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December 09, 2003 at 07:00 PM
NU Online News Service, Dec. 9, 2003, 5:49 p.m. EST, Anaheim, Calif. – The complexity of the new Medicare prescription drug law will make implementing it a challenge, according to regulators, insurers and consumer advocates who are here for the winter meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo.[@@]
President Bush signed H.R. 1, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, into law Monday.
Regulators at the NAIC winter meeting said the NAIC will have to update the Medicare Supplement Insurance Minimum Standards model regulation to reflect the MPDIMA changes.
The NAIC will have to develop two new plans that offer the new prescription benefits and clean up Medigap plans H, I and J to remove existing drug benefits, regulators said.
The NAIC also will be working with the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services to develop notices to enrollees in current plans about changes to the plans and options available under the new prescription drug plans.
Finally, the NAIC will have to develop solvency standards for plans that received waivers from state licensing requirements. The NAIC will have to develop the solvency standards in conjunction with the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Because of the time that regulators will have to devote to changing the Medigap model, they plan to scale back work on revisions to a long term care model act, regulators said.
