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Medicare Part D Enrollment Rules

One of the health coverage options available through Medicare is help with prescription drug costs, also known as Medicare Part D. Part D involves different plans and companies that you can choose to help you pay for the costs you have every month for prescription drugs. The plan you choose depends on your needs and also on its availability in your state and city.

  1. Enrollment Eligibility Rules

    • To be eligible to enroll in Medicare Part D, you must be older than 65 years of age (or about to turn 65 years old) or, if younger, disabled and receiving Social Security benefits or railroad disability benefits. You are also required to be enrolled either in Medicare Part A, Medicare Part B or both to be eligible to enroll in Part D. You can only enroll in a plan that provides services in your area. If you have a group insurance policy, make sure that it accepts enrollment in Medicare Part D. Some group insurance policies work together with Medicare, and some will drop your coverage if you join Medicare.

    Enrollment Period Rules

    • You can join or enroll in a Medicare Part D plan during the initial enrollment period. The initial enrollment period is the period in which you become eligible for Medicare coverage, and it is different for every individual. Your initial enrollment period starts three months before your 65th birthday. You can enroll any time during this period, which also encompasses the month of your birth and the three months following it. If you are younger than 65 years of age and you have a disability, you can enroll in Part D from three months before to three months after the 25th month in which you receive disability benefits.

    Late Enrollment Rules

    • You are also allowed to enroll later than the periods mentioned above. This period is called the general period of enrollment, and it is the time in which people who are already enrolled can drop and switch the plans they have. This period starts on November 15th and lasts until December 31st. However, enrolling in Part D after your initial enrollment period may cause you to pay a late penalty that increases your premiums. To avoid the penalty, you can join a plan later if you had a prescription drug plan with a creditable insurance company at the moment you were eligible. You must also not stay without prescription drug coverage for more than 63 days in a row or you will have to pay a penalty.

    Late Enrollment Penalty Rules

    • If you did not join Part D when you were first eligible and you did not have any prescription drug coverage during the period of time in which you did not enroll in Part D, you will have to a pay a late penalty. This applies monthly to your Part D premiums if you do enroll. According to the handbook "Medicare and You," as of 2011, the late penalty for Part D is 1 percent of the national base beneficiary premium, which is $32.34 times the number of the months in which you did not enroll from the time at which you became eligible. This will apply for all the time you have Part D.

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