Lincoln Holds Bush Admin. Accountable for Poor Performance in Implementation of Medicare Rx Drug Benefit

Lincoln Holds Bush Admin. Accountable for Poor Performance in Implementation of Medicare Rx Drug Benefit

U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) today told the top Bush Administration official charged with implementing the new Medicare prescription drug benefit that due to his agency's poor performance, states, pharmacists, seniors and people with disabilities have been forced to suffer.

A stern Lincoln addressed Dr. Mark McClellan, Director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), today at a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing and sought answers to the persisting problems caused by his agency's implementation of that law.

"I voted for adding this prescription drug benefit to Medicare, and I want it to work," Senator Lincoln told Director McClellan today. "I know it's not a perfect law, and I have voted several times in the last two years to improve it. But the beneficiaries that have encountered most of the problems are the most vulnerable- they're the sickest, many have disabilities and they have the least amount of means to get by without their medications.

"While everyone else in Medicare was given six months to enroll in a prescription drug plan, these most vulnerable beneficiaries were given only six weeks. It is obvious that these beneficiaries have experienced the most problems since January 1st, and I believe these problems were entirely predictable and avoidable. I voted to add six months to their transition period, but officials from your office [CMS] said that our amendment was unnecessary. You said that you were ready. Obviously, you weren't."

EMERGENCY RELIEF - To date, the state of Arkansas has spent $3.8 million on prescription medications to assist 17,000 Arkansans with problems encountered while accessing their medicine.

Last month, Lincoln sponsored two emergency bills in the Senate to provide much-needed federal reimbursement for states, pharmacies, and beneficiaries who have been forced to pay these out-of-pocket costs.

Lincoln told McClellan that had it not been for the kind-hearted and dedicated pharmacists in Arkansas, numerous low-income seniors would have had to forgo their life saving prescriptions and problems could have been that much worse.

"Pharmacists are not getting paid on time and have to take out loans to pay their bills and keep their doors open," Lincoln said. "Half the states, including Arkansas, have had to step in and fill in the blanks where CMS's transition plan has failed."

"These problems could have been avoided. And I feel that the Administration failed to fully prepare for the implementation of this new program even after repeated warnings from me and other members of Congress. But, now that we are in this situation, we must fix it. The government must not leave our most vulnerable seniors at the doorstep to fend for themselves. I want to work with CMS to fix these problems and avoid them in the future."

Lincoln's two emergency bills in the Senate would also provide additional protections for low-income Medicare beneficiaries and they require that all plans provide new enrollees with at least a 30-day supply of medications during their transition to Medicare.

http://lincoln.senate.gov/press_show.cfm?id=251123