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REACTIONS ARE MIXED TO MEDICARE DRUG PLAN: PHARMACISTS AND DOCTORS SAY NOT ALL BENEFICIARIES EQUAL
To the Editor:
Your September 8th story "Reactions are mixed to Medicare drug plan: Pharmacists and doctors say not all beneficiaries equal" got the story right, except for one point: there are still pervasive data systems problems that affect Medicare beneficiaries every day.
Just last month Medicare announced that 230,000 people mistakenly received premium refund checks, and that those people must send that money back to the government. In addition, thousands of beneficiaries cannot successfully pay for their Part D premium from their Social Security check, or have had their premiums erroneously deducted from their check. Thousands more have left the pharmacy without their prescription because their co-payment amount couldn’t be verified.
More than eight months after the drug program went into effect, Medicare, Social Security, states, plans, and pharmacies still have trouble talking to each other through data exchanges. Rather than solve these problems, though, the government is sweeping the dust under the rug.
The Associated Press reported September 7 that the government’s solution is simply to no longer recommend that premiums be deducted from Social Security checks. In the end, what we need are not fixes to data "glitches," but a simplified drug benefit offered through the Medicare program.
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