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Medicare Part D
Arlene Okamoto
50+ Health Connection/
Senior Services
Coordinator
The following seminars are
free
.
Both seminars are presented in
English free of charge at the Arcadia
Community Center, 365 Campus Drive,
in Arcadia. For reservations, please call
626-574-5130
. No seminar is sched-
uled in August.
Making End-of-Life Decisions
Tuesday, July 24
1:30–2:30 p.m.
Brenda Simonds, Director,
Methodist Hospital Spiritual Care;
Wendy Kohlhase, PhD, Bioethics
Consultant; Pamela Wright, VITAS
Community Liaison
If you were ill or injured and unable to
speak for yourself, what kind of medi-
cal care would you want and whom
would you want to speak for you?
Advance directives help convey your
wishes and decisions to your fam-
ily, friends and health-care providers.
It is not always easy to decide what
you want or whom you would like to
speak on your behalf. While all ad-
vance directives are helpful, not all
advance directives are legally binding.
The panel will identify what makes an
advance directive legally binding and
what considerations should be made
in creating an advance directive that
works for you.
Our panel of experts will discuss the
various advance directives, what a “Do
Not Resuscitate” order means and
the new POLST form that facilitates
the continuity of health care. They
will explain what each does and how
they work, and they will answer your
questions on what you should have in
place to help avoid confusion later on.
Osteoporosis—The Silent Disease
Tuesday, Sept. 25
1:30–2:30 p.m.
Loanne Tran, MD, internal medicine
In the United States, over 44 million
people have either osteoporosis or
osteopenia (pre-osteoporosis). This
amounts to 55 percent of the popu-
lation age 50 or over. Unfortunately,
most of these people are not aware
that they have osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis is a condition
characterized by the loss of normal
bone density, resulting in fragile
bones. This disorder of the skeleton
weakens the bones, causing an
increase in the risk of bone fractures.
Dr. Tran will discuss the symptoms,
diagnosis and the latest treatment
options for this common disease that
affects both men and women.
Medicare Part D
What’s new with the
doughnut hole in 2012?
THE
doughnut hole is shrinking.
If you have Medicare Part D—
the part that covers prescription
drugs—that’s bound to be
good news.
The reason: It could mean you’ll
be paying less for your prescrip-
tions. In fact, if you’ve had the
coverage since at least 2010,
you may be paying less already.
When you have Medicare
Part D, you pay 25 percent of
the full price of your medica-
tions after you meet any
deductible.
Once the combined total drug
expenses paid by you and your
health plan reach a certain
amount, you fall into a gap
in coverage—known as the
doughnut hole.
When you’re in the doughnut
hole, you pay the full price
of your drugs up to a yearly
out-of-pocket maximum. If you
reach that amount, you’re then
responsible for only
a small portion of
any more pre-
scription costs
for the remain-
der of the year.
The Affordable
Care Act, passed
in 2010, helps
ease this burden.
Under the law,
if you aren’t
getting financial
assistance for
your medications through the
Extra Help program and you
reach the doughnut hole in
2012, you’ll pay just 50 percent
of the price of brand-name
medications and 86 percent of
the price of generic drugs.
However, the full cost of a
brand-name drug—not just
what you paid for it—will count
toward your out-of-pocket
spending. For a generic drug,
only what you paid for it will
count. That means you’ll spend
less on your medicines and you
may get out of the doughnut
hole sooner than you previously
would have.
The percentage you pay for
medications while in the dough-
nut hole will continue to go
down each year until 2020 when
it will be 25 percent for both
brand-name and generic drugs.
After 2020, the doughnut hole
will close completely. You’ll then
pay the same amount for pre-
scription drugs that you now pay
from the time you meet
your Part D deductible
(if you have one) until
you reach your annual
out-of-pocket spend-
ing limit.
To learn more about
what the Affordable
Care Act means
for you, visit
www.healthcare.gov
.
Sources: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services; U.S. Department of Health &
Human Services