Fixing The Medicare Part D Program

Hundreds of seniors have understandably expressed confusion about the new Medicare Part D Prescription Drug benefit, which was implemented on January 1, 2006. As MVES works hard to help these seniors, we also are working with legislators to improve the benefit’s ease of use. Following is a letter written to Massachusetts’ U.S. Senators and Representatives.

Dear Legislators:

Much has been written and said about the new Medicare Part D Prescription Drug benefit, most of it negative and with justification. However, on behalf of the Board of Directors of Mystic Valley Elder Services, an Area Agency on Aging representing 52,000 older residents north of Boston, we believe in the concept and implore you to fix the operational structure of the program.

Undoubtedly, your office has received hundreds if not thousands of telephone calls and letters from frustrated seniors and family members. Mystic Valley Elder Services has literally received over 200 phone calls per day since November from elders who are confused, angry, and sometimes left without coverage. After a caller has vented, we generally are able to help them navigate the maze of plans and guide them to a plan that hopefully will meet their individual needs. It should not have to be this difficult and confusing. We know that you know that as well.

Please make it a national priority to fix the Medicare Part D program by legislating the following changes this year:

1. Eliminate, or at least delay until 2007, any penalty for enrollment after May 2006
2. Mandate, or at least allow, Medicare to negotiate bulk discounts the way the Department of Veterans Affairs does
3. Eliminate the so-called doughnut hole (and use the savings from number 2 to pay for it)

For the longer term, we recommend that the Part D program be modeled on the basic Medicare program. This simple, efficient, and effective concept has worked well for the past 40 years whereby an older person signs up for Medicare, pays a monthly premium, and receives their Medicare insurance card that is honored by private payers nationwide. Beneficiaries do not have to pick from a myriad of confusing and different benefit plans for hospitalization, doctor and laboratory services, or home health care services under the basic Medicare program. The prescription drug plan should be no different. Please give control of the Part D program back to the consumers, the taxpayers, and the beneficiaries. The American public deserves no less. You legislated the vision, now legislate the common sense application of that vision.

Thank you for making health care better for older Americans and those with disabling conditions. We appreciate your advocacy on this very important matter. Your efforts to make the Part D program work as it was originally envisioned are supported by your constituents here in Massachusetts and I dare say across all of urban, suburban, and rural America.

Agencies like Mystic Valley Elder Services are committed to helping seniors locally get the help they need and deserve. We need your help so that we can do our part here in Massachusetts. Together, we can give the public the prescription drug benefit that they expect. Thank you!

Sincerely,

Jane Lavender
President, Board of Directors

Daniel J. O’Leary
Executive Director