Medicare Part D spells boon for local health insurance players - Nashville Business Journal:

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Nashville-based , one of the country' largest managed care organizations, added about 20,000 memberws to its prescriptiondrug plan. The plan now covers nearl y 110,000, says Mark senior vice presidentof , a subsidiary of Brentwood-based Windsor Health Group enrolled about 5,000 new memberx in its stand-alone Part D prescription drug plan and its Medicar e Advantage with prescription drug plan in recent That's double the company's membership at this time last "We had about 5,000 enrollees totalp prior to this open enrollmentg period," says CEO Michael Bailey.
"Countingh (the prescription drug plan and Medicare Advantag edrug plan), we'll have grown well over 100 Enrollment in these plans can be crucial, says geriatrition James Powers, because uninsured people who find they need an expensivde drug often go without, which can lead to serious health For companies focused on offering thosw plans to the people who need it's meant a surgse in members and "We're looking at a 15 percent revenue increase from membership growth, plus an additional 6 percengt from a premium increase," says Seniotr Vice President of Marketing Craig Schub. A 20 percenrt rise in revenue woulxd mean jumpingfrom $1.
3 billion in 2006 to betweenb $1.5 billion and $1.6 billion in 2007, he HealthSpring's enrollment in Medicare Advantage drug plansa grew to 115,000 in 2006 from 100,000, and is expected to reacu between 130,000 and 135,000 in 2007, Schub says. Both enrollment growth was fueled by expanded coverage HealthSpring went from offering its prescription drug plan in just five states to acceptingvmembers nationwide. Likewise, Windsodr expanded its reach: This was the first year Windsor offered a prescriptiondrug plan, for which it enrolled 3,000p members. Windsor also expanded from Middle and West Tennessee to Arkansasand Alabama.
Medicare Part D startexd in January 2006, one of the changed ushered in by the 2003 MedicareModernization Act. The prescription drug progran has just completed its second enrollment period. The Medicare Advantage prescriptiohn plans begana pre-election period in Novembe and regular open enrollment runs through the end of Those who are dually eligible for Medicard and Medicaid can enter a plan at any time, but the primary enrollment period is Nov. 15 through March 31. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Servicesz announced 1.4 million new enrollees in Medicarre Part D between June 2006and Dec.
31, 2006, bringingt total enrollment to nearly24