Posted: Sunday, November 30, 2003 12:00 am
CHEYENNE (AP) - Newly passed Medicare legislation will help Wyoming's low-income seniors but could affect prescription drug costs for another segment of the population, state health officials said.
"The bill is not perfect," AARP state director Rita Inoway said. "But it opens the door to other changes. Our country had to get started working on this problem."
The $395 billion bill pushed by President Bush and GOP leaders in Congress includes a new prescription drug benefit for 40 million older and disabled Americans. The Senate passed it on Tuesday, just days after narrow approval in the House.
Besides helping seniors, the legislation should also make it easier for physicians to afford treating Medicare patients due to an increase in reimbursement rates.
Benefits for Medicare beneficiaries include:
n Access to a Medicare prescription drug benefit in January 2006 for all 68,626 beneficiaries in Wyoming.
n Eligibility for Medicare-approved prescription drug discount cards that could save residents between 10 and 25 percent.
n Up to $600 in annual assistance for Medicare beneficiaries with incomes less than 135 percent of federal poverty levels. That's about $18.8 million in help for 15,713 Wyoming residents in the next two years.
n Medicare, instead of Medicaid, will assume prescription drug costs for the 6,944 beneficiaries eligible for both programs, which should save Wyoming $25 million over the next eight years.
Medicaid director Iris Oleske, however, said she is worried about seniors with more moderate drug costs of about $3,000 a year. Under the bill, they would no longer get help from the federal government.
"We know there's not a whole lot of people who are in that range, but honestly, I don't know what's going to happen to them under this," she said.
Oleske is also concerned about a new burden on the Wyoming Department of Family Services to determine which low-income residents will be eligible for federal subsidies under the new prescription drug program.
Others, however, are thrilled with the bill's increase in Medicare reimbursement rates for physicians. The rates will jump by 1.5 percent in 2004, rather being cut by 5 percent as many expected.
"This was a factor that made many doctors say 'I can't afford to see Medicare patients anymore,"' Wyoming Medical Society Executive Director Wendy Curran said. "This will ease that problem."
The increased reimbursement rates should also ease the financial burden of many Wyoming hospitals, particularly those in rural areas.