Officials seek to resolve new drug plan problems

AUGUSTA – Federal officials said Tuesday they are working with the state and pharmacists to resolve problems faced by elderly and disabled Mainers as they switch from state prescription drug programs to Medicare Part D.

The Boston regional office of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is working to avert any interruption in services for those said to be most directly affected by the transition. They include the 45,000 Mainers eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare, many of whom can’t get the drugs they need.

Also affected are people in the Drugs for Maine’s Elderly program who are now faced with large copays.

A change under consideration is to make payments for drugs from the prescription drug plans directly to the state instead of from the drug plans to pharmacists when people go to have their prescriptions filled, said spokeswoman Roseanne Pawelec of the federal Medicare office.

This would help the state to recoup money it says it’s losing by providing emergency pharmacy benefits to people who stand to lose services they had under state programs, said Jude Walsh, who deals with drug issues in the Governor’s Office of Health Policy and Finance.

The Medicare office, which is part of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, “said it would work with us to reconcile the costs,” said Walsh. Neither federal nor state officials would estimate what those costs might be.

Pawelec said state and federal officials are working toward a common goal of making sure all of the Mainers who need their prescription medicines get them.