Summary of EPOG Revisions

High-Level Summary of Differences in 2008 Part D Employer/Union-Only Group Waiver Plan (EGWP)

Applications from 2007 Solicitations

Clarification	Purpose of the Clarification	Part D EGWP Applications
		Direct PDP	Direct MA-PD	“800 Series”
GENERAL INFORMATION
Dates modified to reflect 2008 contract year.	Reflect the correct application year.	Throughout document	Throughout document	Throughout document
Changed website references and attestations requiring applicants to comply with any additional Part D employer group waiver guidance.	Changed website references to reflect updated URLs and avoid any outdated links.	Throughout document	Throughout document	Throughout document
Incorporated corresponding changes made to the 2008 Solicitation for Application for PDP Sponsors and to the 2008 Solicitation for Application for MA-PD Sponsors (for individual plans)	Made all corresponding changes to Direct Contract applications to align with the PDP and MA-PD Solicitations for individual plans where appropriate.	Throughout document	Throughout document	N/A
INCORPORATION OF 11/13/06 EMPLOYER GROUP WAIVER POLICY - ELIMINATION OF “NEXUS” TEST
Removed requirement for a PDP sponsor to offer plans to individual beneficiaries in order to offer “800 series” plans for the same contract number.	Policy was changed for 2008 contract year so that PDP sponsors no longer have to offer individual plans to offer “800 series” plans	N/A	N/A	See Page 2 of PDP Applications
In 2007, there was one application for PDP sponsors seeking to offer new “800 series” plans. For 2008, there are 2 separate applications for PDP sponsors – one for new PDP sponsors (did not offer individual plans in 2007) and one for existing PDP applicants (did offer individual plans in 2007).	Two separate applications were needed to properly account for the elimination of the requirement to offer individual plans (including the “nexus” test) in the 2008 application process. New PDP sponsors must complete the Solicitation for Application from PDP Sponsors (for individual plans) and existing PDP Sponsors are required to only complete the EGWP application. These differences (along with relevant others) are reflected in the separate applications.	N/A	N/A	“2008 Application for New PDP Sponsors to offer EGWPs” and “2008 Application for Existing PDP Sponsors to Offer EGWPs”.
Service Area Information for PDP Sponsor applications was modified to reflect the requirements for all PDP sponsors offering EGWPs to have a national service area and bid nationally in 2008. Also included is a statement that if the PDP sponsor wishes to include the territories in the defined service area, the PDP sponsor must request to have the territories manually added to their service area.	This change was made to simplify HPMS operations related to establishing service area and to reflect the elimination of the requirement to offer individual plans (including the “nexus” test).	N/A	N/A	See PDP EGWP Service Area Section of Application.

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