Eureka Times Standard

SACRAMENTO -- Assemblywoman Patty Berg, D-Eureka, on Wednesday introduced a bill that would protect nursing home residents from hidden costs stemming from the newly enacted federal prescription drug program.

Under Berg's Assembly Bill 1930, the state would step in and cover the brief gap in which nursing home patients are without drug coverage from either the state's MediCal program or the controversial Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit program.

Many nursing home residents would not qualify for the emergency relief measures already enacted by the state. Those measures will help many other seniors and people with disabilities obtain their medicine while the federal government sorts out a host of problems in its new benefit program. In many cases, people who thought they had coverage under the new system were turned away at the pharmacy or had to scrape up money to cover the full cost of their medication.

Nursing home residents fell through the cracks because of a quirk in both the state and federal programs that would leave them without prescription benefits for as long as a month. Under the old system, the state would pay for their care and medicine. Under the new system, the federal government pays for their medicine, but in many cases makes them wait a month to qualify.

“This will prevent these people from becoming yet more victims of the Medicare Part D fiasco,” said Berg. “For years, they've been able to count on the state for help, and we must not abandon them now.”

Berg chairs the Assembly Committee on Aging and Long-Term Care. Late last year, she conducted a series of community meetings to help seniors and people with disabilities prepare for the changes in coverage brought by the new Part D program.