Medicare. Clearly explained. Locally.
Sit down at a real wooden table. Read the plan with someone who knows it. Find the one that fits your medications, your doctors, and the way you actually live.
Joel Northbrook, RHU · Patricia Northbrook, ACA-Certified · plus Hannah and Robert. Four people. One office on Charlotte Street since 2009.
No charge for the conversation · No obligation to enroll · Callback within one business day
We do not offer every plan in your area. We represent 12 Medicare organizations and 78 products. Contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-MEDICARE, or your local SHIP for all options. This is an advertisement.
When you turn 65 — or now, if you're already on Medicare — there are three decisions.
Strip away the noise and Medicare is really three conversations, in this order. We work through them with you at the table.
Medicare Advantage or Medicare Supplement?
The biggest decision. Advantage looks like the HMO you had at work. Supplement looks like insurance from the days before HMOs. Each one fits a different kind of life. We compare both against your doctors and your travel pattern.
Read about Medicare Advantage →Which drug plan?
Part D depends entirely on what's in your medicine cabinet. Two clients on identical Supplements may end up on completely different Part D plans because their medication lists are different. We re-run the comparison every year during AEP.
Read about Part D →What else, if anything?
Dental, vision, hearing. Hospital indemnity to cover the out-of-pocket on an Advantage plan. Final Expense Life so your family isn't paying for the funeral. Most clients want one of these. A few want all of them. Some need none.
Read about DVH and the rest →What we are. What we aren't.
Two of the most common questions a new client asks us. Worth answering plainly, here, before you call.
- We are
- A Medicare-specialist agency. We do this and only this.
- Independent. We represent 12 Medicare carriers; we don't push one.
- Licensed in North Carolina. Joel is also licensed in SC, TN, VA, and GA for clients who travel.
- NABIP National Members. Continuously certified in Medicare since 2009.
- We aren't
- A call center. There are four of us. You'll know everyone.
- A captive shop. We don't work for UnitedHealthcare or Humana — we work for you.
- The government. We don't run Medicare. We help you navigate it.
- A drop-in TV-ad agency. We've been on Charlotte Street since 2009.
Joel, Patricia, Hannah, and Robert
Joel Northbrook (RHU) opened the agency in 2009 after fourteen years at Blue Cross Blue Shield NC, specifically because the call center had asked him to retire-by-phone seventeen consecutive over-65 clients in a single quarter and he could not stand the scripts. Patricia joined a year later. She runs the ACA Marketplace book for under-65 clients bridging to Medicare.
Hannah Lin joined in 2018 from a public-health background. The local Chinese-speaking community refers their parents to her for Mandarin and Cantonese conversations. Robert Connelly retired after thirty-one years teaching public-school history in Buncombe County and licensed up in 2022 because he wanted "something that lets me sit with neighbors at a table and help them think."
We are not a high-volume agency. We see roughly six to eight new prospects a week. Most of them become clients. Most of those clients stay with us for ten, twelve, fifteen years.
Read the full story →What our clients write — in their own words.
"I came in last October with the 32-page ANOC from my Aetna Advantage plan and a list of medications. Joel sat with me for an hour and a half. We left with a different plan that kept my cardiologist at Mission Health and saved me three thousand dollars a year on my insulin. He didn't pressure me. He explained things plainly. I will recommend him to anyone."
— Linda K., Hendersonville (71)
"My mother turned 65 in June and we had no idea where to start. Hannah met with us by Zoom, then in person the following week, then on the phone twice more in the weeks afterward. She spoke Mandarin with my mother and English with me and never once made either of us feel rushed. We landed on a Medicare Supplement plus a Wellcare Part D and have not looked back."
— David W., Asheville (44, on behalf of his mother, 65)
"Robert is a former teacher and you can feel it. He patiently walked me and my husband through three different Medicare Advantage plans, then talked us out of the most expensive one because — in his words — the network we cared about was identical across all three. That kind of honesty is rare. We're clients for life."
— Beverly T., Black Mountain (68)
October 15 — December 7. The seven weeks a year every Medicare beneficiary should review their plan.
Your Medicare Advantage or Part D plan can change every January 1 — premiums move, drug formularies shift, networks contract or expand. The Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) is your once-a-year window to switch without medical underwriting. We block the calendar from October through December every year and add Saturday hours and walk-in slots to handle the rush. If we are already your agency, we'll send a postcard in late September. If we aren't yet, schedule an appointment between September 15 and October 5 so we can have your plan-comparison ready when AEP opens.
If you miss AEP, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period (January 1 — March 31) gives you one more chance to switch Advantage plans or return to Original Medicare. Beyond that, you wait until next October — unless a Special Enrollment Period applies. We can tell you in a five-minute phone call which window you're in.
Schedule the AEP review
You'll receive an Annual Notice of Change from your current plan in late September. We send a postcard. Block a 30-minute appointment for any time in October, by phone or in person.
The window is open
We meet, compare your current plan against alternatives based on your medications and your doctors, file the enrollment if you change. New plan takes effect January 1.
One more chance to swap
Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment. If your AEP choice isn't working — your specialist isn't in network, your pharmacy moved — one more switch is allowed in this window.
Schedule a 30-minute appointment. No charge. No obligation.
Serving the Asheville area and Western North Carolina.
We see clients from Asheville, Hendersonville, Black Mountain, Weaverville, Mars Hill, Burnsville, Spruce Pine, Marion, Old Fort, Brevard, Waynesville, and Mills River. Buncombe, Henderson, Madison, Yancey, Mitchell, McDowell, Transylvania, and Haywood counties.
Joel is additionally licensed in South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia for clients who travel or relocate. We meet in person at the office (most do), by phone, or by Zoom.
164 Charlotte Street
Asheville, NC 28801
Walk-ins welcome · Mon–Fri 9 AM – 5 PM
Saturday appointments by request during AEP