Questions before joining The Program

No. The Program includes The Clearing Handbook, but membership is not a sequence of lessons to complete. Members use the part that matches the decision in front of them and return when something changes.

Not only software. The Program combines The Clearing Handbook, Fern, the member's Blueprint, Annual Review, the Caregiver Track, worksheets, and the Community. The technology holds the work together. The value is the guidance, application, continuity, and lived experience around the decision.

The Program is designed for adults approaching Medicare; people already enrolled who want a clearer annual-review process; people facing a notice, denial, doctor change, prescription change, or move; and spouses, adult children, siblings, or others helping someone else. It is not intended for Medicaid-only decisions at this stage.

No. Membership can also be useful when a doctor leaves a network, a prescription changes, costs move, a notice arrives, a member relocates, annual review begins, or a caregiver becomes involved. The Program is designed around decisions that continue after enrollment.

No. Members may use the Handbook, Fern, Community, worksheets, or Annual Review according to the situation in front of them. The Program is not something to finish.

The public site includes Start Here, the Self-Audit, public Decision Tools, the Library, and Hazel. Medicare.gov and SHIP also remain important official and independent resources.

Membership adds The Clearing Handbook, Fern, the Blueprint, Annual Review, the Caregiver Track, member worksheets, the Community, Field Reports, and access for the primary member plus up to two additional users. The paid layer adds application, continuity, retained work, and lived experience.

Yes. The Self-Audit remains free. It can help a visitor define what their Medicare coverage needs to do before comparing options.

Medicare.gov provides official information and plan-comparison tools. SHIP provides free, independent counseling. The Program does not replace either one. Membership provides the checking, the keeping, and the catch: applying the member's requirements, preserving the reasoning, and returning to the work when plans or personal circumstances change. Read the full cost-versus-return explanation.

The Handbook provides situation-based guidance for understanding, making, and managing Medicare decisions. It explains the issues, tradeoffs, questions, and verification points that may matter. See the full map.

Fern is the private member guide. She works from the member's Requirements List, Blueprint, and prior decisions to help organize facts, examine tradeoffs, and produce defined outputs such as a Requirements List, Plan Comparison, Letter Translation, SHIP Prep Packet, Enrollment Checklist, Annual Review, Family Brief, or Decision Memo. Meet Fern.

Hazel is the public site guide. She helps visitors find pages, articles, and tools, understand the public site, and learn what The Program adds. Hazel does not apply Medicare rules or plan details to an individual situation. Fern is the private member guide; she works inside the member workspace and helps members organize and preserve deeper decision work. Hazel helps visitors find the path. Fern helps members work through it.

The Community is the members-only place for current questions, caregiver support, shared experience, and Field Reports showing what happened after real Medicare decisions were made. See how the Community works.

No. Community posts reflect member experience, questions, and discussion. They do not replace Medicare.gov, SHIP, plan documents, provider verification, or professional legal, tax, medical, or financial advice. Experience can be useful. It still needs context and verification.

Field Reports are members' honest debriefs of what happened after a Medicare decision was made. They may describe what was chosen, what worked, what changed, what cost more than expected, and what the member wishes had been checked. They are not testimonials and are not edited into success stories.

No. The Clearing does not sell Medicare Advantage, Medigap, Part D, or other insurance; it does not recommend specific plans or carriers; and it is not an enrollment service. The Clearing helps members establish requirements, compare tradeoffs, and identify what needs verification. The member remains the decision-maker and completes enrollment through the appropriate official, plan, employer, or broker channel.

No. Medicare.gov remains the official source for Medicare information and plan comparison, and SHIP offers free, independent counseling. The Clearing can help members prepare for a SHIP appointment and preserve the work before and after it, but it does not replace Medicare, SHIP, plans, providers, or licensed professionals.

No. The Clearing provides educational and decision-support material. Questions requiring professional advice should be directed to an appropriate qualified professional.

No. The Program may help a member identify a mismatch, avoid an unnecessary option, or confirm that existing coverage still fits. It does not guarantee savings, eligibility, enrollment success, provider access, or a particular outcome.

One membership includes the primary member plus up to two additional users.

An additional user may be a spouse, partner, caregiver, adult child, sibling, or another trusted person helping with the decision.

Each additional user receives their own login while participating according to the permissions available in the primary member's workspace. Final wording confirmed against the account implementation before launch.

The membership is built around one shared decision workspace, so additional users participate in the primary member's Blueprint rather than each receiving an independent Medicare case. Confirmed against the account model before launch.

Yes. The Caregiver Track is designed for people helping someone else make or manage a Medicare decision. Explore the Caregiver Track.

No. Membership does not create power of attorney, HIPAA authorization, representative status, or authority to enroll or act for another person.

The current Founding Circle rate is $169 annually. Public pricing begins August 20 at $299 annually or $39 monthly.

Membership renews according to the billing cadence selected at checkout unless canceled.

Founding Circle members retain the $169 annual rate available when they joined for the life of an uninterrupted membership.

Members may cancel through the available account or support process. Cancellation stops future renewal. It does not rewrite the membership period already purchased.

Canceling stops the next renewal. Access continues through the end of the period already purchased, and the membership does not renew after that. Confirmed against the final billing and cancellation policy before launch.

The Blueprint remains available during a 60-day grace period. After that period, it is archived according to the membership terms. During the grace period the member can view it, renew to restore full access, or request its removal. Exact grace window and export options confirmed against the implementation before launch.

Additional-user access ends or changes with the primary membership according to the account terms. Precise behavior stated once the account model is implemented.

In plain terms: account details; Blueprint and Requirements List content; decision records; member-entered context used by Fern; and Community participation where applicable. Final list confirmed against the live implementation; no broad security claims are made here.

No. The Clearing's print-only worksheets are completed and stored by the member. The Clearing does not collect or host what a member writes on those paper artifacts.

Fern uses the member's stored workspace context to help continue the work across conversations. The Privacy Policy states what data is retained, where it is stored, who may access it, and how it may be removed. Final wording matched to the actual implementation before launch.

Yes. Members may request removal through the account support and data-request process described in the Privacy Policy. Exact deletion steps confirmed before launch.

Treat Hazel and the Community as places where information could be seen or repeated. Do not enter or post Social Security numbers, Medicare identification numbers, full financial account details, or another person's private information without permission. Hazel needs only enough context to point you to the right page or resource; in the Community, share only what you would be comfortable having repeated.

Members log in from the Log In link in the top bar. Points to the live member login route at launch.

The primary member invites additional users from account settings. Exact invitation steps documented once the account process is configured.

The Program runs in a current web browser on a computer, tablet, or phone. There is no separate app to install. Supported browsers listed precisely before launch.

Account, billing, and security questions go to Program support. Hazel can help with basic site navigation, but does not handle private billing or account-security issues.