Special Election Period (Health Care) Law and Legal Definition
Special election period refers to a set time that a beneficiary with a medicare plan gets to change benefits because of some change in his/her life. During this period a beneficiary can change his/her medicare+choice plans or can return to the original medicare in certain situations such as moving out of a plan service area, or being able to get medicaid or where the medicare+choice organization breaks its contract with the beneficiary or does not renew its contract with the center for medicare and medicaid services (CMS). When no change occurs in the life of a beneficiary, then s/he will have to wait for an enrollment period. The special election period is different from the special enrollment period (SEP).
