What comes after the retiree drug subsidy?

Under the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003 and agency guidance that has followed, an employer now faces many options, such as contracting with a supplemental prescription drug plan, offering its own prescription drug plan or eliminating its retiree drug subsidy. This article discusses the complex financial, administrative and communication issues an employer must ponder. For instance, short-term cash savings must be weighed against longer term accounting implications; yet the best financial alternative may come with other baggage that offsets the dollar savings. The author uses data to show what employers have done to date and raises unresolved issues employers must address as Medicare Part D evolves.