Patients look to doctors for help on Medicare drug plans

Confusion reigns for seniors as Medicare drug programs begin the process of signing up beneficiaries.

By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. Dec. 5, 2005.

Washington -- Physicians who have not yet heard questions from their senior patients about whether or how to sign up for a Medicare drug plan may start hearing them soon.

The plans that have contracted with the federal government to offer drug benefits starting next year began signing up beneficiaries Nov. 15. But mere days before the enrollment launch, the Kaiser Family Foundation released a survey concluding that most seniors still didn't know what they would be getting into by joining a plan.

More than 60% of the seniors surveyed said they understood the upcoming benefit "not too well" or "not at all," according to the foundation. More than one in three seniors continued to have an unfavorable impression of the prescription drug coverage even after the months that federal officials and other groups spent promoting the new Medicare Part D. And many seniors who remain confused about what they should do are liable to turn to their doctors for help, the Kaiser survey found. Nearly one-third of seniors said they very likely would seek physician assistance in tackling drug benefit questions, and 65% expected their doctors to be very or somewhat knowledgeable about the plan choices that beneficiaries are facing.

All of this adds up to a tricky situation if physicians don't know what to tell their patients, said Mollyann Brodie, PhD, director of public opinion and media research at Kaiser.

"Many seniors expect to lean heavily on their doctors and pharmacists to help guide them through their many options," she said. "If this proves unrealistic, their frustration could create an implementation challenge."