Seniors get drug card help

He may have clicked on the wrong spot once or twice, but Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, gave seniors a computer demonstration on analyzing Medicare's new drug discount card, showing it isn't that difficult.

"We are here to dispel the rumors about this card, of how this is too complicated for seniors to figure it out," Bennett told a crowd of seniors Friday. "Well, I am a senior and I figured it out."

Bennett, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Dr. Mark McClellan, were among a group of panelists at a town meeting on the Salt Lake Community College's Larry H. Miller Campus.

The card was rolled out earlier this year and remains available to seniors through the end of 2005, in anticipation of the time when a host of new benefits will kick in that will save Medicare recipients with high drug costs thousands of dollars.

Part of the Medicare Modernization Act, the drug discount card can save certain seniors up to 30 percent on some medications and even more on generic drugs. Seniors and other Medicare recipients who have supplemental insurance plans offering prescriptions at low co-pays would be wise to stay with those plans, McClellan said, but the card can help many others.

"Most cards have broad pharmacy participation," he said. "This is an interim step designed to help people who are really struggling."

Bennett used a volunteer and logged onto the www.medicare.org Web site to show seniors and others in the crowd how the process works to determine which discount card is best suited for individual needs.

In this case, based on her financial standing, the woman did not qualify for an additional $600 benefit available to low-income seniors and those with disabilities, but she discovered her monthly costs for prescriptions could be reduced by as much as $90.

Enrollment in the program is voluntary and the use of the card can bestopped at any time, McClellan said.

The cards have a maximum annual cost of $30, while many of them are less than that or free.

While the application process is actually completed by mail, McClellan said interested participants can use the Web site or call 1-800-MEDICARE, where 3,000 customer service representatives process calls in an average time of 15 minutes.

The Web site, as well as the number, is a way to do comparison shopping of prescription prices offered by the dozens of sponsors across the country.