It’s Fall. The kids are back in school, leaves are falling, I refuse to acknowledge any footwear that isn’t boots, and people have ten million questions about Medicare Part D notifications!

I promise the process isn’t as painful as the myriad of questions make it seem. The carriers send out notifications to the group, so all the group has to do is send out the completed sample notice, which you can find here. My recommendation is to send it to all employees, you never know who has a Medicare eligible dependent that you don’t know about, and it’s better to cover your bases.

Groups also need to confirm their status with CMS, which is done in the same link as the sample letters. They have really detailed instructions, and it’s not very difficult, so that should be no problem for your clients.

Horizon and AmeriHealth have confirmed that all of their small group ACA plans are creditable. If you have a Horizon pre-ACA that is non-creditable, we will let you know!
MHP (Qualcare) has two non-creditable plans, Rx4 and Rx5. Rx6, which isn’t actually Rx coverage, so that won’t count as creditable coverage either.

We get a lot of the same questions every year, and I am sure you do too. First is always “If I drop the Rx coverage, can I re-enroll”. The answer to that is that members can return to the group plan at open enrollment, or if they experience a triggering event. We also get a lot of “Is there coordination of benefits with the group plan and Part D?” Generally, Rx plans don’t have coordination of benefits, so you could have both, but it won’t do you any good.

So, I promise you that the Part D notifications aren’t as scary as they seem. A few simple clicks of the keyboard, and your groups will be good to go!

For more information, please contact Allison Johnson at ajohnson@martinins.com