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Special coverage: Medicare

Volunteers help wade through the red tape

By THOMAS LAKE
Published April 25, 2006

	[Times photo: Zach Boyden-Holmes]
	Adrienne Montagnino of Port Richey listens to Medicare educator Frank Carroll of Indian Shores explain Medicare Part D options recently at the Kmart in Hudson. My Medicare Matters offers free help to people puzzling over Part D prescription drug plans.

Leclerc, a 78-year-old former cake decorator, recently found out that her Florida-based plan would expire if she left the state for more than two months at a time. She needed help to find out which of her 44 government-approved options would actually work.

"There's so many plans to pick from," she said. "It is very confusing."

Now it makes more sense. On a Saturday earlier this month, Leclerc got help from My Medicare Matters, a team of educators who have been roving Tampa Bay and 43 other metro areas nationwide to offer free advice to seniors on navigating the Medicare prescription drug maze.

Leclerc found the team at Kmart on U.S. 19. The advisers were set up at portable tables in an aisle between the shampoo and the throw pillows. She sat down with Francine Wolf, a former elementary school teacher who lives in Clearwater.

Wolf had a laptop computer with wireless Internet access logged on to the Medicare Web site. She typed Leclerc's ZIP code and a list of her medications into the computer, and up popped a list of drug plan options. She gave Leclerc printouts on several potential winners.

Leclerc took them home, checked them out and returned that afternoon to sign up for a plan that would cover her prescription needs from coast to coast.

She was one of more than 25 people who got advice from the advisory team that day. Questions tend to range from gap coverage to late-enrollment penalties to the price differences from one pharmacy to the next. Individual consultations can last up to an hour.

"We don't rush people," Wolf said.

Around 2 p.m., Stanley Grzegorski, a 78-year-old retired police officer from Spring Hill, stopped near Wolf's table.

"Do you need help with Medicare Part D?" she said.

"Yeah," he said with a wink, "can I get my medication free or what?"

Without hesitation, Wolf listed his options.

[Last modified April 25, 2006, 15:41:28]