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Public Employee Press
Call union before signing
up for Medicare Part D Retirees
have until Dec. 31 to sign up for coverage by a Medicare drug plan in 2007.
But anyone who is considering enrolling in a Medicare Part D plan, including
city employees who expect to retire by the end of the year, should contact the
DC 37 Health and Security Plan before making a decision. Call the plans
Inquiry Unit at 212-815-1234 if you have questions. The open enrollment
period for Medicare Part D plans is from Nov. 15 to Dec. 31. In November,
the DC 37 Health and Security Plan sent out a notice to members and retirees about
Medicare and the unions prescription drug benefit. By law, employer
and union health plans with drug benefits are required to inform their participants
that the coverage they provide is at least as good or better than the Part D benefit.
The notification is known as a letter of creditable coverage.
Retirees and members close to retiring should keep the DC 37 Health and Securitys
letter of creditable coverage on file at home in order to avoid a
possible penalty for not signing up for a Medicare Part D plan. Under
the rules for Medicare Part D, anyone who enrolls in a Medicare Advantage or independent
drug plan after allowing for a gap in coverage for 63 days is subject to a 1 percent
per month penalty on their monthly premium for each month that they went without
coverage. The DC 37 letter provides proof of coverage by the union plan.
One of the drawbacks of Medicare Part D is the infamous donut hole,
the annual gap in coverage where participants must pay 100 percent of the cost
of their medications. In 2007, the gap affects expenditures from $2,400 to $5,451.
When retirees covered by Medicare D hit the gap, the DC 37 prescription drug benefit
will cover them, but only if they contact the union. In October, Congressional
Democrats charged that a government publication sent to Medicare beneficiaries
was biased in favor of the private insurance plans that offer the government health
benefit. When the law creating the Part D program was established in
2003, critics charged that it was a Trojan horse for privatization of the government
program. The law favors private companies, for instance, by providing subsidies
to plans that offer the prescription drug benefit. The 2007 handbook
strongly favors health-maintenance organizations, preferred provider organizations
and other private Medicare Advantage plans over the traditional Medicare fee-for-service
program, the Democrats wrote in a letter to Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary
of health and human services, in October. | |