Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Deane Beebe
Communications Director
212-204-6219
Medicare Rights CenterNovember 28, 2005
National Hotline Launched for Professionals Assisting Clients with New Medicare Drug Benefit --Medicare Rights Center Provides Telephone Support to Social Service and Health Care Professionals-- New York, NY - The Medicare Rights Center is launching an independent dedicated hotline to provide assistance to professionals who are helping older adults and people with disabilities understand and enroll in the new Medicare prescription drug benefit.
"Now professionals have an excellent, unbiased resource just a phone call away," said Robert M. Hayes, president of the Medicare Rights Center, a national consumer group. "Trained staff will assist professionals with this complex drug benefit, so they can serve their clients more effectively."
The hotline will offer free and expert information about the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, including tips on how to apply for the "extra help" to pay for the benefit, how to pick a drug plan, and how the Medicare drug benefit works with state pharmaceutical assistance programs and other drug coverage. The professional hotline is available Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. (EST) at 1-877-RxHELP0 (1-877-794-3570).
"Social service and health care professionals are stranded on the frontline struggling to understand this benefit, while trying to assist older and disabled Americans desperately in need of medications," said Mr. Hayes. "Our staff provides consumer-friendly information in a timely manner, helping professionals so they can help others."
People with Medicare have been advised by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to seek help from someone they know and trust to understand the new Medicare drug benefit. The hotline was created to support social workers and health care professionals in need of guidance themselves on the drug benefit.
The Medicare Rights Center anticipates that the professional Medicare drug benefit hotline will handle 2,000 calls in the coming year. The professional hotline has been made possible with support from the Brookdale Foundation, a funder without financial interests in the Medicare drug program.