Part D Premiums for 2009
Medicare beneficiaries can expect to pay an average of about $28 per month for standard Part D prescription drug coverage next year. The estimates from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are based on bids submitted for both prescription drug plans and Medicare Advantage drug plans. The estimated monthly premiums are about $3 higher than the average monthly premium costs this year, but are 37% lower than projections that were made when the Medicare prescription drug benefit was created in 2003. The $3 increase is based in part on rising drug costs in general and higher costs for catastrophic drug coverage. In some cases, price increases could be significant, said Kerry Weems, CMS acting administrator, during a teleconference to announce the premium estimates. However, he noted that most beneficiaries will have the option to switch to a prescription drug plan with premiums that are the same or lower than this year. Open enrollment for the fourth year of the Medicare Part D program is set to begin in November.
GAO: Part D Problems Continue
Almost 3 years after the Medicare Part D drug program went into effect, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services still face continuing problems resolving beneficiaries' complaints and grievances, a Government Accountability Office report found. GAO said that there have been 630,000 complaints filed with CMS against drug plans since Part D went into effect, most involving problems of enrollment and disenrollment. Although GAO found that the number of complaints, and the time to resolve them, had declined in the first 2 years of the program, it also found that “a substantial proportion of the most critical complaints—those filed when beneficiaries were at risk of exhausting their medications—were not resolved within CMS's applicable time frames.”
Health Searches Level Off
The number of adults going online for health information has plateaued or declined, according to a Harris Interactive poll. According to the pollster, a total of 150 million people—66% of all adults and 81% of those who have online access—said they obtained health information from the Internet in 2008. That represents a slight drop from 2007, when the poll found that 160 million people reported obtaining health information online. The researchers who conducted the poll noted that the slight differences from 2007 to 2008 are within the possible sampling error. But they pointed out that, as opposed to other years, it appears that there has been no increase in the total number of people with Internet access or in the number of people searching for health information—those the poll calls “cybercondriacs”—indicating that a plateau or even a slight decline was underway. Just under half of cybercondriacs said that they had discussed the information they obtained online with their doctors, and 49% had gone online to look for information as a result of discussions with their doctors, the survey found.
Calif. Stops Cancellation Practice
California's Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has signed legislation banning health insurance companies from rewarding employees for canceling or limiting a patient's health insurance. According to the bill's sponsor, Assemblyman Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), the law was introduced in response to reports that insurers used applications for individual health insurance that potentially could trick people into making mistakes that later could be used to cancel their coverage. Once policyholders became ill and incurred significant medical bills, the insurance companies would look for an undisclosed condition or symptom that could be used to justify cancellation of the policy, Mr. Lieu said, adding that some companies used bonuses to reward employees for canceling coverage. “Patients should not have to worry about losing their health insurance simply because an employee can make some extra bonus money,” he said in a statement.
Laws Won't Help Uninsured
New legislation in Florida and Georgia—states in which the percentage of uninsured is well above the national average of 18%—is unlikely to reduce the ranks of the uninsured, according to a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In 2008, Georgia created new tax breaks for high-deductible health plans, while Florida's new law will allow private insurance companies to sell “bare-bones” policies with limited benefits. However, neither approach provides a targeted subsidy to help low-income people, who make up the bulk of the uninsured, according to the center's report. The report also said that many people who do get coverage through these initiatives will be underinsured and therefore could face high out-of-pocket costs and have problems paying their medical bills.