Our editorial standards

Everything on AskForSeniors exists to answer one question well: “What should I actually do in my situation?” These are the standards every page is held to.

Where our information comes from

We build from primary sources: the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Social Security Administration, the USDA, the Department of Veterans Affairs, state insurance departments and Medicaid agencies, and the published rules and data of the programs we cover. When we cite a statistic, we name the source and the year, and we link to it. If we can’t source a claim, we don’t publish it.

How content is reviewed and kept current

Every guide carries a “Reviewed” date and its sources. Program rules, income limits, and enrollment dates change on government schedules — we review time-sensitive content against those schedules, and date-stamp data so you can judge its freshness yourself. If you find something out of date, tell us and we’ll fix it and say so.

Plain language, by policy

We write for real people making real decisions, many of them stressful. Short sentences. No jargon without a definition. The answer first, the background after. Our accessibility commitments — large readable type, high contrast, full keyboard and screen-reader support — are part of the editorial product, not an afterthought.

Independence

Our revenue comes from advertising and disclosed partnerships, explained fully on How we make money. Editorial content is produced independently of both. Partners never review content before publication. Comparison rankings come from an editor-owned rubric reviewed on a set schedule, never from payment. Some of our most important pages — including content for people in financial crisis or recent bereavement — carry no advertising and no partner links at all, on purpose.

Lines we never cross

We are a publication, not an insurance agency. We never recommend, quote, or sell specific Medicare plans; we educate about how the program works and route people to licensed professionals and to free SHIP counselors. We never present a paid link without disclosure. We never use your data — we don’t have it.

Corrections

We publish our mistakes. Our corrections policy explains how to report an error and what we do when you’re right.