Medicare Part D billing errors persist
Just days before enrollment for nextyear’s Medicare drug benefit begins, federal agencies are still tryingto fix a long-running billing problem that at its peak this summerensnared about half a million people.
Despite those efforts,about 50,000 people who chose to have their monthly Medicare drugpremiums taken out of their Social Security checks are still havingincorrect amounts withheld.
It’s been almost a year since SocialSecurity began taking $33 a month out of Anita Preitauer’s monthlycheck to cover her enrollment in a Medicare drug plan. But the85-year-old Red Bluff, Calif., woman dropped the drug plan in February.
Despiterepeated calls over the months to Medicare, Social Security and theinsurer, Preitauer has not been able to get the problem resolved.Medicare owes her $330.
“It makes me feel very frustrated and worried, wondering each month how I can make all my bills,” she says.
Problemswith the amounts taken out of Social Security checks for the drugbenefit have been ongoing since the program began, advocate groups say.Some people have been charged for plans they are not in. Others havenot had any money taken out. “We have cases that go back as far as Julyand have not been resolved,” says Deane Beebe at the Medicare RightsCenter in New York, an advocacy group.
Medicare fixed about100,000 cases last month, leaving about 50,000 unresolved, says JimKerr, an acting deputy director at Medicare.
Ed: Part D enrollment for 2007 begins Nov. 15. For information on What To Look Out For, visit the Center for Medicare Advocacy.