Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Drug Plans

About thirty years ago, all of my peers would become irritable when our children’s science fair projects were due. Constructing the display board was not an easy job unless you were a skilled carpenter. The three-sided display board didn’t come onto the market until our kids were in college.

The annual stress of yesteryear's science project has been replaced by today’s mandatory yearly reevaluating of my friends and my Medicare Part D coverage. We need to make sure our current carrier of Medicare Part D – the drug prescription program – meets our current needs. You see, individual carriers change their rules and prices every year.

When the program first started, all I had to do was call 1-800- Medicare, and a nice person took all my information – meaning all the drugs hubby and I take on a regular basis – and magically told me what carrier was best for each of us. And, what was most amazing for a government agency, they were right. This year that has changed. Every time I’ve called, the person on the phone told me something else or gave me misinformation.

To show you how this is wearing me down, yesterday when I called a carrier to verify the information the government gave me, I asked the man on the phone if GPS was one of the local pharmacies on the plan. After several minutes, the person said, “Miss, I can’t find any pharmacy by that name.”

Then I realized what I asked him and laughed. That night, while I packed for Thanksgiving in New York, hubby handed me his favorite navigational device. “Oh, the CVS,” I said.

He looked at me as if I was nuts. I wasn’t. Just tired and I still haven’t figured which plan is best!

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