The average premium for Medicare Advantage plans in 2010 will be $39, or $7 more than this year, and the average standalone Part D prescription drug plan will cost $30, up $2 from this year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced on Thursday.
In Rhode Island, however, several zero-premium Advantage plans will continue to be available, and all Medicare beneficiaries will have access to Advantage plans with a maximum out-of-pocket cost of $3,400 or less, officials said.
On the Part D side, there will be 48 standalone plans, with the cheapest priced at $10.80, plans with generic-drug coverage in the “doughnut hole” starting at $59.20, and 20 zero-deductible plans. This year the cheapest plan is $19.60, and the cheapest with gap coverage is $50.60.
The vast majority of Rhode Island Medicare beneficiaries – 87 percent – have drug coverage, two-thirds of them through Part D, CMS said, and 36 percent of people with Part D get a low-income subsidy from the government. For them, 13 plans have zero premiums.
Open enrollment for Medicare Advantage and Part D begins Nov. 15, and CMS always unveils the choices several weeks ahead of time so seniors have time to review them, and insurers have time to promote their products.
In a news release about the 2010 options, CMS noted that to protect beneficiaries from “deceptive marketing practices” by sales agents, brokers and the plans themselves, the agency is overseeing plan marketing more carefully and has tightened rules.
CMS is also spot-checking plans through secret-shopping activities and one-on-one marketing sessions, focusing on areas with a lot of non-renewals of Medicare coverage. Only about 7 percent of Advantage enrollees will have to choose new plans this year, however, due to their previous plans having been discontinued. Most of the latter are private fee-for-service plans from companies that chose to pull out of the market, CMS said.
CMS also reviewed plans that served fewer than 100 people, had been in operation less than two years and were not serving a special population, such as beneficiaries enrolled in special-needs plans, and it asked insurers to consolidate plans that were very similar to each other.
Medicare beneficiaries should receive their 2010 “Medicare & You” handbooks and find updated information at www.medicare.gov and 1-800-Medicare by mid-October, CMS said. The Medicare Plan Finder on the Web site allows users to compare plans’ quality ratings, find out if the drugs they take are covered, and compare their estimated costs with each plan.
