New Medicare Plan Finder Released 8/27/19

On Friday, August 16, 2019 we attended a webinar with CMS which provided a quick demo of the New Medicare Plan Finder (MPF) tool that is launching this year.  We had some concerns after the demo regarding some lost functionality in the new tool.

Yesterday, Tuesday August 27, 2019, CMS launched the new Medicare Plan Finder tool and our initial review raised additional concerns for this upcoming Annual Enrollment Period (Oct 15 - Dec 7).  In the full video (23 minutes), you will see a side-by-side comparison with the New MPF (left tab) and the Old MPF (right tab). 

If you would prefer to skip to the highest Severity issues, you will find the list below with the timestamp of the video in which the issue is reviewed.

Issue #1 (11:40 into the video)
New MPF doesn't Calculate/Sort Total Overall Expense (Premium + Drug Costs).
​The main reason we use the Old Medicare Plan Finder is to identify the most cost effective Part D Plan for our clients (when they initially enroll in Medicare Part D) and during Annual Enrollment Period each year (Oct 15 - Dec 7). 

Below is a sample screenshot of the Old MPF Plan Results page which shows the Total Cost as of Today (Premium + Drugs) and sorts the list accordingly...

After entering in the zip code, drug information, and pharmacy, the Old MPF quickly calculates the TOTAL overall expense (Premium + Drugs) for all ~30 Part D Plans available in the area and then automatically sorts the list based on the lowest overall expense.  This calculation and sorting of ~30 Part D Plans is Invaluable.  We would not have the time to go through ~30 different Part D Plans to manually calculate the total projected expense and find the lowest overall number for thousands of clients in the short window of Oct 15 - Dec 7.

Last year during Annual Enrollment, this functionality allowed us to save our Medicare clients $2 Million + in Part D costs alone!

The New MPF does not have this functionality to calculate the Total Overall Expense (Premium + Drugs) and sort the Plans accordingly.  Thus, we will not be able to efficiently find the most cost-effective Part D Plans for our clients with the New MPF in it's current state.

Issue #2 (9:50 into the video)
New MPF doesn't have the ability to save Drug List ID.
​As mentioned, we review thousands of Part D Plans each year during the Annual Enrollment.  One of the nice benefits of the Old MPF is something called a "Drug List ID" which allows us to store an identifier for a particular Drug List, so we don't have to re-enter every single medication each time we rerun the drug analysis.  

The New MPF doesn't have this Drug List ID or any functionality to save a Drug List that was used for a Part D analysis.

(The new MPF will have functionality to pull Rx claims data for authenticated Beneficiaries with a username & Password, so this could help with some of the Rx entries, but the new MPF still doesn't allow us to save the Drug List that is being used for the Analysis.) 

Issue #3 (16:25 into the video)
Report functionality is very limited with the new MPF.
One of the other great benefits of the Old MPF is the ability to create a clean and comprehensive report which outlines all of the details of the Part D Plans being compared.  The information in these reports provides everything we need to know about a Part D Plan including:

• Premium,
• Deductible
• Total Projected Overall Expense for the Year
• Projected Drug Costs for each of the Drugs at each of the Pharmacies entered
• If you will reach the Donut Hole (and when), 
• If you will reach Catastrophic Coverage (and when)
• Drug Tiers for the Medications being taken, Prior Authorization or Step Therapy Required for each medication
• Projected costs by month including Tables & Charts
• And more!

Below is a link to a short video that provides an overview of the Reports that are available in the Old MPF.

In the New MPF, there is very limited Reporting capability which is highlighted starting at the 16:25 mark of the video review mentioned above.

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​We will continue to provide our feedback to CMS to hopefully get these concerns addressed.

Also, there will be impacts to our online Rx information form and Email Reminders to all of our clients for their latest Rx information.  We won't know the full impacts (and be able to implement the changes) until we see the updates/fixes to the MPF over the next few weeks.

We will keep you posted as we get more updates.