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Program helps seniors with prescription costs
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Qualifying seniors with high prescription-drug costs can participate in a program that could save them thousands of dollars a year. The state-funded Gap Assistance Pharmacy Program for Seniors helps qualifying seniors by paying for 95 percent of drug expenditures between $2,250 and $5,100.
Under the new Medicare Part D prescription-drug benefit, many seniors would be fully responsible for drug costs within the range of the so-called "doughnut hole." Qualified seniors signed up to one of the 11 drug plans that coordinate with the new GAPS program will have the majority of those costs covered.
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently announced that seniors who want to participate in state assistance programs such as GAPS are allowed to switch plans or enroll in a plan for the first time without penalty.
GAPS, administered by the Department of Health and Human Services and signed into law by Gov. Mark Sanford in February, replaces the former SILVERxCARD program.
Both programs were designed to help seniors with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level or below, which is $19,596 for individuals and $26,400 for couples.
Call 800-772-1213 or go to http://www.scdhhs.gov/ for more information.
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