HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 4025        FILED ON: 3/2/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 4052

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act relative to senior care options passive enrollment..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

1.  Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the executive office of health and human services shall implement a passive opt-out enrollment plan.  The program shall allow dual eligible beneficiaries to enroll in either a MassHealth senior care option program as defined in subsection (a) of section 9D of chapter 118E of the General Laws or a qualified Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plan, as defined by the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, Public Law 108-173.  The program shall provide for the following: (1) a process to passively enroll any beneficiary who has not voluntarily enrolled in an approved plan, within 3 months of the date of the implementation of the passive opt-out enrollment plan; (2) an allowance for the beneficiary to disenroll from any plan to which they are passively enrolled after 3 months of experience in the plan and choose another plan or return to fee-for-service Medicaid and Medicare; and (3) a process for enrolling newly qualified future dual eligible beneficiaries in approved plans within 3 months of their date of eligibility.

Prior to implementation of the program, a senior care organization, as defined in subsection (a) of section 9D of said chapter 118E, and a qualified special needs plan may market to dual eligible individuals to participate in the program.  The executive office of health and human services shall provide for a public education period prior to the implementation of the plan that includes consideration for a variety of communication modes, including direct mail and out-bound telephone calls in the beneficiary’s primary language.  Public education shall also be directed to providers with suggestions on how primary care physicians, hospitals and nursing facilities can inform their dual eligible patients about the program including the availability of multi-lingual printed material to be available in provider care settings for distribution to dual eligible patients.

SECTION 2.  The executive office of health and human services shall implement the program provided in this act on or before June 30, 2010.