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We are a 20 year old publisher with several popular programs used by Medicare Part D and Advantage organizations, as well as many other senior organizations across the country. Having read the proposed regulations, we wanted to see if you could help us clarify some of the regulatory intent related to how Part D and MA plans would be able to continue to use our products/programs in the future. PRODUCT 1 -- OUR SR. HEALTH WALL CALENDAR PROGRAM: For almost 20 years, we have published a very popular senior health education wall calendar used local senior organizations, CMS itself, and more recently Part D and MA Plans. Please visit our website: www.seniorcalendars.com for more details about this unique, year-round senior health education program. We customize the calendars for our Part D and MA plan clients, and they are generally sent to members and prospective members in the fall. If the personalized content from a local MA or Part D plan has information specific to benefits, services offered, etc., it is then submitted to CMS for review. But most of our clients do not include plan specific content in the custom portion of their Senior Health Calendars. Our calendars sold to Part D and MA plans range in price from less than $1.00 each to slightly over $3.00 each, based on total quantity purchased and number of custom options. Up to this point, we have understood that our calendar prices are well under the $15.00 limit that CMS has used previously when regulating gifts and promotional items for members and prospective members. OUR QUESTION: As we understand the proposed requirement in section 422.2268 (b) and 423.2268 (b), "...organizations would be required to limit the types of promotional items offered to potential enrollees (examples of acceptable items include pens, pill boxes and jar openers) and the value of such items to a nominal amount, established by CMS in operational guidance..." Can we still assume a health education product--such as our customized senior health wall calendar-- would still meet your proposed new regulations--both for prospective members and current members? PRODUCT 2 -- NAT. SR. HEALTH & FITNESS DAY (Sr. Day) Our 15 year old Sr. Day program is the nation's largest older adult health promotion event, always held the last Wednesday in May as part of Older Americans Month activities. More than 1,000 local senior organizations and 100,000+ older adults participate in local health promotion events across the country on the same day. Please visit our www.fitnessday.com website for more details about Sr. Day and our other health event "days" for women's and family health in the fall. Several Part D and MA Plans have supported Sr. Day through state/regional sponsorships and through support to local senior groups that wish to hold Sr. Day events in their communities. Other sponsors of our events in recent years include the Arthritis Foundation, CVS/pharmacy, the U.S. Office on Women's Health, the Am. Heart Assoc. and more. OUR QUESTION: We want to verify that sponsorship for our local health events by Part D and MA Plans would adhere to the proposed guidelines in sections 422.2268 (1) and 423.2268 (1), stating "These events may be sponsored by plan(s) or by outside entities, and are events that are promoted to be educational in nature and have multiple vendors, such as health information fairs, conference expositions, state-or community sponsored events, etc." Thank you for your patience in reading this long e-mail; we appreciate your time to review our questions. Please feel free to call me to discuss these in more detail. Also, I would be happy to quickly send samples of both our Senior Health Wall Calendars and information about Sr. Day should that be helpful in your response to us. My phone: 800-828-8225, and I can generally be reached weekdays from 8-6, Central time. Gary W. Ford, President American Custom Publishing Corp. 1850 W. Winchester Rd. #213 Libertyville, IL 60048 Phone: 800-828-8225 Fax: 847-816-8662 E-mail: gford@acpinc.com Web sites: www.acpinc.com www.seniorcalendars.com www.fitnessday.com