Re: Medicare Discount Card Enrollment

[Guest guest]

So Della, or any of the retail techs-

How is this discount card plan going to affect your business? It

sounds like a nightmare. Will there be some sort of online

ajudication like there is for medicaid? Are all pharmacies currently

accepting medicare assignment automatically providers for the

discount cards as well? Can your pharmacy opt out of the discount

card plan?

Dora

[Guest guest]

I'm going to all day meeting/CE pertaining to these new plans and how they will

work. I feel like I'd better go just because CVS is offering one of their own

sponsored cards. I'll be glad to post next Friday afternoon whatever I learn.

[Guest guest]

Dora,

I work with Kroger. We are going to be having individuals fill out the

enrollment form AT Kroger's. For the first week (May 3rd thru May 7th),

Kroger has us scheduling an extra 40 hrs for the times that seniors (or

caretakers) are more likely to bein the store. The 2nd week (May 10th thru

May 15th), Kroger has us scheduling an extra 20 hours.

The individuals who are being scheduled are going to have to be able to

answer questions about the card that Kroger is going to be 'sponsoring'.

It's a LOT of information.

In some of the information that Kroger sent to us, it's written that:

Medicare estimates that of the 7.2 million Medicare beneficiaries eligible

for transitional assistance, 4.7 million (65%) will participate. That there

are 6.1 million other beneficiaries without drug coverage. Of them, 2.6

million will participate. That means 7.3 million Medicare beneficiaries

will have new prescription benefits.

Kroger is going to accept all 28 discount cards (good grief!). Walgreens,

CVS, and Eckerd's at least (in retail pharmacy) are going to be having their

own card.

From the Medicare website, there are over 1,000 drugs listed in their

compare list. I kind of wish they'd make a searchable database that would

be available for download so that when the seniors start asking how much

their medication would be on the card, we could get SOME semblence of an

idea! Of course, a person can select up to 25 drugs to have information

pulled.

There is a chance that some of the discount cards that are currently out

there may save seniors more than some of the Medicare Approved Cards (which

is what we are discussing anyhow). For some folks it won't be worth signing

up for a card. If you already have certain types of insurance, you don't

qualify for them.

It's just going to be a general mass confusion initially, I'm sure.

Della

Cat Haven, Inc

A No-Kill Cat Rescue (501c3)

Houston, Tx

www.cat-haven.org

Re: Medicare Discount Card Enrollment

So Della, or any of the retail techs-

How is this discount card plan going to affect your business? It sounds like

a nightmare. Will there be some sort of online ajudication like there is for

medicaid? Are all pharmacies currently accepting medicare assignment

automatically providers for the discount cards as well? Can your pharmacy

opt out of the discount card plan?

Dora

[Guest guest]

yes it is clear as mud to me

Shirley

[Guest guest]

Hi Della

Thanks for that bit of information. Since leaving retail its been hard for

me to get some of the information about this.

LadyCPhT