The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced a new Special Election Period (SEP) deadline of March 31, 2018 for Medicare beneficiaries who are eligible for the SEP, due to impacts from the California wildfires.
This SEP is only available for beneficiaries who were not able to enroll in a 2018 MAPD or PDP plan during last year regular Annual Election Period (AEP) because they reside, or resided at the start of the incident period, in an area for which FEMA* has declared an emergency or a major disaster.
In addition, the SEP is available to those individuals who don’t live in the affected areas but rely on making healthcare decisions from friends or family members who live in the affected areas. Individuals who made an election during the AEP cannot use this SEP to make a second AEP election.
Counties included in the FEMA-declared disaster areas:
- Butte
- Lake
- Los Angeles
- Mendocino
- Napa
- Nevada
- Orange
- Riverside
- San Diego
- Santa Barbara
- Solano
- Sonoma
- Yuba
- Ventura
*Federal Emergency Management Agency
