A provision of 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act is due to come into being effective January 1, 2024, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently put out a reminder. From next year there will no longer be a Partial Extra Help category for Part D recipients: those that fell into that bracket will now receive Full Extra Help.
The change will come as great news to those Medicare recipients whose income is currently between 136% to 149% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). In actual terms that means individuals whose monthly income exceeds $1,640 but is no more than $1,823.
At present that means they aren’t entitled to Medicare Part D’s financial crutch of the full Low Income Subsidy (LIS) and instead they only receive ‘partial extra help’. Those whose countable income is below $1,640 a month have no deductible on Part D coverage and only pay up to $4.15 for generic drugs whereas those Medicare recipients with slightly higher countable incomes have a deductible that cannot exceed $104 and only get the full break on drug costs once $7,400 has been spent on those drugs.
The change also means that the countable resource limit for the LIS will increase from $9,090 to $15,510 for an individual and will be up to $30,950 for a couple. It is expected that those figures will be adjusted each year as has been the case in the past. Here’s where you can read CMS’ statement: Calendar Year (CY) 2024 Resource and Cost-Sharing Limits for Low-Income Subsidy (LIS) – Correction (cms.gov)