Prescription Drug Plan Basics

Medicare Part D provides coverage for prescription drugs. We call these plans Prescription Drug Plans, or PDPs for short.

Coverage is provided through private insurance companies in agent-sold plans.

And your Medicare clients can get Part D coverage in one of two different ways.

If they’re on Original Medicare, their coverage will come through a stand-alone PDP, which is the focus of this module.

However, clients can also gain coverage through Medicare Advantage plans that include Part D coverage. We call those plans MAPDs, but that is a topic for another module.

In order to enroll in a Part D plan, your client must meet the following criteria: They must have Part A, and/or Part B. So, Original Medicare or Traditional Medicare coverage pairs with Medicare Part D. They must live in the plan’s service area.

And finally, your client must qualify for an enrollment period.

We’ll discuss enrollment periods in much greater detail later in this module.

Up next, we’ll get into how Part D plans categorize and cover prescription drugs.

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