In its annual call letter to organizations that intend to offer Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug plans in 2010, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has provided new guidance that will affect the number of plans offered by Medicare Advantage organizations and the information that prescription drug plan sponsors are required to provide to beneficiaries.
For 2010, CMS is asking Medicare Advantage organizations to make sure the plans they offer significantly differ from one another to ensure that beneficiaries have the information they need to make informed decisions. According to CMS, many plan sponsors offer multiple plans with few distinguishing characteristics and low enrollment. These low-volume plans crowd the field and make selecting a plan much more difficult for Medicare beneficiaries. CMS also intends to take new steps in its review of Medicare Advantage plan cost-sharing to ensure that sicker beneficiaries will be protected from discriminatory out-of-pocket charges for necessary healthcare services.
Prescription drug plan sponsors will be required to outline all the tools used by the plan to lower costs and improve outcomes on their web sites. Prescription drug plan sponsors will also be required to provide additional information about coverage in the gap on the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Finder web site later this fall.
Read the call letter.
