Errors cost thousands of South Florida residents Medicare coverage

Medicare HMO members, perhaps numbering in the tens of thousands, were mistakenly dropped from their medical coverage when they signed up for the government's new prescription drug plan -- a problem hitting hard in South Florida, officials and advocates say.

Medicare recipients in managed care were expected to have an easy time joining the new drug coverage plan, but because of their own signup errors or enrollment mistakes by HMOs, many instead have been left without insurance for physician care or medicine.

"I can't go to a doctor. I need a couple prescriptions that I don't have," said Delray Beach retiree Allan Cooper, 66, who was among those dropped by Humana Health Plans. "What happens if … I have to go to a hospital? That's kind of scary."

Although no one has a complete count of those erroneously dropped from HMO rolls, the national advocacy group Medicare Rights Center estimated that tens of thousands are affected, in most states. Advocates think the problem is pronounced in South Florida, where about one-third of 825,000 Medicare recipients are in HMOs, compared to 11 percent nationally.

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