CMA publishes Part D status report
After one year’s experience with Medicare Part D, many people remain confused and frustrated by the complexity and limitations of the benefit. Problems are difficult to resolve because of system failures, complicated data-sharing requirements among multiple entities, lack of useful and standardized information about plan benefits and appeal processes, and regulatory limitations that are more stringent than required by law. The Center for Medicare Advocacy has prepared a Status Report based on the experiences of advocates and beneficiaries over the first year of Part D. The beneficiary stories in the Report are illustrative of the many beneficiaries who are experiencing problems and high costs due, in large part, to the lack of uniformity in Medicare Part D. The stories focus on particular aspects of Part D implementation – the failure of systems to ensure that low-income beneficiaries are enrolled in plans and receive their subsidies, the lack of useful information about benefit limitations to help beneficiaries plan, the failure of the system for withholding plan premiums from beneficiaries’ Social Security checks, and the lack of uniform policies and procedures for seeking exceptions to formulary limitations. Reflection on the issues underlying these problems confirms that beneficiaries would be better off with a redesigned benefit that is standardized, available throughout the country, and administered through the traditional Medicare program. Such a system would be more valuable for more beneficiaries and more cost-effective for taxpayers.