Professionals who care for the estimated 6.3 million Americans who are eligible for both the federal Medicare and federal-state Medicaid health programs say patients could face significant disruption -- and potential ill effects -- when their drug coverage is switched from one program to the other at the end of this year.
Currently, Medicaid pays for the drug needs of the population known as "dual eligibles." But starting Jan. 1, 2006, all of those individuals will have to be enrolled in new drug plans under the Medicare program.
"I don't know how Oregon will successfully do this in this timeframe," Dr. Tina Kitchin, Medical Director of Oregon's Department of Human Services, told the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging.
Dr. Carl Clark, CEO of the Mental Health Center of Denver in Colorado, said that even a brief interruption in medications can cause serious problems.
For mentally ill patients, he said, "a very large percentage of patients forced to switch medications will fail. Typically, this means rapid de-compensation into psychiatric crisis." And those patients who fail to successfully make the transition, he said, "could end up destitute, homeless, or in state prison."
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