CMS Announces New Medicare Drug Benefit Rule That Will Allow Some Low-Income Beneficiaries To Remain In Current Plans

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 03 Apr 2008 - 6:00 PDT

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CMS on Monday announced a new rule that will allow some low-income Medicare drug plan beneficiaries to stay enrolled in their current plans instead of being reassigned to a new one at the end of the year, CQ HealthBeat reports. Under current law, if a drug plan that charges no premiums decides to assess charges for the next year, beneficiaries are automatically switched to a plan that does not charge premiums, which could cause disruptions in coverage. Under the new rule, which goes into effect May 31, Medicare is changing its payment system to reduce the number of plans that switch from charging no premiums to assessing charges. CMS in a release wrote that if the rule had been in place at the start of the year, the "number of reassignments would have been reduced by 850,000" (CQ HealthBeat, 4/1).

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