Few Apply for Medicare Drug Coverage
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WASHINGTON - Far from the expected deluge, relatively few patients with cancer and other serious illnesses have applied for generous early Medicare prescription drug coverage.    The Bush administration was planning a lottery to determine who would get the 50,000 slots included in last year's Medicare prescription drug law...
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WASHINGTON - A day before the first presidential debate, the government's health policy watchdog raised concerns that early mailings to seniors about the new Medicare prescription discount cards championed by President Bush were confusing or inadequate.   "We found that these beneficiaries received very little mail from drug card sponsors that would enable them to make an informed choice among cards," the Health and Human Services Department inspector general wrote in the Sept...
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MONDAY, Jan. 10 (HealthDayNews) -- Less than half of the Medicare patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer had any screening in the six months before being diagnosed, troubling new research shows.
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THURSDAY, Jan. 31 (HealthDay News)  -- The three-year-old Medicare Part D drug program is seeing the number of its enrollees climb, even as costs for the program fall, U.S. health officials announced Thursday.
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The less medicine they take, the less likely the elderly were to enroll in a new Medicare drug plan, a signal that many senior citizens still don't view the program as insurance in case their health deteriorates.
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The Medicare prescription drug benefit enacted in December has not provided the political boost among seniors that the White House expected, according to a survey released Tuesday.
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TUESDAY, Aug. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Despite high enrollment in the Medicare prescription drug plan, many who signed up now feel dissatisfied with Medicare because of their experiences with the cumbersome process of choosing coverage plans.
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Americans who previously had no health  insurance rack up some expensive medical bills once they are  old enough to be covered by Medicare, researchers said on  Wednesday.
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Most seniors and the disabled selected Medicare drug plans with a significant gap in coverage and Democratic lawmakers say that's because bridging it would have cost them, on average, nearly $40 a month more.
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In just over a year, the 1.5 million US citizens who live in nursing homes will become eligible for the new prescription-drug benefit that is a part of the newly revamped Medicare law.
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Nearly 24 million Americans are enrolled in Medicare Part D prescription drug plans, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said on Tuesday.
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Low-income seniors and working families without prescription drug coverage can begin applying for a state discount card. The card will cut the cost of their medication by an average 20 percent a month.
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Advocacy groups for older people and the disabled urged lawmakers on Wednesday to let more people enroll in the Medicare drug plan this year without penalty.
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Only about 10 percent of people who are suitable candidates for two drugs received one of them last year.
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WASHINGTON Aug. 19, 2004 - Insurers and drug makers are battling over how the government should set rules for insurers to use in deciding which medicines to cover in the Medicare prescription drug program.
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Some 160,000 low-income Missourians on Medicare will get cards in the mail by mid-October making them automatically eligible for prescription discounts on the Medicare Drug Discount card.
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TUESDAY, Aug. 24 (HealthDayNews) -- Seniors in insurance plans with caps on drug coverage often cut back on essential medications when they reach that cap, a new study says.