Ongoing problems with Medicare’s new drug benefit is increasing the risk of hospitalization and emergency-room visits for the low-income mentally ill who are unable to get their medications, reports a New York Times story. For some, a delay in getting medications due to pharmacies not getting approval from Medicare is causing a worsening of psychiatric symptoms. But others cannot afford the $3 per prescription for the multiple drugs they take now that their Medicaid drug coverage has been shifted to Medicare Part D. The story quotes one administrator for an assisted-living facility for the mentally ill that people with psychiatric illnesses “don’t have the insight to realize the consequences of not taking their medications. Without their medicines, they will definitely go into the hospital.”
