Armed Forces News

As of mid-March, Medicare’s managers still had not opened enrollment in Medicare Part B for up to 90,000 military retirees who did not enroll when first eligible. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 authorizes those retirees to enroll without late penalties during a special enrollment period that ends this Dec. 31. Once enrolled, they can obtain medical treatment and prescription services through Tricare for Life. Also under the act, military beneficiaries who enrolled in Part B in 2001, 2002, 2003, or 2004 and are paying late enrollment penalties can have them eliminated effective Jan. 1, 2004, by demonstrating that they are covered under Tricare for Life. The clock continues to tick for these older retirees and spouses while they wait for Medicare’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to act. Latest word? Maybe April.