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Obama's
'Tele-Town Hall' Targets Scams Against the Elderly
CNN
June 8, 2010
President Obama hosts a "tele-town hall" meeting at a senior center in Maryland on Tuesday that is timed to coincide with the first mailing of rebate checks to elderly Americans.
Senior citizens across the country will be able to dial in and participate in the event at the Holiday Park Multipurpose Senior Center in Wheaton.
The administration has held frequent meetings in recent weeks to tout the various aspects of the nation's new health care law to senior citizens. The law takes effect this year.
Tuesday's event will focus on the administration's efforts to combat senior scams as the $250 "donut hole" rebate checks are mailed out.The first checks will be sent Thursday, three weeks earlier than scheduled, to about 80,000 people.
Medicare has sent out brochures reminding seniors they don't have to fill out a form to receive the benefit, nor should they give out personal information -- such as Social Security or bank account numbers -- to anyone who calls about the checks.
The rebates are the first step to close the gap in Medicare's prescription drug coverage.The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that about 4 million seniors will get the rebates in 2010.
The move is one of the first tangible results of the health reform law. At a press conference last month, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said closing the donut hole is "one of the biggest ways the new law is going to help seniors."
Seniors get stuck in the donut hole if their prescription drugs cost too much to be paid for through basic Medicare coverage, but aren't expensive enough to qualify for catastrophic coverage.
"We think our members will see these checks as a good faith down payment on what they've been looking for so long: closing this coverage gap," said Cheryl Matheis, AARP's senior vice president for health strategy."Many Medicare patients are on a fixed income, so every dollar helps," she added.
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