Share of Cost, Beneficiary Mailings from CMS, Social Security and Health Plans in 2012/2013
Every year a host of mailings from the Centers from Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Social Security and Medicare Advantage health plans are sent to millions of Medicare beneficiaries. Some of these notices (the color-coded ones) are for people receiving the Part D low-income subsidy (Extra Help) for their prescription drug costs; others are for people in Medicare Advantage plans notifying them of any benefit, formulary and cost-sharing changes for the new year. Additional notices include those to beneficiaries who are in terminating or non-renewing plans, those to higher income beneficiaries about income related Part B and D premium adjustments, and those to people receiving Social Security about benefit payment changes for the coming year due to cost of living increases, variations in the premiums that are withheld, etc.
CMS has a comprehensive chart (PDF) that lists all such notices for 2012/2013 detailing the mail date, sender, what the mailing and/or color is, the main message, and any action the beneficiary should take upon receiving one of these notices. All notices that are available online are hyperlinked, yet the hyperlinked notices for this year won’t be available later this fall.