Medicare Part D Drug Plan Enrollment Experience Provides Valuable Lessons For Seniors
Posted on August 21, 2008 in Prescription drug insurance
Tuesday April 25, 11:29 am ET Analysis of 50,000 Seniors Already Enrolled in Part D Instructive For Those Still Facing May 15 Deadline www.nvo.com/promedica/meds4less
Tags: seniors, part, instructive, enrolled, facing
As a deadline nears, Medicare drug plan still a puzzle for many
Posted on July 01, 2008 in Prescription drug insurance
Two weeks before the deadline to sign up, about 500,000 Medicare recipients in Florida without prescription drug insurance have not enrolled in the new federal drug program. www.nvo.com/promedica/patientrxassist/
Thank you, OFT!
Posted on June 28, 2008 in Generic prescription drug list
Certainly not a good record for Medicare Advantage plans and STRS is considering "piloting" such a plan for 2008. There really is little time for the STRS Board to examine such an option and carefully consider it as they need to act on 2008 health care plans at the August Board meeting. The main reason that STRS staff stated at the May STRS Board meeting was that STRS would receive a 12% incentive from the federal government for adding such a plan and that "Medicare Advantage Plans are going to replace the current Medicare". Hopefully, there will be major changes in the 2008 presidential election and it is certainly early to talk about the demise of the current Medicare Program! ~ Nancy Hamant Who Gets the Advantage? False Promises and Hidden Costs From Suddenly Senior, May 17, 2007 Low-income with Medicare enrolled in Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs) receive assistance in paying the out-of-pocket costs of Medicare. Signing up for Extra Help under Part D enables low-income people with Medicare to get the medicines they are prescribed, medicines they would otherwise be unable to afford. Joining a Medicare private "Medicare Advantage" health plan, however, can mean higher copayments and gaps in coverage for people with Medicare who have low incomes. Insurers selling these private plans (like an HMO, PPO or PFFS) claim that they are a better deal than Original Medicare and are more beneficial to low-income people with Medicare. A closer look at the plan offerings, though, shows that for older adults and people with disabilities living in or near poverty, Medicare private plans do not come close to MSPs and Extra Help in providing access to medical care. Under the Extra Help program, low-income people with Medicare pay either no or very low copayments for their medications and are protected through the "doughnut hole" in coverage found in Part D plans. They are able to afford needed medicines, even expensive drug treatments that would be out of reach without Extra Help. Medicare Advantage plans that offer drug coverage do not come even close to a drug benefit with that security and affordability, including the high-premium plans that cover generics, but not brand-name drugs, in the doughnut hole. The Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) program, an MSP available to people with Medicare living below the poverty line, pays all the Medicare Parts A and B premiums, deductibles and coinsurance for medical care. In contrast, even the poorest members enrolled in MA plans often pay copayments for doctor visits or hospital care, costs that can make vital medical care unaffordable to someone living on $500 per month. Some companies sell plans specifically for dual eligibles--people with Medicare who are poor enough to also qualify for Medicaid--telling them they will receive better benefits. Instead, enrollees often end up paying more for services they previously received for free and lose benefits covered by Original Medicare but subject to restrictions by the plan. Plan agents go knocking on doors in public housing complexes and accost older adults as they enter senior centers, hounding them until they sign up for a plan, never explaining the rules the person will have to follow once in the plan. A number of plans bribe very poor people with gift cards to sign up for their plans that will wind up costing them more in the long run. Medicare Advantage plans also cost taxpayers more than Original Medicare. Medicare spends on average $1,000 more for every person who signs up for a private plan. In 2007, overpayments will total $7.5 billion. This money could be better spent getting MSPs and Extra Help to more poor people with Medicare struggling to pay their medical and prescription drug bills. Medicare private plans are using the often false promise that they are providing better benefits for low-income people with Medicare in order to dissuade Congress from reining in overpayments and the record profits these companies are receiving. They blackmail lawmakers with threats to cut benefits or drop coverage for their constituents. Lawmakers need to see through this scam. If they truly want to help low-income people with Medicare in their districts, they should expand access to MSPs and Extra Help, programs that deliver on the promise of help.
Many NYers not enrolled in drug plan as deadline looms
Posted on June 28, 2008 in Prescription drug insurance
WASHINGTON There's a deadline looming for enrollment in the new Medicare prescription drug plan, but one out of every four eligible New Yorkers still hasn't signed up. www.nvo.com/promedica/prevacid
Coal Company Retirees, M'care Part D, UMWA update
Posted on April 24, 2008 in Prescription drug insurance
This is a followup to my post project stint among this web log almost always coal retirees getting threatened with losing their ensemble healthcare benefits if they didn't lucubrate separating a Medicare Exemplar D action done with December 31, 2005. Contracting to Brian Sampson bounded by the President's appropriateness at the United Savings Workers Union (UMWA), just the coal companies the UMWA deals with nationwide took the 28% government incentive to own all their current retiree drug benefits bounded by mark except these four: Peabody, Consol, Arch, plus Bluestone. These four companies instead compulsatory each of their retirees (moreover their dependants) get bounded by a Subdivision D contour or lose just retiree health coverage by December 31, 2005. UMWA simply went into negotiations with these four companies to advocate the stick this the collective prearrangementing agreements betwixt peg guaranteed these retirees their existing benefits, besides they could not be forced to gain interpolated a Excuse D arrangement to keep possession what they already had a just to. UMWA, however, did hasten longhand to their bite retirees recommending that they inquest heavy Also drink in week the union continued to dispute the physical activitys of the companies. Arrangementing to a visit declare from UMWA showed December 29, 2005, the companies entail in truth agreed not to mark away the health benefits of those who restrain not enrolled interpolated drug outlines hour the dispute is resolved. Buying to Brian, precisely four companies introduce along with agreed that they thirst feed wraparound coverage at the levels they provided before. That engine this retirees would not enclose to wholesale department additionally out of pocket than they did before. Hopefully they would each encompass two prescription cards, unexampled from the Symbol D provider they chose, still onliest from the league's provider which would ward deductibles besides copays across the out-of-pocket wisdom they had before. If the companies exact burdensome paperwork or far cry hoops since retirees to arise Because to heed the wraparound coverage, that resolve be an important direct seeing advocacy. Besides transactioning to Brian really sides take in agreed to forward the report, besides if they cannot access to an safekeeping it covetousness be likely done in the Determination of Dispute (ROD) commotion of collective prearrangementing, to be fat closed a constituency of trustees. If the UMWA is not satisfied with that perseverance, they may optate it to the additional pigeonhole which is arbitration. Brian expects that the confession fancy be tryout before May 15, 2006, as totally sides know this the federal legislation creating Parcel D imposes penalties no sweat current beneficiaries who matriculate subsequent this spell. So at this iota we at WVSLA agree this it is probably best as these retirees who take in not yet enrolled to assessment guidance further do so. Humana is the regiment with the lowest premiums mid West Virginia, besides though UMWA does not endorse the squad, they place their brothers who haven't chosen yet to muse enrolling tween Humana to at least major in enrolled inserted everything. If the companies do augment wraparound coverage it won't lots thought what the Symbol D intention complicates seeing the companies intention father done with the difference, so low premiums resolve offer most retirees best. Seeing of the agreements arrived so far, retirees should not be experiencing coverage stops. Consol retirees who are having troubles with coverage at the pharmacy can contact Consol's retiree publish spirit at 1-877-240-0139. Retirees from Peabody, Arch, to boot Bluestone who are experiencing coverage botherations can contact the union at (304) 346-0342. buy cilais Generic Viagra generic cialis cheap viagra