- Archives

By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press

The Bush administration was accused in a lawsuit Wednesday of failing to ensure that poor people were enrolled properly in Medicare's new prescription drug benefit.

As a result, these beneficiaries cannot get the medicine they need, according to the suit by a group of older people and advocacy groups.

They charge that Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt failed to make sure that many of the poorest people eligible for the benefit signed up for private insurance plans as Congress had required.

A spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the problems cited occurred when the program got under way in January.

"From everything we've seen, those problems are in the past," Peter Ashkenaz said.

The suit also claims that some poor beneficiaries did enroll but the government failed to notify insurers quickly enough.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court in northern California asks a federal judge to order those involved in the case receive the full benefits of the Medicare Part D program.

The plaintiffs also are seeking to have the suit made into a class-action case.

"We think hundreds of thousands of people's health may be endangered," said one of the lawyers, Jeanne Finberg.

The program, which began on Jan. 1, ran into immediate problems, forcing many states to step in and help pay for drugs for the poorest beneficiaries.

Among those suing are two Californians and one person from Florida. The advocacy groups are the California Alliance for Retired Americans and the Action Alliance of Seniors Citizens of Greater Philadelphia.

Ashkenaz said the government has worked with people in settling individual cases. He added that the groups in the suit were expected to help with that individual casework by notifying the agency when they found problems.