Health Net recently announced the sale of their stand-alone Medicare Part D business to CVS. The sale is expected to close in the second quarter of 2012 - pending governmental approval. Presently, Health Net has approximately 400,000 Medicare Part D PDP members in 49 states and the District of Columbia. Health Net only sold the PDP business and will continue providing prescription drug plans as part of its Medicare Advantage plan (MA-PD) offerings. Some people may remember that CVS doubled its PDP business last year after purchasing the stand-alone prescription drug plan business from Universal American Corporation. CVS is one of the largest pharmacy benefits managers (PBM) in the United States and operates more than 7,300 drug stores across the country.
Reader question: We are enrolled in the Health Net Orange Option 1 PDP for 2012 and were unaware of the sale of Health Net's PDP business to CVS. How will this sale effect us? I would hope CVS will honor Health Net Orange Option 1 coverage, formulary, prices and premiums, for 2012. Is this the case?
The sale of the Health Net PDP business to CVS should not effect you at all during 2012. We may see consolidation of plans for the 2013 plan year (meaning some Health Net, Caremark, or CVS plans may be discontinued) , but we will not know this until late September or early October.
Your Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) letter (that will be sent to you by your plan in the fall) will outline all plan changes for the 2013 plan year. It will also tell you if your plan is being discontinued or if it will be consolidated with another plan.