37 Million Medicare Beneficiaries Now Receiving Prescription Drug Coverage
Medicare announced today that over a million more people have enrolled in prescription drug coverage between late April and May 6, bringing the total of beneficiaries with prescription drug coverage to 37 million.
This number includes about 9 million individual enrollees in "stand alone" prescription drug plans and more than 1 million new enrollees in Medicare Advantage plans.
This week, beneficiary calls and online enrollments have accelerated.
Medicare is making extra efforts to enroll minority populations and beneficiaries who are eligible for the low income subsidy, with the assistance of a broad range of community and advocacy groups.
Stand-Alone Prescription Drug Plans (PDPs): 8.9 million people with Medicare have enrolled in stand-alone prescription drug plans, including 2.1 million enrollees receiving the low income subsidy.
An additional 490,000 Medicare/Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans with prescription drug coverage and are counted in the MA-PD total above.
Retiree Coverage: About 6.9 million retirees are enrolled in the Medicare retiree subsidy.
In addition, about 1.4 million retirees are in employer and union-sponsored coverage that incorporates Medicare group drug coverage and are counted in the PDP and MA-PD totals above.
TRICARE: There are 1.9 million beneficiaries with TRICARE retiree coverage.
FEHB: There are 1.6 million beneficiaries with FEHB retiree coverage.
Indian Health Service (IHS): There are an estimated 0.1 million beneficiaries with creditable drug coverage through the IHS.
Other Retiree Coverage: An estimated 0.5 million retirees are continuing in coverage from a former employer that is not coordinated with Medicare drug coverage but is still creditable.
