Seniors must wait until November to switch drug plans - from Suddenly Senior]

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: Sun, September 3, 2006 6:35 pm frank--------Part D difficultySeniors must wait until November to switch drug plansBy Tom PolansekSTAFF WRITERELGIN COURIER NEWS(NOTE: FRANK KAISER'S VERY FIRST JOB OUT OF COLLEGE WAS WITH THIS NEWSPAPER)Prescription pill bottles and ointments lay around the living room inLouella Kawa's small apartment in Westwind Tower in Elgin.In the bedroom, there are liters of oxygen she uses at night to controlsleep apnea, a condition that stops people from breathing while theysleep.The medications and oxygen keep Kawa active and alive. But the retiredNavy nurse recently discovered she was being charged more money to get herhands on the prescriptions.As part of the federal government's new Medicare Part D program, she saidshe unknowingly signed up for a prescription drug plan from Humana thatcharged her more for medications than her previous insurance provider had."Older people like me, they get caught up in this stuff," Kawa said. "It'ssad."Indeed, others have found themselves in similar situations.Some senior citizens rushed to sign up for drug coverage under MedicarePart D before a May 15 deadline and later found there were better optionsavailable. Some have said they were confused about the details of theavailable plans and didn't fully realize what they were getting into.Stuck until NovemberBut most seniors unhappy with the plans they picked can't change insuranceproviders at will. Instead, they must wait until the beginning of an openenrollment period in November to switch plans.Chadron Stalkfleet, associate state director of community organizing forAARP Illinois, said she had heard about a small number of senior citizenswho wanted to ditch the insurance plans they picked for Medicare Part D."I think some people just wanted to make a decision and then realized thatthey can make a change later on," Stalkfleet said. "The anxieties havecalmed down a little bit and now they have some time to look at all theplans."Anyone who signed up for coverage under Medicare Part D can switch to anew plan from Nov. 15 to Dec. 31. During that time, people in plans thatare being discontinued also can choose new plans."Let's say you bought the Medicare drug insurance from Blue Cross andyou're not happy with how its working," said Kathy Nelson of SeniorServices Associates in Elgin. "You can switch starting Nov. 15."Stalkfleet said seniors who want to enroll in new coverage plans shouldcontact their desired insurance provider directly. The seniors then shouldbe automatically disenrolled from their previous plans.Senior citizens who are covered by Illinois Cares Rx, the state's healthprogram for low-income seniors, can change their plans all year up to onceeach month."If you switch during the open enrollment period, there are no penalties,"Stalkfleet said. "It's an opportunity very similar to your employerbenefits where you get that period each year where you can make changes.Then, you're locked in for another year."Help from higher upAs for Kawa, she said she didn't have to wait until November to disenrollfrom the Humana plan she didn't like.Along with contacting Humana representatives to complain, she said shetold employees of U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Yorkville, abouther problem and faxed President George W. Bush a letter asking for help.Eventually, the insurance company agreed to allow her to return to herformer insurance provider as of Sept. 1."They told me I had to wait," Kawa said about Humana. "Well, I jumped thechain of command."SCOTT M. BORT / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERLouella Kawa of Elgin sits in her apartment in Westwind Tower, where shetalks about the difficulty she's encountered switching her Medicare Part Dcoverage. Kawa, a retired Navy nurse, changed her Medicare Part D afterfinding out the coverage she initially chose was costing her more moneythan under her previous insurance provider.09/03/06**************************By helping to pay transmission costs, Universal Drugstore is proud tosponsor the Suddenly Senior Rx List e-mails and the importantinformation these emails provide. For more information on our sponsorplease visit their website http://www.UniversalDrugstore.com/.**************************To get the informative and funny Suddenly Senior weekly column,absolutely free, send blank e-mail to Get-ssNEW! Get the latest healthcare, Medicare and Canadian drug store newse-mailed almost every day, send blank e-mail toGet-rxnews(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material isdistributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest inreceiving the included information for research and educational purposes.Suddenly Senior has no affiliation whatsoever with theoriginator of this article nor is Suddenly Senior endorsed or sponsored bythe originator.)----------------------------Frank Kaiser frankhttp://www.suddenlysenior.com Since 1999, America's most trusted seniorcitizen Website. Read by over 1.73 million monthly.----------------------------We never mail intentionally to anyone who has not requested being on thelist. To remove yourself send an blank email toremove-rxlist