Consumer
protections sorely lacking for older and
disabled Americans enrolled in Medicare Private
Drug Plans, Consumer Group testifies --
Legislation needed to ensure that both CMS and
private drug plans fulfill Congress’ intent to
provide meaningful protections for people in
plans
New York, NY – Older and disabled Americans
enrolled in Medicare private drug plans lack
consumer protections needed to guarantee access
to prescription drugs at affordable prices, the
Medicare Rights Center testified today at a
hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on
Health.
Problems continue to plague the Medicare drug
benefit program eighteen months after it took
effect, testified the Medicare Rights Center, a
national consumer service group.
Enrollees in the Medicare drug benefit,
available only through private drug plans, are
still having difficulty securing – and
maintaining – enrollment in an appropriate
Medicare private drug plan, accessing affordable
medicines through the low-income subsidy known
as “Extra Help,” and getting needed medicine
through Medicare private drug plans.
“Congress must ensure that people with Medicare
have due process protections that govern
decisions made by the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services and Medicare private drug
plans,” said Robert M. Hayes, an attorney and
president of the Medicare Rights Center. “It’s
common sense, basic fairness and a requirement
of constitutional law.”
Several consumer issues beleaguering the
Medicare drug benefit program were highlighted
in testimony provided by Paul Precht, deputy
policy director at the Medicare Rights Center,
including: rampant computer system problems
among Medicare, private drug plans and Social
Security that cause problems with plan
enrollment, plan premiums and low-income status;
people with the right to disenroll from Medicare
private health plans that include the drug
benefit, such as victims of private plan
marketing abuse, are waiting months to get their
coverage corrected; low-income people who change
drug plans discover that the subsidy is not in
effect in the new plan; and the drug appeals
process is cumbersome, unfair and vulnerable to
obstructionist tactics by the Medicare private
drug plans.
The Medicare Rights Center testimony and
recommendations for these and other problems are
available online at
www.medicarerights.org/waysandmeans_testimony_06212007.pdf.
