Millions of seniors may soon have to pay out of pocket for
prescriptions that used to be covered by Medicare.
The new Medicare prescription plan has a coverage gap.
The gap varies, but here's what it looks like under the standard Medicare plan:
Once drug costs reach $2,250, seniors pay 100 percent of their drug
costs, up to $5,100, when Medicare catastrophic coverage kicks in.
The people at Medicare suggested seniors keep using their Medicare
insurance program, but for some seniors, that is just not an option.
Sol Salkovitz said that lately he has come to depend on Medicare to
pay for costly medications.
Salkovitz's wife had a stroke. Medical expenses pushed her into the
Medicare prescription drug coverage gap. So, instead of a co-pay,
Salkovitz had to pick up the entire cost of the drug.
"How do you say no? How do you skip? You can't skip. You wake up every
day and say, 'Thank God I'm here," Salkovitz said.
Salkovitz went in search of cheaper drugs and he ended up at Adams
Discount Pharmacy. Adams is a cash pharmacy, meaning it accepts no
insurance.
"We buy it cheaply and only mark it up a few dollars. We keep it at a
lower price, a discounted price. The most savings are for generics --
deep discounts," said Adam Shubbar of Adams Discount Pharmacy.
But the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services say seniors should
not go looking for cheaper drugs, but stick with their Medicare drug
card.
"You're getting those deep discounts the plan's negotiated. In
addition, the plan is tracking what you're spending out of pocket so
the plan will notify you when you reach that catastrophic limit," said
Nancy O'Conner of the Philadelphia Regional Office for the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Without using a card, seniors must track the drug expenses themselves
and then send copies of the receipts to their Medicare drug plan.
But some say that buying pills on the plan is just too expensive.
Labels: No Prescription, Online Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs
# posted by Network @ 9:10 PM
