New Medicare Reforms Can Help Seniors Save Money – But Only if They Opt In
New Medicare Reforms Can Help Seniors Save Money – But Only if They Opt In
CAN’s CEO, Marvell Adams Jr., was published in Penn Live Patriot News with the op-ed, New Medicare reforms can help seniors save money — but only if they opt in. Read the full piece below.
October 15th marks the start of Medicare’s annual open enrollment period. Seniors can choose to stay on their current plan or switch to a new one. But this year, that choice is far more important — and complex — than usual.
Medicare’s prescription drug benefit, also known as “Part D,” has undergone major changes with new policies that could save seniors hundreds or even thousands of dollars on prescriptions.
However, while many of the changes are automatic, an important change that allows seniors to “smooth” their cost-sharing over the course of the year requires Medicare beneficiaries to opt in. Additionally, right now, a large share of seniors — and their caregivers — simply aren’t aware of the new policies.[1]
As part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, Congress established a new $2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap on prescription drug spending.[2] Beginning in January, Part D enrollees will no longer have to spend more than $2,000 of their own money on covered medications in a single year.
This one policy could prove life-changing for millions of Medicare beneficiaries. According to one recent analysis by the Department of Health and Human Services, some 3.5 million Medicare beneficiaries struggled to afford their medicines in 2019 — with Black, Latino, and chronically ill patients finding it especially difficult to fill their prescriptions.[3]
For many of these enrollees, life is about to get a lot easier. In fact, a separate HHS report estimated that 18.7 million — or more than one in three — Medicare beneficiaries will see some sort of out-of-pocket savings from the IRA Part D re-design.[4] Within that group, the average savings per patient is expected to be around $400.[5]
