Beginning January 1, 2025, a redesign of the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit will take effect establishing a new out-of-pocket annual cap of $2,000 for Medicare beneficiaries. The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan (MPPP), a new program designed to govern this process, will also require all Medicare prescription drug plans (Medicare Part D plans) to offer enrollees the option to pay out-of-pocket prescription drug costs in the form of capped monthly installment payments instead of all at once at the pharmacy. The goal is to help program participants who have high cost-sharing earlier in the plan year by spreading out those expenses over the course of the year.

However, the way in which this program is to be implemented raises trust fund issues for many governmental retirement plans that the Public Sector HealthCare Roundtable is working to have addressed.

What are these issues? Why should they matter to all public plan participants and their retirees, regardless of whether the plan administers health care benefits, and what can be done to address the problem? For answers to these important questions, join NCTR’s Director of Federal Relations Leigh Snell and esteemed panelists as they explain this important healthcare issue and discuss why it needs to be resolved as soon as possible.

Public employees’ healthcare is a vital component of their ability to serve their communities’ citizens, and an increasingly important part of true retirement security. Be sure to register now and learn more about an important new prescription drug benefit, as well as the challenges it could present for all public retirement systems’ participants who receive state governmental healthcare benefits.