CMS adjusts September plan payment user fees
Oct 4, 2026 edition · GC-2026-0045 · Published 2026-10-04 · Version 2 · Final
CMS’s September payment memo adjusts annual COB and MA-PD education fees, with no September PDP NMEC assessment after its annual maximum was reached.
What happened
CMS's August 31, 2026 MARx memo describes the September payment scheduled for September 1 and final annual user-fee adjustments. To reach the 2026 COB total of $0.65 per member, CMS raised the September collection from 7.2 to 7.4 cents after January–August collections. The MA-PD National Medicare Education Campaign collection increased from 0.021% to 0.029% for September to reach its $108.9 million annual amount. PDPs had no September NMEC assessment because their $11.4 million maximum had been reached in August. These are September-cycle adjustments, not permanent monthly rates for every future period.
The same memo places any required 2024 medical-loss-ratio remittances in the August 2026 payment, identified on the Plan Payment Report by adjustment code MLR. That separates MLR reconciliation from the September fee changes. It also explains that tickets consolidated under a parent ticket need no duplicate action from a plan already reporting the issue, and directs payment questions to the MAPD Help Desk. Plan finance should compare the correct payment month, adjustment category and applicable plan type rather than attributing every difference in a September remittance to one fee change.
Scope and timing
- Authority status
- Final
- Applicability
- Potentially applicable
- Audience
- Health systems, Provider networks
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
- Affected functions
- Finance, Managed Care, Compliance
- Responsible owner
- Finance
Why it matters
Payment reconciliation needs plan-type exceptions and the correct month; annual fee catch-up and earlier MLR adjustments are separate items.
Recommended action
Reconcile September COB and MA-PD NMEC adjustments, confirm the PDP exception and check August MLR entries separately. Investigate unresolved differences through the MAPD Help Desk without duplicating an existing consolidated ticket.
Sources
- MARx September 2026 Payment InformationOfficial · CMS · 2026-08-31 · Source review 2026-09-06
- Official retained source documentOfficial · Official issuing agency · 2026-08-31 · Source review 2026-10-16
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