PAN and 26 healthcare allies ask for enhanced access to financial help for ‘Extra Help’ Low-Income Subsidy enrollees
During our transition, where to find information about:
- Our merged organization: uniting.patientadvocate.org
- Financial assistance: totalassist.org
- Additional direct patient services and resources: patientadvocate.org
- Education: panfoundation.org and education.patientadvocate.org
- Clinical trials education: clinicaltrials.panfoundation.org
- Advocacy: npaf.org
- Research: patientinsightinstitute.org
The PAN Foundation joined the National Council on Aging and 25 other patient and healthcare advocacy organizations in submitting a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requesting that they take several steps to enhance access to financial help through the Medicare Part D Low-Income Subsidy program, also known as the Extra Help program.
In this letter, they asked CMS to:
- Increase the number of $0 premium plans to provide better options for lowest-income Part D beneficiaries, many of whom are forced to choose a plan that doesn’t cover their prescription medications.
- Increase the threshold for a Part D plan provider to waive the basic beneficiary premium.
- Include beneficiaries’ preferred pharmacies and prescriptions in the assignment of $0 premium plans, instead of random assignment. Studies show that random assignment without taking the financial and health outcomes of patients into account led to higher out-of-pocket expenses for beneficiaries.
- Test whether informing all beneficiaries who pay a premium that $0 premium plans are available and could impact their enrollment decisions and reduce their out-of-pocket costs.
You can read our letter and supporting materials here: