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Low Levels of Awareness of Pharmaceutical Cost-Assistance Programs Among Inner-City Seniors
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To the Editor: Although Medicare Part D has improved access to prescription medications, drug costs remain a problem for many older adults.1 The Medicare low-income subsidy program (Extra Help) and state-sponsored pharmaceutical assistance programs can help seniors mitigate this problem by providing cost-sharing or Part D premium assistance, yet they are underenrolled by as much as 50%,2-3 possibly due to lack of awareness. We assessed a diverse sample of inner-city seniors for rates of awareness of New York State's Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage (EPIC), established in 1987, and Extra Help, established in 2006.
Methods
We recruited independently living adults aged 60 years or older by convenience sampling from 20 senior centers and residential complexes in New York, New York, between June and September 2007. Sites were selected from zip code areas with median annual household incomes below $50 000. Men were oversampled and interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. Race and . . . [Full Text of this Article]
Alex D. Federman, MD, MPH
alex.federman@mssm.edu
Division of General Internal Medicine
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York, New York
Dana Gelb Safran, ScD
The Health Institute
Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies
Tufts-New England Medical Center
Boston, Massachusetts
Salomeh Keyhani, MD, MPH
Department of Health Policy
Albert L. Siu, MD, MSPH
Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development
Ethan A. Halm, MD, MPH
Division of General Internal Medicine
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
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