No 2008 Medicare Part D prescription drug plan will offer complete brand-name and generic prescription drug coverage through the Doughnut Hole or Donut Hole or Coverage gap.
The only 2007 Medicare Part D plan to offer complete Doughnut Hole coverage across a large part of America, the
Sierra Rx Plus prescription drug plan - will not be offered in 2008.
However, the regional Citrus Part D Plus plan will offer some brand-name gap coverage for Florida residents.
The lack of a Part D plan offering complete 2008 Doughnut Hole coverage plan was no real surprise.
According to the press, the cost and risk exposure of offering a Part D plan with complete Doughnut Hole coverage is simply too high for many Part D providers.
In addition, the 2008 Part D plan designs, released in the Fall of 2007 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), show that about 30% of all Part D plans will offer some generic prescription coverage. This percentage of Part D plans offering some generic coverage in the doughnut hole is approximately the same as in 2007.
Yet, aside from Sierra, a few other insurance providers will also no longer offer a Medicare Part D plan with any Doughnut Hole coverage. These plans include Health Net, UniCare and WellCare.
(
Cheryl Powell Beacon Journal medical writer, September 28, 2007)
If you are
planning for on a year with no brand-name Doughnut Hole coverage available (like in 2008), you may want to work with your physician now to see if any generic medications could be safely substituted for your name brand medications. In this way, you can prepare for the possibility that no Part D plan will cover all medications in the Doughnut Hole.
What else can you do? We
wrote an article with some tips on what to do in the Coverage Gap. The article title is:
Extra Help in the Doughnut Hole.