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Monday, November 21, 2005Nursing home operators are preparing to deal with dozens of different companies and potentially shell out money to get medicine for their sick and frail residents. Starting Jan. 1, a majority of nursing home residents are being switched to new Medicare prescription drug benefits known as Medicare Part D plans. ....``It is going to be difficult for them to keep track of all this,'' said Peter Van Runkle, president and chief executive of the Ohio Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes. And if a Medicare Part D plan won't cover a patient's medicines, nursing homes could get stuck footing the bill until an appeal is worked out, said Jeannie Williams, executive director of St. Luke Lutheran Community. The not-for-profit business includes a 202-bed nursing home in North Canton. ``If a family signs someone up for a plan that has items on there that are not covered by the formulary, we are responsible for providing medication,'' she said. ``... It's going to be a challenge.'' Ugh. The provider gets penalized for the choice of the consumer. Does that make sense? Even worse, the nursing homes can't direct them to the correct plan: But federal rules forbid nursing homes from telling patients or their families which plan to choose, Van Runkle said. ``The federal government has been pretty clear that they do not want nursing home providers steering patients to a particular plan,'' he said. Nursing homes can share information about which plans are contracting with the pharmacy that the facility uses, said Thomas Clark, director of policy and advocacy for the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP), a nonprofit organization whose members are pharmacists that specialize in geriatrics. They can't, however, analyze the plans and then tell residents which one is best, Clark said. Catch 22. posted by Sydney on 11/21/2005 07:53:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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