1-800-OOPS

[Southpaw Bookworm]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62365-2004Dec13.html

MEDICARE, THE government health insurance program for seniors, is extraordinarily complex, and it is about to become even more so with the introduction of prescription drug plans. To help the nation's seniors navigate their way through the Medicare maze, administration officials like to tout the program's toll-free help line. "That's all you've got to do: pick up the phone, 1-800-MEDICARE," President Bush assured seniors in June. "And . . . 24 hours a day, seven days a week, somebody will be there to help and answer questions."

Well, sort of. Callers to the help line got accurate answers only 61 percent of the time, according to a new study by the Government Accountability Office. Of the remainder, 29 percent were given erroneous or incomplete information -- and 10 percent of the calls weren't answered at all, as callers were disconnected or transferred to private contractors that weren't open. By contrast, according to another GAO study, the Internal Revenue Service help line came up with correct answers about 90 percent of the time.

Some of the bungled Medicare responses were worthy of Emily Litella. One customer service representative answered a question about whether Medicare would cover a power wheelchair by saying that depended on whether the beneficiary's car had adequate trunk space. In fact, coverage depends on whether the senior has enough "trunk strength" to operate a manual wheelchair. Never mind.

Representatives answered accurately 76 percent of the time when helping seniors choose one of the new prescription drug discount cards. But to a test question about whether a senior's income was low enough to qualify for the new $600 prescription drug credit, representatives answered incorrectly 79 percent of the time, mostly because they failed to consider that some types of incomes shouldn't be included in the calculation. The GAO found that the scant, two-week training "is not sufficient to ensure that are able to answer questions accurately"; they are cleared to handle calls if they answer only two consecutive questions correctly out of six.

Love the anecdote about "trunk strength." Once again, the philosophy of seeking the lowest bidder shows the relationship between quality and cost.

:wow:

[tk2kewl]

1. New # 1-800-ON-UR-OWN

good luck!

[Southpaw Bookworm]

2. That's exactly it

The Post did an article in its health section a few months ago about the new Medicare card and the problems people were having deciphering all of the option information. It elicited a LTTE from a physician who was helping her mother fill out the forms: She was unable to figure it out. If a doctor can't do it, how is an elderly person with a high school education who spent most of their lives in the coal mines or the kitchen supposed to?