Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

CMS is reporting lower-than-expected membership figures.

For months Congressional Democrats and some policy analysts have charged that Medicare's Drug Discount Card program is ineffective and too confusing. And apparently seniors have been listening.

As of June 1, when the drug-card program began, 2.87 million seniors have signed on, according to the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services. About 2.4 million of those beneficiaries were automatically enrolled through their Medicare managed care plan. The Medicare reform bill of 2003 created the drug cards to make prescription drugs affordable for Medicare beneficiaries.

A June 3 Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that seniors either have significant doubts about the drug card's benefits or are unaware the program exists. These findings are based on interviews in May with 10 focus groups in Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Kan., and Washington, D.C. The seniors interviewed were also confused about Medicare's comprehensive drug benefit plan.

CMS administrator Mark B. McClellan said June 3 that the focus group's findings indicate seniors'opin-ions of the drug program "are based on misperceptions they are receiving," including from the media.

Kaiser reports that seniors'opinions of the program "are frequently shaped by the news and advertising environment, much of which they report as being negative." Beneficiaries'views improved somewhat when they were provided more detailed information about the bill, the foundation said.

"There's unquestionably a lot of misinformation out there," McClellan said. For example, he said seniors mistakenly believe that the reform bill will cut their benefits. "None are being taken away; there are only voluntary options," he said.

Lesson Learned: The old saying that "there is no such thing as bad publicity" apparently doesn't apply to Medicare's drug-card program.