2023 Medicare open enrollment

Can you feel the excitement building for the 2023 Medicare open enrollment season? It began Oct. 15 and extends through Dec. 7. If you don’t feel the love, well, I’m sure your physical and digital mailboxes appreciate being overwhelmed with Medicare marketing messages. Things could have been worse had Medicare not recently clamped down on misleading celebrity endorsements.

With that, here’s today’s speed dating review of 2023 changes in Medicare.

Next year will bring lower Medicare premiums, continued growth in private Medicare Advantage plans (these plans are considered Part C for any confused readers of today’s headline), new consumer benefits created by the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and better rules for new Medicare enrollees.

IRA Provisions

The monthly cost of insulin will be capped at $35 for Medicare beneficiaries. Expanded access to free adult vaccines was also included in the new law. Also beginning next year, drug companies will pay financial penalties for raising prices by more than the general rate of consumer price inflation.

Broader IRA provisions, including a $2,000 out-of-pocket limit on Part D drug costs and the right for Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices, won’t take effect until 2025 and 2026.

Medicare Premiums, Deductibles, Copays and High-Income Surcharges

Monthly Part B premiums will decrease to $164.90 from $170.10 this year, the first year-over-year drop in 10 years. The annual Part B deductible will also decline, to $226 from $233. Part B covers doctors, medical equipment and other outpatient expenses.

“The Part A inpatient hospital deductible covers beneficiaries’ share of costs for the first 60 days of Medicare-covered inpatient hospital care in a benefit period,” Medicare explained in a press release. “In 2023, beneficiaries must pay a coinsurance amount of $400 per day for the 61st through 90th day of a hospitalization ($389 in 2022) in a benefit period and $800 per day for lifetime reserve days ($778 in 2022). For beneficiaries in skilled nursing facilities, the daily coinsurance for days 21 through 100 of extended care services in a benefit period will be $200.00 in 2023 ($194.50 in 2022).”

The maximum annual 2023 Part D deductible will rise to $503 from $480, and the average monthly premium will drop to $31.50 from $32.08 in 2022.

The so-called “donut hole” between when insurance coverage ends and the catastrophic phase of Part D plans begins will range from $4,660 to $7,400, compared with $4,430 to $7,050 this year. Drugs cost no more than 5 percent of their listed cost in the catastrophic phase.

Part B and D surcharges for high-income beneficiaries also will drop next year in line with the Part B premium reductions.

Here are those details (with apologies to the formatting gods):

Medicare Advantage