Jan. 3, 2006
Contact: Lauren Shaham, (202) 508-1219

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Statement from Larry Minnix, AAHSA President and CEO On the Implementation of the Medicare Drug Benefit

To the best of our knowledge, initial implementation of Medicare Part D has gone smoothly among the long-term care and aging services providers we represent.

Our goal in working with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has been to ensure that every beneficiary in the care of an AAHSA member gets the medicines they need without interruption. We anticipated many issues that might arise in implementing the program in our field, and over the past year we worked intensively with CMS to resolve them before the program went into effect.

Since the Jan. 1 roll-out of the new benefit, we have had reports from a limited number of our members of problems in the first few days, but CMS has worked to fix them. We have urged all of our members to let us know of any problems that do develop so that they can be rectified as quickly as possible. AAHSA members have worked extensively to get CMS information to the people we serve to help them access this important benefit.

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About AAHSA
The members of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (www.aahsa.org) help millions of individuals and their families every day through mission-driven, not-for-profit organizations dedicated to providing the services that people need, when they need them, in the place they call home. Our 5,800 member organizations, many of which have served their communities for generations, offer the continuum of aging services: adult day services, home health, community services, senior housing, assisted living residences, continuing care retirement communities and nursing homes. AAHSA’s commitment is to create the future of aging services through quality people can trust.