Part D enrollment deadline draws near

Federal officials exhort Medicare beneficiaries to sign up before this year's enrollment period closes May 15 but will wait longer for some low-income people.

By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. May 8, 2006.

Washington -- In the coming days, physicians may find themselves fielding last-minute questions from seniors hastening to sign up for Medicare drug coverage before it's too late.

The White House and federal health officials are urging the millions of Medicare beneficiaries who have not yet enrolled in Medicare Part D strongly to consider doing so before May 15, the last day of enrollment for 2006 coverage. A new sign-up period for calendar year 2007 is scheduled to begin in November, but patients who are Medicare-eligible now but wait to sign up will be subject to plan premiums that are 1% higher for every month they delay.

Out of the 43 million seniors and disabled people eligible for the benefit, roughly 30 million were receiving Medicare assistance with their drug costs as of April 18. An additional 5.8 million were enrolled in an outside coverage plan as good as Medicare's, meaning they can switch to the federal program without penalty in the future.

During a recent speech in Virginia, President Bush encouraged the remaining 7 million eligible people to avoid paying higher premiums in the future by joining a Medicare drug plan right away.

"The reason I've come today is to urge every senior here in the room and around the country who might be listening on TV that if you have not signed up for the Medicare Part D program, you really need to do it," Bush said.

For weeks, Medicare officials have been predicting a rush of eleventh-hour sign-up attempts, leading to possible strains on drug plan phone lines and Web servers. By traveling around the country to publicize the benefit as well as communicating in these final weeks that the doors remain open, Bush administration officials hoped to help spread out the requests so plans aren't overwhelmed.