Importance of Enforcing Guaranteed Issue Right and Medicare Special Enrollment Period

Employer group and individual Medigap Supplement plans are sold in all 50 states. Insurance companies and company plan administrators may terminate group or individual plans, but federal law mandates Guarantee Issue Right (GIR) and Special Enrollment Period (SEP) protections for Medigap and Medicare Advantage plan beneficiaries. When coverage is terminated or ceased by insurers or plan administrators it results in beneficiaries losing coverage unexpectedly, outside of their control.
 
Failure to enforce federal laws and National Association of Insurance Commissioners standards will inevitably harm many retirees in every state. This is why the National Retiree Legislative Network and its research affiliate, American Research and Education Foundation, has dug into case studies of TVA, AT&T, IBM and Avaya retirees to create the attached position paper which calls for corrective action.
 
The NRLN will use the position paper to convince members of Congress, the new Secretary of Health and Human Services and Administrator of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (when they are confirmed by the U.S. Senate) to implement the recommended remedies listed on page 3 of the attachment.
 
I encourage you to read the position paper because what has happened to the TVA, AT&T, IBM and Avaya retirees can happen to any retirees if their GIR ad SEP are not enforced as laws and standards require.
 
Bill Kadereit,
President, NRLN
Chairman and President, AREF