1. Mrs. West wears glasses and dentures and
Security check.
has enjoyed considerable pain relief from
What should you tell
arthritis through acupuncture. She is con-
him?
cerned about whether or not Medicare
will cover these items and services. What
should you tell her?
2. Mr. Bickford did not quite qualify for the
extra help low-income subsidy under the
Medicare Part D Prescription Drug pro-
gram and he is wondering if there is any
other option he has for obtaining help with
his considerable drug costs. What should
you tell him?
3. Mr. Lombardi is interested in a Medicare
Advantage (MA) PPO plan that you repre-
sent. It is one of three plans operated by
the same organization in Mr. Lombardi's
area. The MA PPO plan does not include
drug coverage, but the other two plans
do. Mr. Lombardi likes the PPO plan that
does not include drug coverage and in-
tends to obtain his drug coverage through
a stand-alone Medicare prescription drug
plan. What should you tell him about this
situation?
4. Mr. Torres has a small savings account. He
would like to pay for his monthly Part D
premiums with an automatic monthly with-
drawal from his savings account until it
is exhausted, and then have his premiums
, Medicare does not cover acupuncture, or, in
general, glasses or dentures.
He could check with the man- ufacturers of his
medications to see if they offer an assis- tance
program to help people with limited means
obtain the medications they need. Alter-
natively, he could check to see whether his state
has a phar- macy assistance program to help
him with his expenses.
He could enroll in one of the MA plans that
include prescription drug coverage or a
Medigap plan and a
stand-alone prescription drug plan, but he
cannot enroll in the MA-only PPO plan and a
stand-alone prescription drug plan.
In general, he must select a single Part D
premium pay- ment mechanism that will be
used throughout the year.