Advocacy

I've always believed someone has to advocate for children.

Now I'm realizing how much the elderly need an advocate. And the really scary part is that I'm heading in that direction myself. OMG!

My issue today was Medicare Part D. This is the drug part of Medicare. I'm discovering that every year the Medicare patient needs to re-apply for Part D because coverage changes on medication and possibly the current plan is not the most economical.

Now I am not on Medicare, yet, but am an advocate for my dad.

He had no idea he had to reapply each year. His sister, my 85 year old aunt, is the one to inform us.

Yup, I felt stupid.

So she took his med list to Eloise at SHIP. (I don't know what that stands for.)

And today I did a follow up call to Eloise. Well two of his medications will not be covered under his current plan next year. So we need to do one of the following:

1) Change medications
2) Change plans

Well, #2 she can take care of, but I need to discover if he can change meds. So I have to make some calls.

I call the nurse at his Assisted Living Residence. She confirms he takes these medications and then says she will contact his doctor to see if he can change.

She gets back to me and he can change one but not the other. I'm still confused. Do I make the medication change before I know which plan he will be on, because I have TWO medications to change and it appears I need a plan that will accept both. So which do I arrange first, the plan or the medication? It's kind of like cart before horse, chicken before egg. She doesn't seem to get the humor or  frustration I'm feeling. ARGH!

She does tell me perhaps I should call the pharmacy and maybe they can help with medications.

So I contact Emily who handles the medications for his Assisted Living and as I'm going through my cart before horse dilemma (and she doesn't find this humorous either, ye gads, where has humor gone?) she very innocently says, "Do you know we handle this for our customers and we help them find the best plan?"

Well, of course I do not know this information. So I get on the phone with Val who says, "Oh, I've been looking at your dad's list of medications and I think we can save him $2000 a year."

$2000?

OMG, I hit the jackpot of assistance.

So I make an appointment to go over the list of meds and the plan with her next week. And she will sign him up.

Then I call up Eloise and tell her to take Dad off her list of patients to help, the pharmacy will be helping him. She almost sounded like I had offended her, kind of like I had chosen a different best friend. (She's a volunteer BTW so this is not a paid/commission position)

Ok, the problem is going to be solved and it really didn't take THAT much work, however, it amazes me at how complicated it is and that in general we, the able bodied lay person, cannot figure it out on our own. We need someone with a computer program and we are putting our trust in their best judgment.

What about the elderly who have no advocate? What about the alzheimer patient? The physically immobile? The blind? OMG, what sort of world am I heading into?

I shudder to think about the possibilities. And just so my family knows, I want to be outta here before I get THERE!