Quote Excerpt:
"In 2000, for Y2K, we were practicing running systems for a year," he said, referring to computer preparations for the coming of the new millennium. "They started this up cold turkey."
Social workers and advocates have warned for months that moving the most vulnerable patients to a new program would require a slower, phased-in approach.
"All of the worst predictions came true," said Robert M. Hayes, president of the Medicare Rights Center. Many of the thousands of callers contacting the center said they were being told that the insurance plan they were assigned by the federal government does not cover their medications, he said.
If that occurs, pharmacists have been instructed to provide a one-month "transitional" supply until a doctor can prescribe a similar drug that is covered by the plan, McClellan said. In addition, CMS has devised a 14-step enrollment process for pharmacists, he said.
Baltimore Health Commissioner Joshua M. Sharfstein and his staff have personally been assisting pharmacies with that effort. "I don't think we have yet successfully counseled a pharmacist through that," he said.
"We've been doing enrollments and they have not taken less than an hour and a half" each, said MaryAnn Griffin, director of Alexandria's Office of Aging and Adult Services. She recently joined a CMS teleconference briefing but found that it was a "listen-only, completely scripted" event that did not address the myriad problems her staff is confronting.
From the outset, administration officials have said they would rely on states, doctors, family members and volunteers to help seniors negotiate the new system. But Anne Marie Murphy, Illinois's Medicaid director, said the CMS should be resolving the current problems.
"It's a little ironic that Congress and the administration are talking about cutting Medicaid administrative costs, and here we are rolling up our sleeves and doing all we can to make sure a federal program is working," she said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...&referrer=email
There are many more details in the complete article and I see a similar one in the HEALTH topic.
lenal
