Part D Prescription Drug Plans: Which to Recommend? Which to Avoid?
 

We are in the process of researching Part D prescription drug plans to make a change in the upcoming open enrollment period (November 15-December 31); the one we're using now has proved to be horrific (Advantra Rx Premier Plus). Can anyone recommend plan(s) found to be good? And at the same time, can anyone say which plan(s) he/she had an awful time with (as we did with ours this past year)? Thanks for all positive suggestions and woeful tales of experiences!

Re: Part D Prescription Drug Plans: Which to Recommend? Which to Avoid?
 

We are at Medicare and chose the AARP Advance Prescription Plan. Just got the news yesterday that the price went up to $62.00+ , That is in NY I dont know how much is in Florida, I know the Supplemental is $250 per person in NY and $150 in Florida.

Re: Part D Prescription Drug Plans: Which to Recommend? Which to Avoid?
 

I am on Humana Prescription Drug Plan Enhanced Part D and have been very happy with it. The monthly premium actually went down this 2008 year very slightly from $23.50 to $23.20 monthly. But hey, that's better than increasing. Co payments have gone down also. I order a 3 month preferred brand drug from a mail order pharmacy which happens to be Walmart and the co payments will drop from $75 for 3 month supply to $62.50 this coming year. You have your choices of mail order pharmacies as well. They have a large formulary structure of drugs to choose from.

Re: Part D Prescription Drug Plans: Which to Recommend? Which to Avoid?
 

I've used Wellcare and have no complaints. They've been responsive when a problem arose and the price is good. The best thing for you to do is to go on the Medicare.gov site and enter your prescriptions and it will provide you with the best options.

Re: Part D Prescription Drug Plans: Which to Recommend? Which to Avoid?
 

Yes, I definitely agree - use the Medicare.gov site to find the best plan. That is what I did and found out Humana was the best plan for me with the prescriptions I took. The site shows all the plans in your coverage area and lets you compare them side by side.

Re: Part D Prescription Drug Plans: Which to Recommend? Which to Avoid?
 

Thanks for the suggestions! We HAVE used the <medicare.gov> site; what we're finding is that with our list of meds it offered us 128 plans to pick from--overwhelming! On top of this, the plan we have now, which has been such a disaster for us, is one of the recommended ones, so looking at this list there's no way to know which plans might 'on paper' appear to be suitable for us, only to have it turn out not to be so because of changes they can make. Remember, the way Plan D was created by the Congress and signed by the president several years ago, WE CONSUMERS have only this one opportunity a year--during open enrollment period between November 15 and December 31--to make a change, while THE COMPANIES have 'carte blanche' to change their formularies, their guidelines, their copays, in fact anything and everything (except for the premium we pay) as often as they like in the course of the year (something which a lot of people don't realize). That's why I put up the post: to see if we can get suggestions not only about which plans have worked well but also which, like ours, have been a real pill (no pun intended...).

Re: Part D Prescription Drug Plans: Which to Recommend? Which to Avoid?
 

My husband and I use Wellcare. We each pay 17.80/month and NO Co-Pay.


PS Had to modify this. We just got a notice that for 2008, we will play $23.30/month. No co-Pay. I went through the Medicare site again. For us, this is still the least expensive.

Re: Part D Prescription Drug Plans: Which to Recommend? Which to Avoid?
 

my aarp plan d enhanced is 27.xx a month and i find ordering refills online efficient. for 6 dollars per order i opted for2nd day air ups delivery from their mail order pharmacy.usps delivery is free i believe.
when i have one time special prescriptions i use my plan d at one of 3 or 4 local walgreen's stores.

Re: Part D Prescription Drug Plans: Which to Recommend? Which to Avoid?
 

If I remember correctly, Medicare.gov doesn't give you a lot of equal recommendations, they list them in order of cost/coverage, i.e. the best is first followed by other choices in descending desirability.

Re: Part D Prescription Drug Plans: Which to Recommend? Which to Avoid?
 

I have Community Care and have no complaints. ($33.per month) My pharmacist also commented how good it was when I was picking up my scripts.
I would recommend that you first call medicare for their assistance. They will ask you what medications you are taking and recommend which plans will work the best for you.
Good luck, I know how frustration all this can be.

Re: Part D Prescription Drug Plans: Which to Recommend? Which to Avoid?
 

Villager99: The AARP part D-Enhanced is over $50.00 in NY and they just announced an increase for 2008, besides they pay very little mostly if you request name brand name prescriptions intead of generic which are the ones they push because of the profit on them.
The AARP Plan J (Supplementary) is $250 in NY and $150 in Florida.

Re: Part D Prescription Drug Plans: Which to Recommend? Which to Avoid?
 

Hi all, thanks for your suggestions. In the end I used the personalized medicare.gov site individually for myself and my wife, only to discover that the two of us were better off with different plans--wholly unexpected. I enrolled us in the two different plans for 2008 and are pleased to be leaving the horror of a company we were with in 2007. We just hope the two new plans work better than the old one.

Along the way, after I had done a ton of research, I visited the Office for the Aging for some help with this, only to find that the volunteer knew less than I did at that point. She explained that the people who come to her are primarily elderly people who have no understanding of how the plans work, have no access to computers, are overwhelmed in general, are sometimes already cutting their pills into quarters to 'stretch' how long their prescriptions will last, and at worst sometimes have to make the choice between heating and eating. I told her that if we lived closer to their offices and we weren't constantly traveling, I'd be volunteering there!

For those of us who have access to the Internet and know how to do research and seek information, it's sort of manageable. But for so many who aren't savvy and don't have access to these kinds of data, this Part D plan, according to the volunteer, has been nothing but a nightmare and a boondoggle that's great for the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. Sad....

Re: Part D Prescription Drug Plans: Which to Recommend? Which to Avoid?
 

The first year of Part D, my husband and I had different plans do to the different meds we were taking. I used the Medicare.gov site for both of us.