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Medicare Drug Program News
Medicare's Nightmare $50 Million Mistake Draws
Senator's, Advocates' Concerns
Medicare says senior citizens must return the check
but doesn't say how
 August 24, 2006 – The fall-out continues over the
mistaken reimbursement by Medicare of $50 million to senior citizens
paying for their Medicare drug plan with a deduction for their Social
Security check. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the powerful
Senate Finance Committee, sent a raising concern and several advocacy
groups are complaining that this adds further confusion for seniors to
an already confusing program.
 Sen.
Grassley Expresses Concern About Checks Sent Erroneously to Medicare
Beneficiaries
Senate Finance
Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Wednesday sent a
letter to
CMS
Administrator Mark McClellan that raised concerns about a
glitch
that prompted the agency to send payments erroneously to more than
231,000 Medicare beneficiaries to reimburse them for almost $50 million
in prescription drug benefit premiums, the
Washington Post
reports.
According to McClellan, who announced the glitch on
Tuesday, affected Medicare beneficiaries also received letters from the
Social Security
Administration that erroneously said the agency will no
longer deduct their monthly prescription drug benefit premiums from
their Social Security checks.
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Related Stories |
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Medicare Makes $50
Million Mistake by Refunding Drug Program Premiums
230,000 senior
citizens will have to repay the money
August 23, 2006 – The Medicare drug program,
already under criticism for being a confusing program for many senior
citizens, has just become a lot more confusing for 230,000 already in
the program. The government has mistakenly sent these seniors checks
totaling about $50 million supposedly reimbursing them for monthly
premiums paid this year. The checks come with a letter that says their
monthly premiums will no longer be deducted from their Social Security
check – also an error.
Read more...
Medicare Advocates Question CMS Tip Sheet on Drug
Program's Donut Hole
Info sent to 'CMS
Partners' to help explain the coverage gap
August 18, 2006 – The new Tip Sheet recently sent
by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to its Partners on
"How the Coverage Gap works for People with Medicare Prescription Drug
Plans" is misleading and certainly not helpful, according to a Medicare
advocacy group.
Read
more...
Read more
on
Medicare
or
Medicare Drug Program |
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CMS this week sent those Medicare beneficiaries a
second letter, signed by agency chief operating officer John Dyer to
inform them of the glitch and notify them that they must return the
erroneous reimbursements to the federal government.
According to the Post, the letter from Dyer does
not provide specific details for how the money should be returned. "We
will let you know soon about that process," the letter states, adding,
"Again, you do not need to do anything other than set that money aside."
In his letter, Grassley writes that CMS should
recover the erroneous reimbursements, which average $215 each, in small,
"manageable" increments over "as long a period as possible." Grassley
adds that some Medicare beneficiaries "may not realize the error that
was made and may not have put the money aside" (Lee, Washington Post,
8/24).
Details From CMS
McClellan said that CMS officials believe they can
"smoothly" recover the erroneous reimbursements from Medicare
beneficiaries. He added, "We're sorry about the inconvenience this error
has caused. We want to make sure (beneficiaries know) their coverage is
continuing" (Barfield Berry,
Gannett/Rochester
Democrat & Chronicle, 8/24).
McClellan said that most of the Medicare
beneficiaries affected by the glitch received the erroneous
reimbursements by direct deposit, although some received checks. In
addition, McClellan said that the glitch -- which occurred when CMS
updated SSA about Medicare beneficiary information -- should prove
inexpensive to correct "by government standards" (Stout,
New York Times,
8/24).
Comments
Paul Precht, policy coordinator of the
Medicare Rights
Center, said, "This is part of a larger problem which is
still unsolved," adding, "We've been trying and other advocates have
been trying for months to get those problems fixed and they're still
not" (Gannett/Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, 8/24).
Vicki Gottlich, an attorney with the
Center for Medicare
Advocacy, said, "It's a mess, and this situation was
inevitable." She added, "For the last eight months, we've helped people
who have had premiums improperly deducted, or were charged for plans
they didn't enroll in. ... This week's glitch is evidence that federal
government systems can't support the complexities of Part D. We're
particularly concerned that people will conclude they're not entitled to
their benefits" (Harper,
Washington Times,
8/24).
Tricia Neuman, a
Kaiser Family
Foundation vice president and director of the Medicare Policy
Project at the foundation, said, "The problem is for people who aren't
sure about what's going on there's a risk that they will spend that
money ... and now find themselves liable. That can be really scary."
Study
State Health Insurance Assistance Programs officials have reported
several problems with deductions of monthly Medicare prescription drug
benefit premiums from Social Security checks, according to a Kaiser
Family Foundation report released on Thursday.
About five million Medicare beneficiaries enrolled
in the prescription drug benefit have decided to pay their monthly
premiums through deductions from their Social Security checks. According
to the report, SHIP officials initially had advised Medicare
beneficiaries to pay their monthly premiums through deductions from
their Social Security checks but currently advise against the practice
(Gannet/Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, 8/24).
>> The Kaiser report is available
online.
>> CBS' "Evening
News" on Wednesday reported on the glitch. The segment
includes comments from McClellan (Andrews, "Evening News," CBS, 8/23).
The complete segment is available
online
in RealPlayer.
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