Horizon BCBSNJ Creditable Coverage Notices, Applies to All Markets

Posted on September 25, 2019

Horizon BCBSNJ Creditable Coverage Notices, Applies to All Markets
Date: 9/25/19
 
Groups that offer prescription drug coverage to Medicare-eligible employees and their dependents are required to notify those employees and dependents whether their coverage is creditable or non-creditable. Notifications must be sent before the 2020 Medicare Annual Election Period, which begins on October 15, 2019. This requirement is part of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (MMA).

As defined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), prescription drug coverage is creditable if the actuarial value of the coverage is equivalent to, or better than, the actuarial value of standard Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage. A non-creditable prescription drug plan has an actuarial value that is less than the standard Medicare Part D coverage.

 

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey will inform your groups who have Medicare-eligible members of their prescription plans’ status by letter or email in late September. Members in the Consumer market who are at or approaching the Medicare eligibility age (age 65) will also receive a letter.
 
Below are samples of the letters that will be sent.

Once your groups receive this information, they must disclose to their employees whether their prescription plan is creditable or non-creditable. CMS-approved models for creditable and non-creditable disclosure notices are available at cms.hhs.gov/creditablecoverage.

Your groups are also required to disclose, directly to CMS, whether or not the coverage that is offered to Medicare-eligible employees and their dependents is creditable prescription drug coverage.
 
This disclosure must be made to CMS annually and upon any change in the creditable coverage status of the prescription drug plan. The Disclosure to CMS form can also be found on the CMS website cms.hhs.gov/creditablecoverage.
 
If your groups do not have any Medicare-eligible employees, they will not receive a letter and no disclosure is required.