Remember ... Some 2011 Medicare Part D plans will change their names, be consolidated into other plan or will be discontinued in 2012

Every year insurance carriers are allowed to make a decision of whether one or more of their Medicare Part D plans will be discontinued in the following year. If the Insurance carrier discontinues a prescription drug plan and yet still offers other Medicare Part D plans, the Members of the discontinued plan may be automatically merged or moved into the still-existing plan for the following year or the plan Members can always opt to join another Medicare Part D plan of their choosing.

For instance, as many people may recall, the Cigna Plan Two that was available in 2010 was discontinued in 2011 and the 2010 Cigna Plan Three was renamed Cigna Plan Two in 2011.

In 2012, will Cigna continue to trim down their plans and the 2011 Cigna Plan Two is being discontinued in 23 state, including AK, CA, CO, DC, DE, GA, HI, ID, KS, LA, MD, ME, MS, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OK, OR, UT, WA and WI.
However, the 2011 Cigna Plan One will continue in 2012.

As an example, here are the Cigna Plan changes for the 102,286 plan members in New York:

Cigna Plan Changes in New York
Plan Name	Premium	Deductible	Gap Coverage	Cost-Sharing
Plan Name	Premium	Deductible	Gap Coverage	Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4
2011 CIGNA Medicare Rx Plan One (PDP)	$33.50	$310	No Gap Coverage	$3.00	$31	$78	25%
2012 CIGNA Medicare Rx Plan One (PDP)	$34.10	$320	No Gap Coverage	$3.00	$20	$34	$85
2011 CIGNA Medicare Rx Plan Two (PDP)	$71.20	$0	Many Generics and Few Brand	$0.00	$3.00	$36.00	$78.00
-- This Plan not offered in 2012 –

Cigna has sent a notice to all affected plan Members and will explain that the 2012 Cigna Medicare Rx Plan Two is no longer being offered in some states. Cigna plan Members affected by this decision will then have the option of being automatically moved to another Cigna Medicare Part D plan (Cigna Plan One) or they can elect to enroll into a 2012 Medicare Part D plan offered by another plan carrier.