Big Blue Bus On Its Way: Medicare Tour Helps Seniors Pick Drug Plan
Posted on: Tuesday, 18 April 2006, 09:01 CDT
By Sukhjit Purewal, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.
Apr. 18--With the deadline to sign up for the Medicare drug prescription plan fast approaching, federal and local officials will be hosting a help session in the Costco parking lot in Sand City on Wednesday.
Among those expected to arrive on the Big Blue Bus tour is Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Levitt.
Levitt and others have been touring the nation to promote the Medicare drug program and to encourage the elderly and the disabled to sign up. They will also be asking county residents about their experiences signing up for Part D.
The plan represents the biggest change in national health care in decades as the federal government is for the first time helping the disabled and people over 65 purchase their medications through private insurance companies.
Residents are encouraged to come prepared with their drug information so that they can receive hands-on help narrowing their plan choices. Officials will be armed with computers so that they can help seniors wade through the information on the nearly 50 insurance plans available in the state.
Also helping seniors with the daunting task will be two staff members and Bob Petty, manager of the state Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program, part of the Alliance on Aging for Monterey County. In addition to Wednesday's session, Petty has several informational and one-on-one seminars scheduled.
The event runs from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
"We are at a critical stage," said Peter Bauer, a Medicare Health Insurance specialist Monday. "We are running into some seniors who don't know the deadline is May 15."
Individuals who sign up for a drug prescription plan after that date will be stuck with higher drug costs under the default plan for the rest of their lives. Changes to individual plans will be permitted each November.
Even though the federal plan rolled out on January 1 after several years of planning, wide-scale problems and confusion still persist for people who are still undecided as to which plan to choose. Some officials and advocacy groups have called for a postponement of the deadline, citing the continuing issues.
The state is still paying out $700,000 a day to help cover costs that are being incurred by people and pharmacies because of continuing problems, said Jeanne Finberg, an attorney with the National Senior Citizens Law Center. Those problems include inaccurate information regarding the dual-eligibility, low-income residents whose medications were formerly covered by MediCal.
Unless those people chose a plan for themselves, they were automatically enrolled in plans by the government on January 1. In some cases, they were put in plans that didn't cover all their medications, Petty said. And when some tried to switched their plans, their dual-eligibility status was lost in the federal computer system.
And where under MediCal these people were able to get their medications for free, now they have co-payments of $1 to $5.
In Monterey County, 8,849 of the nearly 40,000 county residents who are eligible for Medicare and the drug prescription plan have dual eligibility, said figures released by the federal government last month. So far, another 6,383 have selected their own plan under the new program.
Another 13,015 county residents already had health insurance that was as good as or better (also known as credible) than the plans being offered through Medicare Part D.
It's unclear what is happening with the other remaining estimated 10,000 to 11,000 people, who don't already have insurance or aren't in the new plan, Petty said.
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Medicare sign-up A Medicare sign-up help session at the Costco parking lot in Sand City 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday. A free HICAP seminar 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. April 25 at the Monterey Senior Center, 280 Dickman Ave., 646-3878. A one-on-one by-appointment session will be held 1 to 4 p.m. May 10 at the Sally Griffin Senior Center in Pacific Grove, 700 Jewel Ave. Individuals should call 375-4454 to schedule appointments.
Sukhjit Purewal can be reached at 646-4494 or spurewal@montereyherald.com.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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Source: The Monterey County Herald (Monterey, Calif.)
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