The Medicare & You 2006 handbooks being mailed to your Medicare-eligible patients contain errors that could cost them unnecessary expense. That's because the books indicate low-income patients will pay no monthly premium, regardless of the plan they select.
In fact, low-income patients would pay toward monthly premium if they choose a plan that costs more than the regional benchmark.
The handbook's errors occur in the charts that compare the prescription drug plans available in each state. The table titled "If I Qualify for Extra Help, will My Full Premium be Covered?" says "yes" for all plans.
That, however, is not the case. If the plan's monthly premium is at or below the regional benchmark, the beneficiary pays no premium. But if the premium exceeds the regional benchmark, the beneficiary would pay the difference, says an Oct. 4 e-mail from Diana Martinez-Fonts, assistant to the CMS director of Medicare outreach.
CMS officials do not plan to send a corrected version of the chart to Medicare beneficiaries. Instead, they recommend that patients go to the correct, online Medicare & You handbooks. Each state has its own version of the handbook.
Family physicians can quickly answer patients' questions by going to "Summary of Medicare Benefits, Rights and Protections, and Answers to the Most Frequently Asked Questions about Medicare" on the CMS Web site, clicking on their states' abbreviation and downloading a PDF (More about PDFs.) of their state's corrected handbook. They then can scroll to the comparison charts and print them for distribution to patients who have questions.
Other options: Patients can call the organization offering the prescription drug plan and request correct information or they can go to the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan finder, scheduled to go live at Medicare.gov on Oct. 19.
Medicare officials began mailing the incorrect Medicare and You 2006 books to beneficiaries in 20 states Oct. 7. The second wave was to be mailed between Oct. 10 and Oct. 19.
