Medicare Part D

Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage is critically important for more and more Americans every year. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), millions upon millions of Americans are eligible for Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage. With an aging U.S. population and Medicare reform as an issue in the health care reform spotlight, Medicare Part D compliance is an issue that no employer with a group health plan can ignore. Millions of Medicare-eligible Americans receive their drug coverage through an employer-sponsored group health plan. Medicare Part D imposes two annual notice requirements on all employers that offer group health plan coverage with a prescription drug benefit:

• Employers are required to send participants either a Notice of Creditable Coverage or a Notice of Non-Creditable Coverage, whichever is applicable, by November 15 of each year and at other times.
• Employers must also notify CMS about their plan’s creditable coverage status no later than the 60th day after the start of each plan year.

Health Care Reform change for 2011: Under §3204 of the Affordable Care Act, the annual enrollment period for 2012 and beyond will begin on October 15 and end on December 7. Thus, the 2011 annual enrollment period for 2012 coverage will be October 15-December 7, 2011. Accordingly, the Employer Notice deadline will also be October 15 for 2011 and following years.

Infinisource can assist employers with these notice requirements. We have a customized Creditable Coverage or Non-Creditable Coverage Notice that is suitable for blanket mailing to your entire participant population via first class mail. Blanket mailing is recommended because most employers cannot determine with 100 percent accuracy the Medicare eligibility of all their participants, including covered spouses and dependents.

Infinisource can also assist with determining creditable coverage status. We provide an excellent tool: the Self-determination Test.

Let Infinisource eliminate this notice requirement from your busy work schedule. To assist you, we provide a guideline including a step-by-step checklist and detailed instructions for providing us the required data.

Specific training on all of these requirements is available as a webinar or through an in-house seminar. This service is fully supported by our Research and Compliance Department, including our own in-house legal counsel.

For more information please contact the Infinisource Sales Team at solutions@infinisource.net or call 800-300-3838