Jude Pare and his partner, Diane Tix, live in rural Minnesota until temperatures dip below freezing, when they take refuge in Arizona for the winter. While away, their mail is forwarded. But Pare, 77, said he didn\u2019t receive any warning from his Medicare prescription drug plan that his $0 monthly premium was about to increase.<\/p>\n
So he didn\u2019t know he had a bill to pay. After he and Tix returned home to Minnesota in April, they got a letter from Wellcare, the insurer that provided his drug plan, saying his coverage had been terminated after three months of unpaid premiums totaling $28.80. Under Medicare\u2019s rules, he can\u2019t enroll in a plan again until the fall, for coverage beginning in 2027.<\/p>\n
Pare takes Xarelto, a blood thinner that reduces his risk of strokes, blood clots, and pulmonary embolism. \u201cHe could bleed to death without it,\u201d Tix said. A 90-day supply of the drug costs about $1,800 using a coupon from GoodRx, a discount drug website, she said.<\/p>\n
Pare is among tens of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries who were on Wellcare\u2019s Value Script drug plan who will likely go without prescription drug coverage for the rest of the year because they didn\u2019t pay premiums for three months.<\/p>\n
Next year, thousands more people in 32 states and Washington, D.C., who are enrolled in zero-premium drug plans from Wellcare and other insurance companies may find themselves in the same situation if their premiums go up and they don\u2019t realize it, according to a KFF Health News analysis of drug plan data. Premiums and other changes for 2027 will be unveiled in September.<\/p>\n
Going without medication can be life-threatening, especially for Medicare beneficiaries. Nearly 90%<\/a> take one or more prescription drugs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Almost half live with four or more chronic health conditions that can cause functional or cognitive impairments.<\/p>\n By the time Jude Pare and his partner, Diane Tix, found out he owed $28.80 for three months of drug plan premiums, his coverage had been canceled. He is among tens of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries who will likely go without prescription drug coverage for the rest of the year after their drug plans were canceled. (Diane Tix)<\/p>\n Congress added prescription drug coverage to Medicare in 2003. But the coverage is administered by commercial insurance companies, which compete fiercely with one another for the business of about 56 million Medicare beneficiaries<\/a> enrolled in drug plans.<\/p>\n Zero-dollar or very low monthly premiums have helped make Wellcare\u2019s Value Script the bestselling stand-alone prescription drug plan in Medicare, with nearly 6 million customers across the U.S., according to government data. But in 26 states and Washington, D.C., some Value Script members who didn\u2019t have to pay a premium last year were caught off guard by increases in 2026.<\/p>\n After a two-month grace period \u2014 which Wellcare extended to three \u2014 Medicare drug plans can drop customers who don\u2019t pay their premiums, no matter how small the amount. Some members who lost their coverage in Nevada, for example, owed as little as $8.10 for three months, according to a KFF Health News analysis of Medicare drug plan data.<\/p>\n Wellcare terminated coverage for about 140,000 Value Script beneficiaries in April, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly about it and feared reprisals at work for doing so. About 40,000 of the people who were dropped may be able to enroll in new coverage immediately because they have low incomes and receive financial assistance through a program Medicare calls \u201cExtra Help<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Multiple state officials said they had heard the same disenrollment figures, including Nevada\u2019s insurance commissioner, Ned Gaines, who chairs the National Association of Insurance Commissioners\u2019 senior issues task force; Rebecca Gouty, director of the State Health Insurance Assistance Program in West Virginia; and Tim Smolen, director of Washington state\u2019s Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors. The West Virginia and Washington initiatives are part of the federally funded State Health Insurance Assistance Program<\/a>, or SHIP, which provides free, unbiased help navigating Medicare.<\/p>\n Surprise Bills<\/strong><\/p>\n The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees Medicare drug plans, declined to provide the number of Value Script members who lost coverage due to unpaid premiums. \u201cThe agency does not publicly provide plan-specific disenrollment figures or state-level breakdowns related to the non-payment of premiums,\u201d Christopher Krepich, a spokesperson, said in a written statement to KFF Health News.<\/p>\n Centene Corp., Wellcare\u2019s parent company, also declined to provide disenrollment numbers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe recognize how disruptive a loss of coverage can be and are committed to helping members understand their options,\u201d said Sarah Baiocchi, senior vice president for specialty and prescription drug plans at Centene. She acknowledged that \u201csome members in our Value Script plan experienced a premium for the first time, or for the first time in several years.\u201d<\/p>\n Baiocchi said all Value Script members received a CMS-required annual notice of changes in September, before the premium increases took effect.<\/p>\n A version of the booklet<\/a> sent to members in two states and Washington, D.C., is 21 pages long. The new premium is mentioned on pages 3 and 8, along with changes to out-of-pocket costs and how to find updates on covered drugs and network pharmacies.<\/p>\n The company also informed members about 2026 premium changes through phone calls, text messages, regular mail, or email, Baiocchi said.<\/p>\n People who are dropped are not able to reenroll or join another drug plan until the start of the open enrollment period this fall for coverage beginning Jan. 1, unless they qualify for an exception, Krepich said. And because they will have gone without coverage for at least 63 days, they could be hit with a permanent late-enrollment penalty<\/a> that increases every year for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n \u201cMedicare should be doing something about this so that we can go ahead and get coverage now,\u201d said Wayne Bennett, 74, who lives in Durham, North Carolina.