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Medicare Part D by the numbers

Case Management Weekly, May 24, 2006

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Days after the Medicare Part D deadline, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt announced in a press release that 38 million of the approximately 42.5 million Medicare beneficiaries will have some form of drug coverage when the enrollment data is finalized. Critics of the policy are skeptical of the numbers, suggesting the swift release of figures is an attempt to reshape the image of the controversial drug program.

While the final numbers are still being tallied, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reports:

• an estimated one million seniors signed up for Part D in the week leading up to the May 15 deadline
• 72,000 beneficiaries signed up for the drug benefit on Friday before the deadline-three times the number who enrolled the previous Friday
• 40,000 to 50,000 beneficiaries enrolled online during the final weekend-five times as many beneficiaries as the previous weekend
• calls to 1-800-MEDICARE, the Medicare information hotline, averaged about 300,000 during the last week of registration

CMS and HHS both acknowledged that an estimated 4.5 million beneficiaries still do not have drug coverage, including three million who are eligible for a low-income subsidy.

Source:California Healthline

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