Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit (Part D) Update 5-3-05

A Dear Tribal Leader Letter (see Adobe Acrobat attachment, it will also be available at ihs.gov on May 4th) on the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit (Part D) is being mailed this week to Tribal leaders about the benefit and steps they will need to take to prepare for contracting with plans and to announce the training programs in May and June 2005 (it is suggested that all IHS and Tribal staff be familiar with this document). The Indian Health Service (IHS), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Tribal Technical Advisory Group (TTAG) and CMS staffs have been developing Outreach and Education training programs to train I/T/U sites about the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Benefit. Two in-person trainings will take place in each IHS area in 2005. The first trainings will start in May 2005 and will educate staff about the benefit, the contracting process, how to assist beneficiaries in completing the Social Security Low Income Subsidy (now called “Extra Help”) paperwork and how sites can prepare for outreach and education efforts for their local beneficiaries. Please contact your IHS Area Office Point of Contact for the final training date and location.

A second training will take place in each IHS area in September 2005. This training will provide a final update on approved plans, give additional information about auto enrollment of dual eligible beneficiaries and provide an update on claims processing using the IHS Point of Sale billing package. In addition to the formal training sessions, IHS and CMS plan 3 or 4 nationwide conference calls to provide updates and allow Service Unit staff the opportunity to ask questions and bring up issues. A question and answer section will be added to both the IHS and CMS Medicare websites where Tribes and staff can go to see questions and answers from the conference calls and from staff who have contacted IHS headquarters or CMS.

The CMS is working closely with IHS through the National Indian Health Board (http://www.nihb.org/) and CMS TTAG (http://www.cmsttag.org/) to provide education and outreach on the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit for AI/ANs. The following websites provide information about the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit.

• CMS American Indian and Alaska Native Website http://www.cms.hhs.gov/aian/default.asp
  
  
• Information about IHS for Part D Sponsors http://www.cms.hhs.gov/pdps/IHS_Overview.pdf
  
  
• Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit http://www.cms.hhs.gov/medicarereform/pdbma/general.asp
  
  
• Model Addenda for Pharmacy Agreements with I/T/U Programs
  
  • Indian Health Service Pharmacies http://www.cms.hhs.gov/pdps/ihsaddendum021605.pdf
    
    
  • Tribal Indian Health Pharmacies http://www.cms.hhs.gov/pdps/ituaddendum021605.pdf
    
    
• IHS Pharmacy Issues http://www.ihs.gov/MedicalPrograms/PharmacyIssues/, click on “Medicare and Medicaid”