Avoid Bush Administration’s “Medicare Prescription Drug Plan
Finder,” Consumer Group warns
[New
York, NY] -- The Medicare Rights Center is warning people with
Medicare, their caregivers and professionals who assist them, to
avoid using the internet based “Medicare Prescription Drug Plan
Finder” that the Bush Administration launched earlier this week.
“The
tool is misleading at worst, useless at best, until it includes
accurate information about what medications are covered by the
drug plans,” said Robert M. Hayes, president of the Medicare
Rights Center, a national consumer service group. “Obviously.”
Drug
plans will cover different drugs and have different premiums,
deductibles, cost-sharing requirements, and prior authorization
rules, Mr. Hayes said. Perhaps the most important consideration
for a patient is whether a drug plan covers the medications the
patient needs. But the Drug Plan Finder offers no information to
a patient on what drugs specific plans cover or what a consumer
will pay for those drugs, Mr. Hayes said.
“The
Medicare Rights Center, like community organizations across the
country, has recruited volunteers who are ready to help older
Americans better understand this drug benefit,” said Mr. Hayes.
“Our phones are ringing off the hook, but without the promised
tools like the Drug Plan Finder, the Administration is
compounding the frustration of volunteers and consumers alike
The Medicare Rights Center also warns that another Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services tool, the “Formulary Plan
Finder,” is not much help either. This web tool lets users
enter the medications they take and see which plans cover them,
but it does not tell them how much the consumer will pay for the
drugs under the various plans.
Additionally, the consumer group warns that the “Medicare
Prescription Drug Plan Cost Estimator” is extremely misleading.
The savings it estimates is based on the lowest premium in the
region, does not take into account if the drugs are covered in
that lowest premium plan or what the cost sharing for each drug
will be.
“The structure of this benefit could not be more unfriendly to
consumers,” said Mr. Hayes. “These false starts in helping
people navigate the benefit make it worse.”