News Release

More Than 27 Million Medicare Beneficiaries are Enrolled in Prescription Drug Coverage

Medicare beneficiaries signing up at a rate of 380,000 per week

Medicare announced today that 1.9 million additional beneficiaries have signed up for prescription drug coverage since mid-February. This represents a 25 percent increase over last month in the number of people who have selected a plan and brings the total of those who have signed up individually over the past four months to approximately 7.2 million.

"We are very pleased that more and more people with Medicare are taking advantage of this important benefit. Strong and steady enrollment has continued this month, with 380,000 Medicare beneficiaries signing up each week," HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said. "Over 27 million beneficiaries are now getting coverage and saving money on their prescription drugs. We are well on the way to achieving our goal of 28 to 30 million enrollees in the first year."

Nearly 7 million beneficiaries are currently enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, which include both MA-only and MA-Prescription Drug. In the past five weeks, more than 330,000 people have signed up for MA plans, and enrollment in Medicare Advantage has increased by about 1 million since enrollment in the drug benefit began. Approximately 5.7 million beneficiaries in MA receive coverage through MA-PD plans.

"The accelerating enrollment is in large measure due to the extraordinary efforts of our national and local partners across the country, who are helping people with Medicare get their questions answered, enroll, and start saving," said Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D. "We have increased our support for this intense outreach effort. We have added resources to keep the wait times down and beneficiary support up at 1-800-MEDICARE and medicare.gov. We urge all people with Medicare who do not yet have good drug coverage to get the help they need to make a confident decision about their prescription drug coverage prior to the May 15 enrollment deadline."

In order to ensure that people with Medicare get their prescriptions filled quickly for the first time after the have enrolled, CMS encourages Medicare beneficiaries to sign up for drug coverage early in the month before they want coverage, or at least 2 to 3 weeks before they plan to use their coverage.

Overall prescription drug coverage figures as of March 18 are:

• Stand-Alone Prescription Drug Plans: More than 6 million people with Medicare have enrolled in stand-alone prescription drug plans.
• Medicare Advantage with Prescription Drugs: About 5.7 million received coverage through Medicare Advantage plans with drug coverage (MA-PDs). More than 800,000 of these beneficiaries signed up on their own in the last four months.
• Medicare/Medicaid: About 5.8 million were automatically enrolled in prescription drug plans, plus about 600,000 enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans with prescription drug coverage.
• Retiree Coverage: More than 6.2 million retirees are enrolled in the Medicare retiree subsidy. In addition, about 1.4 million retirees are in employer and union-sponsored coverage that incorporates or supplements Medicare group drug coverage.
• Federal retiree coverage: 3.5 million
• • TRICARE: There are 1.9 million beneficiaries with TRICARE retiree coverage.
  • FEHB: There are 1.6 million beneficiaries with FEHB retiree coverage. This figure now accounts for spouses with Medicare who are covered under a FEHB family policy by retirees who also have Medicare coverage.

For enrollment data by county, visit http://www.cms.hhs.gov/PrescriptionDrugCovGenIn/Downloads/cedata032006.zip. To enroll, visit www.medicare.gov.

*Medicare Advantage includes about 594,000 Medicare-Medicaid beneficiaries.
^Other includes other territories and beneficiaries whose address information is being updated.

###

Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.

Last revised: January 20, 2009