Health-Care Official: Prescription Benefits Won't Change Much
Posted on: Thursday, 21 July 2005, 18:00 CDT
BLOOMINGTON -- Medicaid recipients who receive prescription drug benefits under Illinois' SeniorCare and Circuit Breaker programs should receive comparable benefits after Medicare begins offering prescription drug coverage next year, state officials said Wednesday.
"We want to make sure that no senior gets left behind," said Barry Maram, director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, formerly the Illinois Department of Public Aid.
Maram, in Bloomington to meet with The Pantagraph Editorial Board, discussed Medicare's plan to offer prescription medicine coverage, effective Jan. 1.
While sign-up for that federal program isn't until November and information on coverage options won't be available until October, the Social Security Administration, state agencies and social service agencies are beginning to get questions on the program.
Medicare beneficiaries with limited resources are encouraged to apply for help from designated agencies -- such as PATH and the Senior Health Insurance Program -- as they get applications this summer.
But Anne Marie Murphy, the state agency's Medicaid director, said SeniorCare and Circuit Breaker recipients who are on Medicaid entirely will be automatically enrolled in a new program. Those recipients are at or below the poverty line.
Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that helps with medical costs for some people with low incomes and limited resources. Medicare is the federal health-insurance program for people over age 65 and certain younger people with disabilities.
People on partial Medicaid still must fill out an application, Tarry Plattner, Senior Health Insurance Program coordinator for McLean County, clarified later.
Maram said state officials want to be sure Illinois Medicaid recipients on SeniorCare or Circuit Breaker would have comparable or better coverage after the federal program takes effect. He said that position is consistent with Illinois' efforts to expand health-care coverage for Medicaid recipients.
Health-care coverage has been expanded to more than 313,000 working parents and children in the past three years, he said. That is among reasons that the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured recognized Illinois last year as a national leader in broadening Medicaid coverage and protecting benefits, he said.
Source: Pantagraph
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