It's also the last day for Medicare Advantage sales for January 1, 2012 effective dates. Up until this year, most Medicare Advantage, or Medicare Part C, sales for the following calendar year were accepted from late October up until December 31st. For those who waited until the last minute to sign up at the end of December, problems arose when they tried to use the coverage for prescriptions or to see a provider just after the new year without an ID card. Because of this issue, Medicare imposed a new enrollment time period from October 15 through December 7 for this year's enrollments, giving everyone at CMS and at the insurance companies a chance to process all applications and get those all important ID cards into the hands of the senior enrollees prior to the January 1 effective date. Seemed like a good plan.
I wonder who chose the enrollment dates? I would not hesitate to guess that it wasn't someone who lived through WWII back in 1941 when the bombs were sneakily dropped onto Oahu. If the person who picked this date for the last day to enroll was actually someone who remembers December 7, 1941, they would have picked December 6th, or December 8th. Just not December 7th.
My guess is it's some worker bee at CMS who flunked US History and had no idea that he or she picked such a famous date in our history.
Or I could be completely wrong. Maybe it was someone who studied history and thought that December 7th was a good date to pick for the last day of the annual election period for Medicare Advantage plans. Maybe the person who picked the date thought, well, I bet all those seniors will remember THIS date as the last date they can enroll!
Bombs away.....but hopefully not on US soil ever again.
