If you need to enroll or make changes to your health or dental insurance, please contact Human Resources at 703-324-3311 or go to https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/hr/ to make these changes.

Coordination with Medicare

Active employees and their covered spouses who are age 65 are not required to apply for Medicare while they are covered by the county’s health plan. Medicare is secondary insurance and pays claims after the county’s health plan. Typically, there is nothing left for Medicare to pay since the county’s health plan paid what Medicare would have paid. Medicare has a special open enrollment period that allows new retirees to elect Medicare without penalty when they retire.

Retirees who are covered by the county’s retiree health coverage, however, are required to apply for and maintain Medicare Parts A and B when they become eligible. They should contact the Social Security Administration three months before they become eligible so they receive their Medicare cards by their effective date. Once retirees send a copy of that card to the DHR-Benefits Division, they will become eligible for lower premiums as the doctors will file claims to Medicare first. Retirees will continue to pay the normal co-payments and co-insurance. If a copy of the Medicare Card is not submitted by the eligibility date your coverage will be cancelled. As a retiree, once your coverage is cancelled it cannot be reinstated.

Fairfax County Government has determined that the prescription drug coverage offered by the Cigna and Kaiser are, on average for all plan participants, expected to pay out as much as standard Medicare prescription drug coverage pays and is therefore considered Creditable Coverage. Because your existing coverage is Creditable Coverage, you can keep this coverage and not pay a higher premium (a penalty) if you later decide to join a Medicare drug plan.

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