FUQUAY-VARINA -- Tens of thousands of North Carolina residents who are eligible for programs to help cover the costs of their prescription drugs have not signed up, state officials said Wednesday.
So a group of the state's older residents gathered in downtown Raleigh on Wednesday for an afternoon walk to kick off a campaign to spread the word about the programs.
"Any program that saves peoplemoney is important to highlight," said state Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin. He said programs "don't do any good if nobody is using them, if nobody knows about them."
Goodwin was talking about prescription drug coverage under Medicare and a related program that gives enrollees who meet income guidelines extra help in paying for prescriptions. Prescription drug coverage was added to Medicare, the government health insurance program for the elderly, in 2006.
North Carolina has received a federal grant to get eligible people enrolled in the program. Members of the Senior Tar Heel Legislature, a group with representatives from across the state, are being asked to get information about the programs out to every town.
Dorothy Crawford, a Senior Tar Heel delegate from the small mountain town of Franklin, said volunteers would spend a day in pharmacies in seven mountain counties, talking with customers who may be eligible but not enrolled. Volunteers hope Meals on Wheels, home health agencies and churches will also pass on the information, she said.
Despite an information blitz that accompanied the prescription drug program when it was new, people may have missed the news or assumed they didn't need it, said Carla Obiol, director of the Seniors' Health Insurance Information Program in the state insurance department.
"It's important to sign up whether you're taking a lot of drugs or not," she said.