<\/p>\n In May, he found out that Wellcare had canceled his Value Script plan because he hadn\u2019t paid his $3.60 monthly premiums. He takes nine prescription drugs to treat his blood pressure, glaucoma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other health problems. He filled most of his prescriptions \u2014 including several at no cost \u2014 before he lost coverage. He doesn\u2019t know what he\u2019ll have to pay when his supply runs out.<\/p>\n Gouty, the West Virginia program head, said many Medicare beneficiaries arrange for their monthly drug plan premium to be automatically deducted from their Social Security benefits, and that many likely thought that choice remained in place until they changed it.<\/p>\n \u201cThey didn\u2019t realize that when the plan was a zero premium in 2025, that stopped the Social Security premium deduction and they would have had to reelect it for 2026,\u201d Gouty said.<\/p>\n In other words, even if they mistakenly thought the premium was still zero, Medicare beneficiaries would have needed to somehow allow Social Security to make deductions \u2014 something the agency doesn\u2019t do \u2014 or set up a payment plan through their bank or credit card in case payment was necessary.<\/p>\n \u201cThat sounds goofy,\u201d Tix said.<\/p>\n Centene\u2019s Baiocchi blamed the Social Security Administration for the problem: \u201cWe believe this was a key driver of non-payment disenrollments and subsequent complaints.\u201d<\/p>\n Spokespeople for the agency referred questions about the matter to CMS.<\/p>\n Krepich said legal requirements for drug plan enrollment and disenrollment limit what CMS can do to help beneficiaries who lose coverage for not paying their premiums.<\/p>\n \u2018Pretty Upset\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Now that Pare has no prescription drug coverage, his doctor replaced his blood thinner medication with a much less expensive drug that should be just as effective. Pare paid $111 for four other medications that used to be free under his Value Script plan. He hasn\u2019t had to refill four more prescriptions yet and doesn\u2019t know what they will cost, Tix said.<\/p>\n If Wellcare members knew about the premium increases, they could have set up direct billing or an automatic payment plan early this year before the payment grace period ended April 1. But they would have been able to fill prescriptions during the grace period, so if they didn\u2019t see Wellcare\u2019s notices, they likely assumed there was no problem with their coverage.<\/p>\n Bennett, the North Carolina man, said Wellcare used to send him text messages with health tips and reminders when it was time to pick up a prescription. He didn\u2019t know his premium had increased from $0 to $3.60 until it was too late.<\/p>\n Wayne Bennett lost his Medicare drug coverage because he didn\u2019t pay the premium, which was free last year but \u2014 without his knowing \u2014 went up this year. \u201cMedicare should be doing something about this so that we can go ahead and get coverage now,\u201d he says. (Wayne Bennett)<\/p>\n \u201cI was pretty upset,\u201d he said, when he called the company. \u201cThe premium wasn\u2019t that much, and I was ready to pay it right off the bat. I had my credit card out ready to make the payment.\u201d<\/p>\n The customer service representative wouldn\u2019t let him pay because his coverage had been canceled, Bennett said.<\/p>\n Hoping to restore it, Bennett called Senior PharmAssist<\/a>, a Durham nonprofit that advises Medicare beneficiaries and is one of more than 2,200 SHIP sites across the country. He was told he must wait until January to restart his drug coverage, said the group\u2019s executive director, Gina Upchurch.<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t qualify for the \u201cExtra Help\u201d low-income subsidy or meet other CMS criteria for a special enrollment period<\/a>, which would allow him to change drug plans during the year. CMS typically allows midyear switches for beneficiaries who, for example, move out of their plan\u2019s service area, experience a natural disaster, or get help paying for drugs from a state program<\/a>.<\/p>\n Senior PharmAssist was able to help one of its participants join another drug plan after she lost Value Script coverage because she is in North Carolina\u2019s pharmacy assistance program for people with HIV\/AIDS and has limited income, Upchurch said.<\/p>\n A further exception allows any Medicare beneficiary to enroll at any time in a drug plan that has earned five stars, the top grade in Medicare\u2019s performance ratings. However, there are no five-star Medicare drug plans available to the general public. Only two insurers offer five-star plans, and only for retirees from certain employers. Their combined enrollment is about 8,700 as of June 1, according to the insurers.<\/p>\n But Upchurch, with more than two decades of Medicare expertise, doesn\u2019t blame beneficiaries for not paying attention or for assuming Wellcare\u2019s messages were bogus. Older adults are particularly vulnerable to identity theft and other scams and are often advised to ignore junk mail and calls from telemarketers.<\/p>\n Since Value Script members such as Bennett continued to get their prescriptions filled during the payment grace period, \u201cwhy wouldn\u2019t they think this was a scam?\u201d Upchurch asked. \u201cThey are constantly bombarded by people selling them something that\u2019s illegitimate or trying to scam them.\u201d<\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/medicare\/medicare-drug-plans-part-d-small-premium-increases-disenrollments-wellcare\/”>article<\/a><\/a>; first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org”>KFF<\/a> Health News<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative<\/a> Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2023\/04\/kffhealthnews-icon.png?w=150"<\/a>; style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n
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