Although the deadline is looming for seniors to choose a new prescription drug plan under the new Medicare Part D program, outreach workers are confident they will help seniors select the best plan.
Helping seniors choose from among 48 different plans, all of which only cover certain drugs and are accepted at certain pharmacies, has been no easy feat.
“This process is extremely cumbersome,” said Susan Cronin, senior health insurance program coordinator with the Carroll County Department of Aging. “These are people who haven?t been exposed to computers, or sometimes even recorded messages. We?re getting through it though, and I?m starting to see the learning curve.”
To aid seniors, Cronin said, her department has been holding presentations at the county?s five senior centers and will continue to do so throughout April. During the presentations, workers also meet one on one with applicants, take their information and enter it into the Medicare Web site, narrowing the choices down to the top three in terms of cost.
In Anne Arundel County, seniors can set up individual appointments at the county?s Department of Aging until the May 15 deadline. County workers have also been traveling to area senior centers and can accept a senior?s information through the mail, and will then mail it back to the applicant with the top choices.
“Since there were no choices last year, this represents a big change for Medicare beneficiaries,” said Susan Knight, director of the senior health insurance program for the Anne Arundel County Department of Aging and Disabilities.
Pat Venable, senior health insurance program coordinator at the Baltimore County Department of Aging, said her department has been helping to educate seniors on the new program since last year, when it held 176 different enrollment events, which almost 9,000 people attended. This year, she said, there have been 63 events with more than 1,000 attendees. She said her department?s focus is traveling to area assisted-living communities to help seniors who may not have transportation to local senior centers.
