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CMS to make Part D easier to swallow

Case Management Weekly, February 15, 2006

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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is working to address problems in the implementation of the new Medicare prescription drug benefit and is looking for ways to make the program easier for beneficiaries to understand, CMS Administrator Mark McClellan announced during a hearing last week.

CMS is on track to address most of the major problems by March or April, said McClellan, who also outlined several steps CMS has taken or will take to address the problems, including:

• requiring insurers offering Medicare drug plans to provide beneficiaries with a 90-day supply of any medications they were taking before the drug benefit took effect January 1
• hiring a company to ensure that pharmacists, states, and drug plans all have the same information on beneficiaries
• conducting daily transfers of information between Medicare and drug plans
• reducing wait times on Medicare phone lines and increasing the number of phone line representatives from 3,000 to 7,800 individuals

Source: Caliornia Healthline

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