Miami Herald Features Section On Open Enrollment For Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 14 Nov 2007 - 12:00 PDT

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The Miami Herald on Sunday featured a special section on topics related to the open enrollment period for the Medicare prescription drug benefit, which begins on Thursday. Summaries appear below.

• "Don't Ignore Medicare 'Doughnut Hole'": The so-called "doughnut hole" in Medicare prescription drug coverage "continues to be a potential problem" for many beneficiaries, the Herald reports. Medicare beneficiaries who fall into this gap have several options, including choosing a plan that will provide partial coverage for prescription drugs during the gap, purchasing supplemental drug coverage to pay for drugs during the gap or avoiding the gap by spending less on prescription drugs throughout the year (Gilpatrick [1], Miami Herald, 11/11).
  
  
• "How To Use Medicare's Online Prescription Drug Finder": The Herald featured instructions on how to use Medicare's online prescription drug finder, available at http://www.medicare.gov (Gilpatrick [2], Miami Herald, 11/11).
  
  
• "Private Insurers Offer Plans With Perks": Preventive health care "has been an increasingly large part of the nationwide debate" and will continue "to play a bigger role in Medicare coverage through expanded Medicare Advantage plans," the Herald reports. According to the Herald, MA plans have added "more perks designed to promote better health," such as smoking cessation and healthy eating programs, which in turn reduce health care costs for the insurer, industry experts say (Gilpatrick [3], Miami Herald, 11/11).
  
  
• "Selecting a Medicare Plan May Get Easier": Health care advisers are hopeful that increased familiarity with the prescription drug coverage and better tools for evaluating available plans will help seniors choose the most appropriate plan for 2008, the Herald reports. However, "with a multitude of plans all with different premiums, medications, copayments and fine print, finding the right choice still can be daunting, especially for seniors who don't have Internet access or aren't Web savvy," according to the Herald. Health care advocates say that seniors should examine their plans to determine how they will change in 2008 and whether it would be less expensive to switch to a different plan (Gilpatrick [4], Miami Herald, 11/11).
  
  
• "Tool Aims To Ease, But Can Seniors Swing It?": CMS improved the online Medicare plan finder for this year's open enrollment period in hopes of making it "easier to sift through the dozens of prescription drug plans, health plans and Medicare Advantage plans," but for seniors who "aren't computer savvy, let alone Web savvy, the tools can provide more confusion than guidance," according to the Herald. The Medicare Web site allows users to fill out an online form with their personal information, including location and current prescriptions, and ranks prescription drug plans in the state. It also estimates their monthly costs based on the information. The online tool this year will provide customer service information about each plan and alert individuals if they can save money by switching to another plan (Gilpatrick [5], Miami Herald, 11/11).

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