We can commend to our more "mature" TCS'ers, such as we are, an article in the NY Times this morning about how helpful the Medicare Help Line is. This is the telephone help line set up to assist seniors to understand the medicare program, including the mysteries of the new prescription drug program established by the Bush administration.
Here is just one example of how a test question from the Government Accountability Office was answered:
"In another example, callers asked if Medicare would pay for power wheelchairs. The answer depends, in part, on whether a beneficiary has enough upper body strength, or 'trunk strength,' to propel a manual wheelchair.
"But a Medicare operator, confusing trunk strength with the size of a car trunk, 'incorrectly explained that Medicare would cover a power wheelchair only if a beneficiary had adequate space to put it in the trunk of his car,' the report said."
According to Dr. Mark B. McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services:
"We believe we responded as well as we reasonably could given the unique and demanding circumstances."
Dr. McClellan, the brother of Scott McClellan, the president's spokesman, is widely rumored in Washington to be in line to be appointed as the new Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Here is just one example of how a test question from the Government Accountability Office was answered:
"In another example, callers asked if Medicare would pay for power wheelchairs. The answer depends, in part, on whether a beneficiary has enough upper body strength, or 'trunk strength,' to propel a manual wheelchair.
"But a Medicare operator, confusing trunk strength with the size of a car trunk, 'incorrectly explained that Medicare would cover a power wheelchair only if a beneficiary had adequate space to put it in the trunk of his car,' the report said."
According to Dr. Mark B. McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services:
"We believe we responded as well as we reasonably could given the unique and demanding circumstances."
Dr. McClellan, the brother of Scott McClellan, the president's spokesman, is widely rumored in Washington to be in line to be appointed as the new Secretary of Health and Human Services.
