New Online PDPPlanner Tool Provides a Glimpse into 2009 Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans

The website Medicare-PartD.com released their 2009 PDP-Planner (http://www.medicare-partd.com/PartD-PartDCoverageGapCalculator09Xphp.php) that includes cost and benefit data based on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 2009 defined standard Medicare Part D plan benefit parameters. PDP-Planner allows users to easily enter their retail prescription costs and estimate their potential 2009 annual prescription costs.

"We designed our 2009 PDP-Planner to help Medicare Part D beneficiaries and advocates visualize and estimate next year's Part D plan coverage," noted Dr. Susan Johnson, who leads the technical development of the Medicare-PartD.com website. "We have also provided a few real-life examples to assist users who are unfamiliar with the phases of a Medicare Part D prescription drug plan."

PDP-Planner is available at no cost and users have the option to have a copy of their PDP-Planner results sent directly to them via eMail. The 2009 PDP-Planner can be found at PDP-Planner.com/2009 (http://www.PDP-Planner.com/2009).

What can people expect in 2009 Users of PDP-Planner who have minimal medication costs and choose a Part D plan modeled after the CMS standard plan will notice the increased initial deductible limits. The 2009 initial annual deductible will increase to $295 from the current 2008 value of $275. Alternatively, people with high prescription drug costs can begin to prepare for increases in total out of pocket expense (or TrOOp) that must be spent before entering the catastrophic coverage portion of their Part D coverage. The out of pocket threshold will increase in 2009 to $4,350 from the current 2008 value of $4,050. In general, users of PDP-Planner will notice that the 2009 standard Part D plan benefit includes a 7.54% increase in most of the Part D plan parameters, as compared to a 4.64% increase in 2008 Part D plan parameters from 2007 levels. Medicare-PartD.com provides an online summary chart comparing the CMS Medicare Part D benefit values from 2006 through 2009 at Medicare-PartD.com/2009 (http://www.Medicare-PartD.com/2009).

PDP-Planner is part of a series of online tools, resources, and tutorials provided by Medicare-PartD.com and designed to help Medicare beneficiaries, advocates, advisors, and insurance agents navigate the Medicare prescription drug program.

About Medicare-PartD.com:

Medicare-PartD.com (http://www.Medicare-PartD.com) is one of the nation's largest private internet sources of Medicare Part D prescription drug information. The Medicare-PartD.com website is jointly operated by National Insurance Markets, Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA) and Q1Group, LLC (Saint Augustine, FL).

New Online PDPPlanner Tool Provides a Glimpse into 2009 Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans

3042 readers online...

New Online PDPPlanner Tool Provides a Glimpse into 2009 Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans

Search