Here’s a pharmacist’s advice on Medicare Part D, the federal government’s new prescription-drug benefit for senior citizens:
It’s can cause dizziness, headaches and even nausea, so consult an expert before you act.
Act you must by May 15 if you are a eligible for Medicare — even if you don’t want to participate yet.
If you don’t enroll soon but decide to do so later, you’ll pay an extra 1 percent of your co-pay for every month you tarried.
For example, if you wait three years after you’re eligible to sign up, you’ll be penalized 36 percent. And you’ll pay the penalty on every prescription for the rest of your life.
Even people who have signed up for a plan are discovering it isn’t ready to take them.
More than 200 people packed the Senior Services and Community Center in Port Angeles to standing room only Tuesday to hear a panel discuss the dilemma.
On the panel were Mark Harvey, director of Olympic Area Agency on Aging and Peninsula Daily News columnist; Tim Smolen, regional director of the state Insurance Department; Joe Cammack, owner and primary pharmacist at Jim’s Pharmacy in Port Angeles; and Margie Stewart, supervisor of Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors.
Cammack advised attendees to research their choices before they choose one of dozens of Medicare Plan D plans with hundreds of variables.
For instance, only certain drugstores take certain plans that cover certain drugs at certain costs — and there’s no way to be certain short of examining all the options.
“There’s also quite a few available plans, and there may be some formulary issues,” said Jim Benson, a pharmacist at Frick Drugs, 609 Sequim Village Center.
A formulary is the list of drugs a plan will cover.
The worst problems, Cammack told meeting attendees, have hit people who, because they receive both Medicare and Medicaid, were automatically put onto a plan.
That plan may not cover the medications they need, requiring them to return to their doctors to obtain authorization, Cammack said.
In some cases, it’s better to pay cash.
One woman at the Tuesday meeting said she normally pays $5 for one of her prescriptions. When she checked three different plans at three pharmacies, they charged $11 to $13.
People missing ID cards
Another problem is that many people waited until late December to pick a plan.
“Although people could sign up in the middle of November, people didn’t research it ahead of time,” said Benson.
Due to the last-minute rush, many of them have no identification cards with which pharmacists determine how much a person will pay.
Don Hoglund, owner of Don’s Pharmacy, 1151 Water St., Port Townsend, said, “The primary problem right now is they’re not having received their cards with the pertinent information that we need to bill any claims to their insurance companies.”
Hoglund had no idea of when every participant will have an identification card.
Many people also are besieging their insurance companies by phone, resulting in long delays.
“The increase in volume has really slowed down the processing,” Benson said.
“I have been on hold for five hours today with an insurance company,” said pharmacist Linda Peterson at the Chinook Pharmacy, 11 S. Forks Ave., Forks, “and they still haven’t answered their telephone.”
Even the government’s help line — 1-800-MEDICARE — has been “very jammed up,” Benson said.
For help understanding Medicare Part D and choosing the plan best for you, contact:
* The Olympic Area Agency on Aging, 360-417-1750 in Port Angeles; 360-379-5064 in Port Townsend.
* Statewide Health Insurance Benefit Assistance in the Port Angeles senior center, 360-452-3221
* Sequim Senior Center, 360-683-6806.
