Final Rule Exempts ICHRAs And Other Account-Based Plans From Medicare Part D-Creditable Coverage Notice

On April 6, 2026, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a final rule formally excluding account-based group health plans from the requirement to provide a Medicare Part D-creditable coverage notice to Part D-eligible individuals. This exclusion applies to individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements (ICHRAs), traditional health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), health care flexible spending accounts (FSAs), health savings accounts (HSAs), and other account-based group health plans. The final rule, which applies to coverage beginning on January 1, 2027, adopts the November 2025 proposed rule without modification. 

In its final rule, HHS acknowledged that requiring account-based plans to disclose creditable coverage status imposes an undue administrative burden on these entities, and that dual messaging — where an HRA indicates it does not offer creditable coverage while the individual’s underlying health insurance plan indicates that it does — creates