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Official Outlines Fixes Planned for Medicare Drug Program: Health Secretary Pledges Progress in Visit to Columbus

Posted on: Saturday, 21 January 2006, 15:00 CST

By Alan Johnson, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

Jan. 21--Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt offered some advice to frustrated senior citizens yesterday while in Columbus to rally support for the troubled Medicare prescription-drug program.

"Don't go to the prescriptiondrug counter and leave without your prescription," Leavitt said. "If the pharmacist can't help you, call 1-800-MEDICARE."

But critics and senior advocates said that is exactly what has happened to thousands of people since the complicated national Medicare drug program kicked in Jan. 1.

Confusion, bureaucratic mixups, technical glitches and unexpected costs marred its debut.

To put a positive spin on the program, Leavitt embarked on a three-day, nine-city tour that brought him to Ohio, where he joined Gov. Bob Taft at a Statehouse news conference.

Leavitt explained lessons learned from the first few weeks of the program and outlined steps being taken to improve it. They include increasing toll-free answer-line personnel by 400 percent, resolving computer glitches and working with insurance companies.

"We are filling about a million prescriptions every day," Leavitt said. "We're not going to stop until everybody has their prescription drugs."

About 24 million people eligible for Medicare -- more than 1 million in Ohio -- now have drug coverage, he said. About 30,000 people are enrolling daily on the Internet, with thousands more signing up with individual providers.

"Will we have solved all the problems by next week? I doubt it. . . . The plan will improve as it goes forward."

The Democratic National Committee disagreed, labeling management of the program a "disgrace" and Leavitt's speaking stops as his "Medicare Malfunction Tour."

In Ohio, problems focused primarily on 215,000 "dual eligibles," those who qualify for both Medicaid, the state-federal health-care program for the poor, and Medicare, geared to the elderly. The dual eligibles were supposed to be automatically enrolled in the drug program, which has co-pays of no more than $5 and no deductibles or monthly premiums, but that didn't happen in many cases because they weren't entered in the new system.

As a result, thousands of Ohioans have been turned away without what are, in some cases, life-preserving prescriptions.

Taft intervened last week, pledging state help to guarantee reimbursement to pharmacies for the cost of filling prescriptions for dual eligibles. Leavitt said yesterday that the federal government will repay the state's costs.

However, a notice didn't go out to pharmacists until yesterday, Taft said.

In the meantime, many pharmacists have stopped filling the prescriptions because they don't want to lose more money awaiting state reimbursement, explained Kathleen Gmeiner, of the Access to Benefits Coaltion, a group representing low-income residents.

"Unfortunately, it's just not working," she said.

"I talked to a 74-year-old lady the other day who couldn't get her medications refilled. She went home and called her brother to ask to borrow $28 to get her prescriptions."

ajohnson@dispatch.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

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Source: The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

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