Your prescription drug coverage during retirement depends on your age:
If you retire before age 65:
You can continue to get your prescriptions just as you did when you were an employee — either from the MIT Pharmacy (if prescribed by an MIT Medical clinician) or from a pharmacy convenient to you. If you retire before turning 65, you can select one of three options for medical coverage through MIT: the MIT Traditional Health Plan, the MIT Choice Plan, or Blue Care Elect Preferred. You can continue using one of these plans until the month before you turn 65. If you have a spouse under age 65, and/or eligible dependent children, they are all eligible to be covered as well. All three plans include prescription drug coverage.
If you retire after age 65:
MIT retirees age 65 and older who enroll in MIT’s Medicare supplemental plan or Tufts Medicare Preferred are automatically enrolled in the MIT-sponsored Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plan. If you cancel this MIT-sponsored prescription drug plan, your MIT Medicare supplemental plan or Medicare HMO coverage will also be canceled.
Your MIT-sponsored prescription drug coverage is administered through Express Scripts. Unlike some other Part D plans, the MIT-sponsored plan does not have “donut hole” gaps (times when a Medicare Part D plan stops paying benefits and participants become responsible for the full cost of their prescriptions.)
When you retire, you may receive a temporary pharmacy insurance card that you can use until your Medicare Part D coverage takes effect. Because there are sometimes delays before Part D coverage begins, the temporary card will ensure you have no gaps in your prescription drug coverage.
Your MIT-sponsored Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage complements your supplemental medical plan, but it is separate. However, you must have MIT’s prescription drug coverage if you also receive supplemental Medicare coverage through MIT. Call the MIT Benefits Office at 1-855-253-6151 if you are considering opting out of prescription coverage through MIT.
The cost for covered prescription drugs can be found on the MIT Benefits page.
