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A post on HealthCare.gov by Jonathan Blum, the Deputy Administrator and Director for the Center of Medicare at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, shares the efforts that the administration is putting towards making the Medicare program and health care coverage in general easier for seniors.
Blum shares how seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries have expressed that going through the 4,000 choices available for prescription drug plans can be daunting, especially since there are plans that offer comparable benefits. In order to address this concern, efforts are being made to eliminate duplicative plans in order to make it easier for seniors to choose a plan that is suitable for their needs.
Blum also said that “making Medicare Part D easier to use” will be one of their top priorities, citing a Commonwealth Fund report that determined that most seniors found Part D “too complicated,” an observation that may have prevented some seniors from finding the best plan for their needs.
The phase out of duplicative plans will result in the reduction of prescription drug plan choices by more than 700 plans. Despite the reduction, there will still be 3,240 Part D drug plans for beneficiaries to choose from.
Blum assures seniors that the change is seamless and will not require any action on the part of the beneficiaries; there will be no gap for seniors in terms of coverage. Should seniors feel the need to change their plans, however, they can choose to do so.
Should seniors have any questions regarding Medicare and Medicaid services, Blum encourages them to call 1-800-MEDICARE.
One of the major beneficiaries of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are senior citizens. However, according to a feature on Health Leaders Media, seniors are not as informed as they ought to be regarding the provisions of health care reform, and what the new law means to them.
This conclusion was drawn from a survey that was released by the National Council on Aging (NCOA) on Monday. The said survey was conducted by Harris International, and the results of the survey indicated that none of the 636 senior citizens who were interviewed could answer correctly all 12 questions regarding health care reform that were chosen by the NCOA.
During a briefing held in Washington, David Krane, vice president of public affairs and policy research for Harris Interactive, shared additional statistics based on the survey. He added that only 17 percent of senior adults who were interviewed could correctly answer more than half of the questions, while only 9 percent could correctly answer at least two-thirds of the questions.
Based on the over-all results of the survey, Krane suggested “more education about the subject [of Medicare and healthcare reform], which is obviously very complicated.”
In order to address the concerns that rose out of the survey, the NCOA announced the launch of a campaign, “Straight Talk for Seniors on Health Reform.” The announcement was made by James Firman, president and CEO of NCOA, who said: “Seniors need to know the key facts about health reform so that they can be informed consumers and educated citizens.” The campaign will include, among others, townhall events and educational materials.
Senior citizens are perhaps the one group of people that is most concerned about health care, and this is true not just in the United States but in other countries as well. It is therefore appropriate that health care reform has specific provisions for senior citizens.
Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, shares a tele-townhall meeting held in Wheaton, Maryland on June 8 and attended by Sebelius and President Barack Obama. During the meeting, the President and Sebelius answered questions that senior citizens may have regarding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and what it means to them. Another objective of the event is to clear up misconceptions about Medicare.
The President himself opened the event, where he described how the new health care reform law strengthens and renews Medicare. It was stressed that seniors will not lose guaranteed Medicare benefits, regardless of whether they are availing of Original Medicare or Medicare Advantage. Sebelius quotes the President, who gave a “promise to America’s seniors that you can live out your golden years with some basic peace of mind and health coverage that you can count on.”
In addition to the closure of the gap in Medicare Part D which we covered in previous posts, Sebelius points out that HR 3590 will be able to provide senior citizens with free preventive care services that can include cancer screenings and annual wellness visits. There will also be community health teams who will coordinate care for senior citizens who have multiple doctors as well as for seniors who are transitioning back into their communities after hospital stays.
