Medicare hot line fails government test

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=d240a5df7575798c&cat=c08dd24cec417021

By Chip Reid
Correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 7:48 p.m. ET Dec. 8, 2004The Medicare help line, 1-800-MEDICARE, was intended to help seniors navigate one of the most confusing government programs ever created. After the new Medicare prescription drug law was enacted last year, the line was flooded with millions of calls. Federal officials were so confident the line would clear up any confusion they even advertised it on a blimp.


But a new report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, concludes that only 61 percent of callers to the help line get accurate answers, a whopping 29 percent get inaccurate answers and 10 percent get no answer at all because the calls are transferred to phones that don't answer or are disconnected.

more...

Does Bush really care!!!

[baby_bear]

1. works exactly as designed

I'm surprised the success rate is as high as it was.

b_b

[recovering democrat]

2. one senior's experience

My elderly neighbor got us to help try to get through on this line because she could not get any help whatsoever and couldn't figure out what was wrong. We couldn't get through either. On several different occasions we tried and were all part of the 10 percent that got no answers.

This same neighbor got me to look up the options for drug discount cards on the internet since she doesn't have a computer. Her monthly income is $6 too high to get the "free" benefits, so she spends HALF of her monthly income on prescriptions, and somebody told her the information was on the Medicare website. I FINALLY got this done for her but it was totally confusing, and they revised it three times in a matter of days while I was trying to get information for her. She has finally got the discount drug card figured out - it saves her a little bit but her drug costs are still ridiculous.

[NYC]

3. Has it been outsourced?

[Sgent]

4. If she is $3 above

Then she needs to get the Ushare card -- www.usharerx.com , as well as the Togehter Rx card -- www.togetherrx.com. She can have both.

Due to how the government priced their drugs on their website, they didn't look at the advantages in the U-Share card -- which is that if you are within 3X the amount for the free card, you get all your drugs for $10/month. Since it had an income restriction, they only used the top of the line prices, not the ones that most people would pay.

The card is actually sponsered by 6 of the largest drug companies, who give the $10/month to the pharmacist, and provide the drugs for free. The together RX card should cover most of the rest of her scripts, and is alos put together by various drug companies.

[NYC]

5. It's very confusing,

and I believe it is deliberately so.

[lovuian]

6. definitely thats the whole purpose

Frustrate them so they have to take a bus to Canada

[high density]

7. So many millions of dollars spent on TV ads, too

I can't believe the amount of money that we waste.