Recording and written materials of AIS's Webinar on July 28, 2010

Reform-Driven Changes to Retiree Health Coverage: Strategies for Part D Plans and Employers

Many employers are re-evaluating the provision of retiree health coverage in light of changes to the Part D benefit and the retiree drug subsidy (RDS) in the recently enacted health reform law…changes that have made Part D plans more attractive to employers and beneficiaries. Beginning in 2013, the RDS will cease to be deductible, and this 28% subsidy will be subject to a corporate tax. Employers are evaluating now whether to keep the subsidy and continue to provide coverage for their retirees or move their retirees to stand-alone Prescription Drug Plans (PDPs) or group waiver plans. As a result, Part D plans should take steps to prepare for an influx of new members.

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With the RDS becoming taxable in 2013 and the eventual closure of the Part D coverage gap, a major shift in health coverage for retirees is on the horizon. Once employers stop receiving the tax-deferred subsidy and find it increasingly difficult to meet the actuarial equivalence test, many are likely to move their retirees to Part D plans. As Part D plans get better funding from the government through a change in coinsurance in the coverage gap and the gap closes for both generic and brand-name drugs, PDPs are setting the bar high for what good prescription drug coverage looks like to beneficiaries. Employers may not be able to (or want) to try to meet the standard anymore and could instead buy Part D coverage for retirees or reimburse them for coverage.

Hear employee benefits experts Stuart Wohl and George Bognar of The Segal Company detail the changes in the RDS and the Part D coverage gap and ways Part D plans can make the most of these opportunities. Among the topics discussed:

 

Speakers

Stuart Wohl is a senior vice president and retirement health practice lead at The Segal Company. Mr. Wohl serves as a consultant to numerous trust funds that provide health and/or life benefits to retirees and their dependents. He specializes in active and retiree health and life benefits and is involved in providing health actuarial services nationally. Mr. Wohl is a recognized expert on retiree health benefits and retiree health valuations and served as a technical resource to the Governmental Accounting Standards Board in its deliberations prior to the issuance of GASB 43 and GASB 45. Mr. Wohl leads a team that provides health consulting, analytical and actuarial expertise to all of Segal’s east region public sector, multiemployer, union and corporate clients.

George Bognar is the lead pharmacy benefits consultant for The Segal Company’s eastern Region, based in Washington, D.C. Mr. Bognar has worked with managed prescription drug programs since 1994, with special emphasis on benefit design and cost-reduction strategies. His current focus is the evaluation of health and pharmacy benefit services, plan design strategies and health management. He is a member of Segal’s National Prescription Consulting Group. Prior to joining The Segal Company, Mr. Bognar worked with large clients within both the public and private sectors, as well as multiemployer clients on pharmacy and benefit issues ranging from plan design, trend analysis, clinical and health management programs and Medicare Part D.

Moderator: Barbra Golub, JD, managing editor of AIS’s Medicare Part D News.

• Part D plan CEOs, CFOs, chief operating officers, and government affairs and compliance directors;
• Top executives and benefit managers for large employers and purchasers;
• Pharmaceutical company executives and marketers;
• Executives of pharmacy benefit management companies;
• Provider group CEOs, administrators and directors of managed care contracting; and
• Attorneys, actuaries and consultants.