Medicare Prescription Drug Card Notice

Beginning in May, most people with Medicare will have the opportunity to enroll in a Medicare-approved prescription drug discount card program to help lower their drug costs. These cards will provide discounts off the regular cash price of prescriptions. The discount card program begins in June.

For Medicare beneficiaries with incomes that are not more than 135 percent of the poverty line ($12,569 for single individuals or $16,862 for couples in 2004, and slightly higher amounts in Alaska and Hawaii), Medicare will provide a $600 credit for the purchase of prescription drugs in 2004 and up to an additional $600 credit in 2005. There are no asset limits or other financial need requirements for this transitional drug card assistance.

Starting in Mid-April and continuing for a 7-week period, SSA will mail almost 19 million notices about the availability of the $600 transitional assistance to low-income Medicare beneficiaries. These SSA notices are required by the Medicare Modernization Act.

The notice advises the recipients that they should contact a Medicare-approved drug card company as soon as possible to determine if they are eligible for the assistance. A copy of the notice is available at the following link. (In English   and Spanish   )

Recipients of the notice were selected using a database that identified individuals whose monthly amounts of Federal pensions (e.g. Social Security, Railroad Board, OPM and V.A.) are below 135 percent of the poverty level.

Approximately 500,000 notices will be sent out each day, evenly distributed across the country. Thus, individuals in the same State or political subdivision will not all receive their notices at the same time; they will be spread out over the 7-week period. The number of notices SSA is sending by State is available at the following link (Number of Notices by State from the Social Security Administration on Prescription Drug Card Transitional Assistance)