newjerseynewsroom.com

69,098 receive 50 percent discount on prescription drugs

BY TOM HESTER SR.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

A total of 727,809 New Jersey Medicare recipients had their health checked or received other preventive services with no deductible or cost sharing during the first eight months of the year, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reported Friday.

In addition, 69,098 New Jerseyans with Medicare have received discounts on brand-name drugs in the Medicare Part D coverage gap, also known as the "donut hole," between January and August.

The total value of discounts this year to people with Medicare in the donut hole in New Jersey is $45,327,286, with an average savings of $656 per person.

“Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, more people with Medicare are getting preventive services like mammograms for free,” U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said. “The new health care law is also making prescription drugs more affordable for millions of seniors and people with disabilities.”

Some of the free preventive services available to people with Medicare include mammograms and cervical cancer screenings, an annual wellness visit, cholesterol and cardiovascular screenings, and colorectal and prostate cancer screenings.

A total of 129,271 New Jersey women took advantage of the free mammograms.

The rising numbers of people who are taking advantage of preventive benefits and prescription drug discounts comes as people with Medicare are beginning to review their plan options for next year. The popular web-based Medicare Plan Finder is now available to help beneficiaries, their families, other caregivers, and senior program advocates look at all local drug and health plan options that are available for the 2012 benefit year.

The annual enrollment period begins earlier this year than last year, on Oct. 15, and runs through Dec. 7. People with Medicare will have seven weeks to review Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription drug coverage benefits and plan options, and choose the option that best meets their unique needs or keep the plan they have today. The earlier open enrollment period also ensures that Medicare has enough time to process plan choices so that coverage can begin without interruption on Jan. 1.

Every person with a Medicare Advantage or a Part D drug plan will also see better value in those plans for the second year in a row. Average Part D drug plan premiums will remain virtually unchanged in 2012. In New Jersey, 95.5 percent of people have access to a plan with a lower premium than they paid in 2011. Those in the Part D coverage gap, or donut hole, will continue to be able to get discounts on covered brand name drugs in the donut hole. People with Medicare will get deeper discounts in the years ahead until the gap is closed in 2020. On average, Medicare Advantage premiums will be 4 percent lower in 2012 than in 2011, and plans project enrollment to increase by 10 percent.

In New Jersey, 100 percent of people with Medicare have access to a Medicare Advantage plan that doesn’t charge a premium. All beneficiaries will have access to Medicare-covered preventive services with zero cost-sharing, including the Annual Wellness Visit, bone-mass measurement, colon cancer screenings, and diabetes screenings, as well as influenza and pneumococcal vaccines, to name a few.

To access the Medicare Plan Finder, go to: https://www.medicare.gov/find-a-plan/.

For more information about how the Affordable Care Act closes the donut hole over time visit: http://www.medicare.gov/Publications/Pubs/pdf/11493.pdf

For state-by-state information on utilization of free preventive services and the Annual Wellness Visit, go to: http://www.cms.gov/NewMedia/02_preventive.asp

For more information on Medicare’s prevention benefits, go to the Share the News. Share the Health! website: http://www.medicare.gov/share-the-health/or call 1-800-MEDICARE.