Honest.
Your vehicle for savings is Medicare's Part D prescription plan, which helps eligible citizens with the cost of prescription drugs. More important is what Medicare officials call the “LIS,” or low-income subsidy, which can lead to coverage of 95 percent of prescription drug costs.
“In Montana, we estimate that there are at least 6,000 people eligible who aren't taking part,” said Debra Bowman, a CMS official who is traveling Montana this week to encourage participation. “And there are at least 1 million across the country.”
Of those 6,000 Montanans, more than 600 live in Missoula County, more than 700 live in Flathead County and more than 400 live in Ravalli County.
“There are a variety of reasons why people aren't taking advantage of the program, and we're doing outreach across all sorts of areas to try to find them,” said Bowman.
In fact, part of Bowman's tour of the state involves meeting with health care services and providers who encounter potential Part D users in their homes, churches and communities.
“It's not enough to just reach out through the media,” she said. “We need to reach the people who have day-to-day contact with people, and that can include home health care providers, parish nurses and aging service providers.”
Although the savings obviously differ based on individual needs, Bowman said people can easily save $2,500 a year by taking advantage of the LIS aspect of Part D.
“But the thing is, people have to sign up for it,” she said.
Fortunately, signing up is easy.
If you have a computer, it's easy to do online by going to www.ssa.gov. You only have to answer about a dozen questions, and you won't need to supply a bunch of supplemental documents such as bank statements.
If you'd rather, you can sign up in person at a local Social Security office. But you can also call and register by phone. In Montana, you can call toll-free at 1-800-551-3191.
If you qualify for Medicare Part A and/or Part B, you qualify for Part D benefits. But to qualify for the LIS, you need to have an annual income of less than $15,600 for a single person or $21,000 for a married couple living together.
You also need to have assets of less than $11,990 for a single person or $23,970 for a married couple.
Unlike Part D, which has specific enrollment times each year, you can apply for the LIS at any time, Bowman said.
“There's no need to wait for November, so we'd love to hear from people now,” she said.
Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com.
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Algie Piapot wrote on Sep 17, 2008 10:25 AM: