News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
With the New Year began the new Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage program — the biggest change in Medicare since the program began 40 years ago. Across the nation, seniors and pharmacies experienced problems with the new program.
In the Sisters area, there was confusion — but those involved have high hopes for improvement.
“We had kind of a rocky start but it’s really smoothing out,” said Tim Muir, pharmacist and owner of Sisters Drug & Gift. Muir said that on the first day of the program, he could not process claims because the national computer system that was supposed to support the new program had crashed.
“There’s been confusion since day one,” said Jeff White, Executive Director, Central Oregon Council on Aging (COCOA). Last year, White’s agency hired employees and trained 40 volunteers to help seniors decide between the dozens of plans available to them in this area.
“I think we can give more personal help,” said White, who added that COCOA is still offering one-to-one counseling.
Seniors who have already enrolled in the program should now be able to obtain necessary prescriptions.
Earlier this month, Oregon’s Governor Ted Kulongoski joined a dozen other states in providing an emergency relief plan to provide temporary assistance to Oregonians who were denied access to the new drug program because of difficulties the federal government was having in implementation.
The governor’s office estimated that around 10,000 Oregonians were having trouble obtaining their drugs and is reimbursing pharmacies for a 30-day supply so patients can have necessary medicines.
For eligible seniors who have not yet enrolled, May 15 is an important date. That’s the last day to enroll in a plan without paying a higher premium later. Prescription coverage begins on the first of the month after enrollment. So if seniors sign up today, they have one week to wait before coverage would start February 1.
“Anyone who is eligible should not wait — they should enroll,” said White.
“Our biggest advice to patients is don’t wait to run out of prescriptions to start the program,” said Muir. Muir expects that seniors will find the cost of their prescriptions “significantly improved” with the new plans.
White’s agency was busy last year giving informational presentations and reaching out to rural and isolated seniors. Still he expects there are a large number of seniors in the tri-county area served by COCOA who have not yet enrolled. While there are many resources available to help seniors, from Web sites to brochures, he encourages seniors to contact his agency for help specific to Central Oregonians.
Muir said he can help people who have not yet enrolled by straightening out the confusion of determining which plans cover which drugs when the drugs are called by several different names. He said customers can consult with him so he can direct them to the plans best suited for their specific prescriptions.
Muir said another source of confusion when the program rolled out was that independent pharmacies such as his were not listed in the Medicare literature and Web sites about the program. Only national chains were listed.
“So far, we have been able to work with all the programs,” said Muir.
Muir said that soon he should be able to fill prescriptions under the Medicare Prescription Drug coverage program in 20 minutes just like his pharmacy always has.
White said despite problems when the new Medicare drug program was rolled out this month, he wants to send a positive message to seniors. He is glad COCOA has the resources to help seniors and thinks that this reduced the intensity of problems locally compared with nationwide.
“We’re here to help and we have the resources to do that,” said White.
Resources:
• Central Oregon Council on Aging Senior Help Line 504-0392.
• 1-800-medicare.
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