Conflicting reports on Part D beneficiaries’ satisfaction: are they or aren’t they?
How do Part D enrollees feel about the new drug benefit? How many of them have experienced problems with the enrollment process or accessing benefits? The CMS version:
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today postedsponsor-level data about complaints it has received about the servicesprovided by the Medicare prescription drug plans in June. Nationally,during the month of June, 2006, CMS received approximately 2.3complaints per 1,000 Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in prescriptiondrug plans. Complaint rates averaged about 2.6 per 1,000beneficiaries for stand-alone prescription drug plans (PDPs) and about1.4 per 1,000 beneficiaries for Medicare Advantage drug plans.
“The relatively low number of complaints that we are receiving frombeneficiaries is another indication that the vast majority ofbeneficiaries are getting a high level of service,” HHS Secretary MikeLeavitt said. “While this is an important result, we are making surethat complaints and any underlying problems are being addressed andresolved as quickly as possible.”
“Almost all of our beneficiaries are in plans with complaintrates substantially less than one percent,” said CMS Administrator MarkB. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D. “To assure very low complaint rates, we areusing these data to address plans’ weaknesses, to continue to find andfix problems and drive for excellence in the service they are providingto their enrollees. We are particularly concentrating on the planswith relatively high rates.”
But the Center for Medicare Advocacy tells a different story:
Lastweek, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), theagency that administers the Medicare Part D prescription drug program,released statistics on the number of complaints about Part D receivedby 1-800-MEDICARE, by CMS regional offices, and by Medicare IntegrityContractors. CMS reports that they received 2.3 complaints per 1,000beneficiaries during June 2006. Most complaints were about problemswith enrollment and disenrollment. Data were also collected for threeother complaint categories: benefits/access, pricing and co-insurance,and other. The Center for Medicare Advocacy (the Center) questionswhether these numbers accurately reflect the scale and scope of theproblems beneficiaries are experiencing with Part D. As reported inthe Center?s Report, “Medicare Part D Progress Report: Six Months LaterHeadaches Persist” (http://www.medicareadvocacy.org/PartD_6MonthReport072006.pdf), theCenter’s experience with beneficiaries enrolling in plans, accessingplan benefits, and being charged improper cost-sharing amountsindicates a significantly higher rate of complaints.
As Chris Isaak would say, “Somebody’s lyin’…”