California Health Insurance News 
Articles / Medicare Plan D - Huge confusion as vendors process applications
01/17/2006
Even further confusion is occurring as twenty percent of senior citizens find that their medication is not covered by their chosen or assigned Medicare Part D Plan. It was announced on TV late last week that one in five seniors felt they had been short changed but a spokesman for a large retail pharmacy said that many seniors had not checked to see if the particular version of Medicare Part D that they had selected, covered their regular medication.
The confusion is further complicated by the fact that there is a huge backlog in processing the applications that have been sent in to the many Insurance Companies that are servicing Plan D and a shortage of manpower to cope with the flood of enrollments. A representative of one of the leading insurance companies said that they are still processing applications from November 2005.
"Since Medicare Part D was first announced," said David Thau, CEO and founder of 'Keep It Simple Insurance' and experienced insurance advisor in Southern California, "we recommended to seniors to take their time and ask as many questions as they felt necessary so they had the data on which to base an informed decision when choosing their Medicare Part D plan. Many did not fully understand the complexities and therefore just took a chance that most plans were the same. The result is that they now have to reevaluate and find out which plan will suit their needs best and go through a complicated process to change their plan." Thau added "That is why we have been advocating that seniors go to their personal agent or broker who is familiar with his or her circumstances before deciding on any specific plan."
It will be some time before the confusions and complexities if Medicare Part D will be resolved. Penalties only start to accrue after May 15th 2006 so there is still a fair amount of time to sort out the glitches and for the companies to catch up on their administrative actions. In the mean time, seniors are strongly urged to contact their insurance agent or broker to make sure that their individual needs are covered by the Medicare part D plan that they have selected.
