Congressional investigators said Wednesday that they had found serious, widespread problems in a government program that issued drug discount cards to 6.4 million Medicare beneficiaries, as a precursor to the full-fledged drug benefit that takes effect next year, the New York Times will report in Thursday's papers.
The range of problems included inaccurate, incomplete information about how the program should work -- from the government, insurance companies and pharmacy officials -- and improper use of the cards to pay for barbiturates and other drugs they were forbidden to cover. |