CMS Spends $300 million to promote Part D
From The Hill:
Medicare beneficiaries may be confused about thefiner points of their new prescription-drug coverage, but amultimillion-dollar advertising campaign conducted by the Bushadministration should at least have made them aware that the benefit iscoming.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has spent $25million to $30 million on a multimedia advertising effort advisingbeneficiaries that the time has come to choose a health-insurance planto help them pay for their medicines. The open-enrollment periodstarted last Tuesday and ends May 15.
The ad buy represents only about 10 percent of what Medicare willspend this year promoting the drug benefit, but observers say the adswill continue to be a crucial part of keeping the program in the frontof beneficiaries’ minds.
As the start of the enrollment period neared, surveys showed that asfew as 20 percent of people who are currently receiving Medicare wouldsign up for the benefit. Many have complained that the process ofchoosing among dozens of private health plans is too complicated.
There is no shortage of available information on the drug benefit.In addition to educational and promotional efforts funded by thegovernment, private companies and advocacy groups have reached out toolder and disabled Americans at the national, state and local levels.Moreover, the health-insurance companies selling the plans have astrong interest in pitching their products to a massive new market.
Ed: $30 million–the costs of the ads–would pay the Medicare Part D generic drug co-payment for some 15 million prescriptions for Medicare-Medicaid dual eligibles.