Should I suspend PSHB coverage for Medicare Advantage?

If you join a commercial MA plan, not Medicare Advantage plans offered by PSHB plans, you can temporarily suspend your PSHB enrollment and stop paying two sets of premiums. Under the suspend option, you pay the Part B premium and sometimes an extra premium from the commercial Medicare Advantage plan (usually only a few hundred dollars per year and often nothing at all). You can switch out of Medicare Advantage during any future Open Season and rejoin the PSHB program as if you had never left. 

Suspending your PSHB enrollment generates substantial savings because you'll pay one premium instead of two. How much you'll save depends on the precise benefits the MA plan offers to Medicare enrollees and whether it charges an extra premium. 

Important note: You cannot suspend your PSHB enrollment and join one of the Medicare Advantage plans offered by PSHB plans. Those plans require you to be enrolled in the PSHB plan to enroll in the Medicare Advantage plan option.