Inquiry criticizes Medicare help line
Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, December 8, 2004
WASHINGTON – The people who answer Medicare’s telephone help line gave accurate responses to questions less than two-thirds of the time, according to a congressional investigation made public Wednesday.
The worst performance came in response to a question about the $600 annual subsidy that goes with the new Medicare drug discount card for low-income people. Customer service representatives gave the wrong answer 55 out of 70 times, the Government Accountability Office said.
Perhaps the most embarrassing gaffe concerned a question about power wheelchairs.
Confusing “trunk strength” – the term used in Medicare’s script to mean upper body strength – with the size of a car trunk, one operator “incorrectly explained that Medicare would only cover a power wheelchair if a beneficiary had adequate space to put it in the trunk of his car,” GAO said.
Patients without the strength to operate manual wheelchairs typically are eligible for electric models.
Defending his agency’s performance, Medicare chief Mark McClellan said more than 3,000 customer service representatives have faced a deluge of calls since the Medicare prescription drug law was enacted a year ago Wednesday. Call centers received 16.5 million calls in the 12 months that ended Sept. 30, up from 5.6 million the year before, said Gary Karr, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
McClellan and other top health officials frequently tout the help line, 800-633-4227, for Medicare recipients who want to figure out whether to sign up for a drug card. The phone lines were swamped when Medicare rolled out the card program in May, but average wait times during peak periods now are two minutes, Karr said.
The operators are hired by private contractors and work from scripts developed by Medicare.
