The Medicare-Approved Drug Discount Card:
Outreach Strategies and Practices to Reach Low-Income Beneficiaries

Enrollment in the Medicare-Approved Drug Discount Card program begins in May, yet relatively few Americans are aware of it. Even fewer people know that millions of Medicare beneficiaries can receive a $600 credit in 2004 and again in 2005 to help pay for their prescription drugs. The March/April 2004 Kaiser Family Foundation Health Poll Report survey (www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/pomr041404pkg.cfm) found that only 31% of all those surveyed aged 18 and above knew that the Medicare Modernization Act was passed: 69% did not know that President Bush signed the bill into law.  More seniors (65+) know now, compared to two months ago, that the law was passed, but still a majority of seniors--60%--do not know that it was passed. A similar percentage, 62%, do not know that the Medicare law includes the Medicare-Approved Drug Discount Card program. Even worse, only 18% of seniors know that eligible low-income beneficiaries can receive the $600 credit in 2004 and again in 2005. During the CMS conference on the Medicare drug discount card program held April 7 and 8, CMS also noted that its research with Medicare beneficiaries had found that low-income beneficiaries were the least informed of the Medicare drug discount card program. 

Clearly Medicare beneficiaries, particularly low-income beneficiaries, need the SHIPs to tell them about their options under the Medicare-Approved Drug Discount Card program. Otherwise, low-income Medicare beneficiaries could lose immediate opportunities to save money on prescription drugs. We need to reach these Medicare beneficiaries with appropriate messages quickly--especially as for some people, the best option for them is a state pharmaceutical assistance program, not the Medicare-approved drug discount card.

Low-income beneficiaries are notoriously difficult to reach, yet the $600 credits—for a total of $1200 with possible additional help in paying for prescriptions—can be extremely valuable. Thus it is particularly crucial to think about what has worked in the past and what new strategies need to be attempted. The conference calls on this topic (to be held on April 21) encourage programs to think strategically about this outreach challenge around the $600 credit by thinking about past work in reaching low-income Medicare beneficiaries and reviewing the following questions:

•  Who is the target audience? Whom do we want to tell about the low-income benefit? What do you know and what do you need to know about the low-income Medicare beneficiaries in your community? Are there additional audiences, besides the consumers, to include in your efforts?
• What message do we want to convey? How can the message be understandable yet complete? What do we want the audience(s) to do with the message? Is our message consistent and not contradictory?
• How do we reach these constituents? What messengers can best deliver and/or endorse the message? Where are there built-in crowds? Under what circumstances will they be receptive to hearing the message? Who are the trusted information resources?  Are we using a variety of means to reach the audience?
• Is the current environment different from that of past educational campaigns? Does it demand new approaches? What are the challenges of reaching low-income beneficiaries today?
• How do we best maintain (or create, as the case may be) an environment in which consumer health assistance programs are recognized as trusted resources? Does the audience know what our programs do?
• What other issues must be addressed?

The call for urban beneficiaries will be held at 1:00 PM Eastern time on Wednesday and the call for rural beneficiaries will be held at 3:00 PM Eastern time on Wednesday. If you have any ideas or questions, please contact Hilary at hdalin@healthassistancepartnership.org, or 202-737-6340.