known inputs before it ships, document the assumptions on the tool page itself, and never store the values a visitor types in.
Dollar amounts on this site, Part B premiums, out-of-pocket caps, Part D limits, are sourced from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Medicare.gov, cited with the specific release rather than a rounded estimate. Where a number varies by state, insurer, or plan, we say so instead of presenting a single figure as universal.
We don't take payment to feature a specific insurer or plan. Some links on the site are affiliate links and may earn us a commission at no cost to you, but that relationship has no influence on which numbers we publish or which plan gets mentioned first.
If you find a figure that looks outdated or wrong, tell us. We check it against the current CMS release and correct the page promptly, noting the update date at the top of the article.