CMS extends Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit enrollment deadline for some low-income beneficiaries

[Apr 14, 2006]

CMS officials have announced that the agency will allow some low-income Medicare beneficiaries additional time to enroll in the prescription drug benefit without financial penalty, the Wall Street Journal reports. Under a new policy announced this month, CMS will allow "ongoing" enrollment in the Medicare prescription drug benefit for beneficiaries who qualify for a low-income subsidy. Medicare beneficiaries who qualify for the subsidy and missed the May 15 deadline would have had to wait until January 2007 to enroll in the prescription drug benefit without the new policy, according to the Wall Street Journal. CMS estimates that 8.2 million Medicare beneficiaries qualify for the subsidy, which is available to individual beneficiaries with annual incomes of less than about $15,000 and assets of less than $11,500. However, only 4.7 million Medicare beneficiaries had applied for the subsidy as of March 31, and only about 1.6 million of those have qualified (Wall Street Journal, 4/14).