Nearly two-thirds of Colorado’s 525,000 Medicare-eligible elderly and disabled are enrolled in the program’s new prescription-drug benefit, according to federal figures released today.
That’s more than health officials expected – due to a surge in applications just before the plan’s Jan. 1 launch – said Michael Fierberg, Colorado spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“This clearly shows a great deal of interest in the program,” Fierberg said. “It’s far exceeded our expectations.”
Senior-citizen advocates, however, who have worked for months to help Medicare beneficiaries understand the drug benefit and choose from one of 17 plans offered by insurers in Colorado, called the numbers disappointing.
The vast majority – 91 percent, or 307,733 Colorado Medicare members now in the drug program, known as “Part D” – were automatically enrolled, said Eileen Doherty, president of the Colorado Gerontological Society.
Federal and military retirees, Medicare HMO members and private retirees with Medicare- approved drug benefits were immediately enrolled in Part D, unless they opted out. Low-income elderly and disabled covered by Medicaid were automatically assigned by the government to a Medicare drug plan.
In Colorado, only 14 percent of the 186,683 Medicare beneficiaries who must voluntarily choose to sign up for Part D have done so, according to federal health officials.
“We have 86 percent of the people that still have to be enrolled,” Doherty said. “When you look at all the time and money that’s gone into this, we haven’t even scratched the surface.
“How do we find these people? Who are they?” she asked.
There have been problems with the benefit plan’s startup, including a computer glitch that failed to identify millions of poor elderly as qualified for financial assistance.
Other Medicare beneficiaries have not yet been loaded into Medicare’s database. Seniors in some cases have had to pay cash for their medication until the system’s errors are fixed.
Joe Nuñez, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regional director, said staff at his agency have been working nights and weekends to solve the problems.
The department also has quadrupled the staff manning its pharmacist help line, Nuñez said.
“We will try to stay on top of it and help folks as quickly as we can,” he said. “Overall, the majority of the people we are getting enrolled with no problems, and the system seems to be working fine.”
Nationally, 24 million, or 58 percent, of Medicare’s 41 million members are now covered by the benefit, the health program’s largest expansion since 1965.
Staff writer Marsha Austin can be reached at 303-475-2796 or maustin@denverpost.com.
