VT| The Vermont DFR Bulletin #208 (Revised) clarifies that Vermont insurers offering Medicare supplement (Medigap) coverage must apply community rating in compliance with 8 V.S.A. § 4051(a) by automatically moving disabled Medicare supplement policyholders into the standard age-based (over‑65) rating pool as soon as they become eligible for Medicare by reason of age, rather than leaving them in a separate, more expensive disabled risk pool, because once a disabled policyholder turns 65 they are deemed eligible for Medicare by age under 42 C.F.R. § 406.20(b), and keeping them in the higher disabled rate class would violate both Vermont’s community-rating requirements and its prohibition on unfair discrimination between insureds of the same class; accordingly, for insurers that maintain separate disability and over‑65 pools, the transfer is expected to occur on the first day of the month in which the policyholder turns 65, insurers must immediately reclassify any already‑65+ disabled policyholders and charge approved over‑65 rates, demonstrate compliance in their annual Medicare supplement rate filings, and are encouraged to provide advance notice to affected policyholders, while insurers that do not distinguish disabled and over‑65 rating pools and charge the same rate to both groups are not subject to the bulletin’s operational requirements.
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