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Ryan Works to Update, Improve Medicare for Wisconsin Seniors

Bill Considered by Committee Includes E-Prescribing Initiative Pushed by Ryan

WASHINGTON – The House Ways and Means Committee today will consider landmark legislation to make a voluntary prescription drug benefit available to all Medicare beneficiaries and make crucial improvements to the Medicare system.  Wisconsin’s First District Congressman Paul Ryan, a member of the Committee, will push to:

•  update Medicare for seniors with a prescription drug benefit that lowers costs and provides a choice of plans; 

• strengthen and modernize the program so Medicare will be available for the baby boom generation when it retires, as well as future generations;

• secure fairer Medicare benefits for Wisconsin seniors; and

• make electronic prescribing a reality to reduce the risk of dangerous medication errors.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to fix what is broken about our Medicare system,” Ryan said.  “The program has served so many seniors well over the years, but it has also fallen behind the times – offering 1960s coverage to 21^st century seniors.  That’s unacceptable.  Even worse, if new benefits are added but nothing is done to update the system, its costs would go through the roof and bankrupt Medicare, drain our economy or both.” 

“We need to make sure Medicare lives up to its promise for today’s seniors and for future generations,” Ryan said.  “People shouldn’t experience a drop in quality of care or coverage options when they begin to use Medicare.  And Wisconsin seniors, in particular, should not continue to be at a disadvantage compared to seniors in other areas of the country who enjoy more generous Medicare benefits.”   

Among his goals, Ryan has been working on an important initiative in the Medicare legislation to prevent prescription errors affecting seniors and make their drug regimens safer.  This provision, which is included in the legislation that the Committee will consider today, calls for the creation of a secure electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) system.   

E-prescribing would make it possible for a Medicare patient’s doctor to easily access the patient’s medication history, the prescriptions covered by his or her chosen drug plan, and alternatives – such as generic drugs – to help keep down costs.  Under this system, doctors would transmit patients’ prescriptions to their pharmacy via computer, removing the risk that a doctor’s handwritten prescription might be misread.  Because doctors will be able to see a record of their patients’ medications, e-prescriptions will also help avoid dangerous drug interactions and other problems.  The cost of hospitalizations from errors in the use of prescription drugs is $121 billion a year (source: Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association Vol 41, No. 2  March/April 2001).   

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