What is the Medicare “Donut Hole” and how can Discount Med Direct help?
In this installment of Water Cooler Chat, we talk with Judy Vobroucek, Owner of Discount Med Direct where they offer savings that range from 30% to 80% on monthly medications. In this chat, Judy explains the Medicare coverage gap commonly known as the “Donut Hole” and how Discount Med Direct can help individuals in that situation.
To learn more about Discount Med Direct, please visit them online athttps://discountmeddirect.com. You can also find more information on a prior article we wrote about them on our website:https://www.homehelpershomecare.com/bradenton/community-blog/2017/september/discount-med-direct-helps-customers-buy-reduced-/
Interviewee: Judy Vobroucek, Owner of Discount Med Direct
Interviewer: Jonathan Marsh, Owner of Home Helpers Home Care of Bradenton
Jonathan: Hello and welcome to Water Cooler Chat with Home Helpers of Bradenton where we bring awareness to our community of important services that they can take advantage of. I'm Jonathan Marsh and I'm the owner of Home Helpers of Bradenton. Today I have with me Judy Vobroucek who's the owner of Discount Med Direct. How are you doing, Judy?
Judy: Great! Thanks for having me.
Jonathan: Thank you for joining us. So I do have a question for you today, Judy. My question is “I hear a lot about this donut hole that a lot of seniors tend to fall in. So can you tell us a little bit about what the donut hole is and how Discount Med Direct can help with the donut hole?”
Judy: Sure. Most Medicare drug plans have a coverage gap which is called the donut hole. This means there's a temporary limit on what the drug plan will cover for medications. Right now it's approximately $5,000. So once a person on Medicare has $5,000 worth of medication bills they fall into what's called the donut hole. So then they have what's called the gap coverage where they have to pay 25% of how much the medication cost. So we're able to help people because a lot of times our cash price is less than that 25% gap fee for when someone falls into the donut hole.
Many times we'll look at somebody's EOB (Explanation of Benefits) statement for Medicare. Just by looking at it we can pull one medication out and say (for example) okay if you don't order that inhaler through your Medicare plan and just order it through us at this price (which is also going to be a savings), then you probably won't be falling into the donut hole for the next coming year.
Jonathan: Okay. Very good. I can say from experience I've sent a couple people to you that have come back and said I can get so much more medication through them for less than what I would have spent otherwise and so I know that at least one of those fell into that donut hole.
Judy: Correct. Yes.
Jonathan: So great service for our clients as well as many of the people in the community, our Facebook audience especially. Thank you for that nugget there, Judy.
Judy: You're welcome.
Jonathan: So let me ask you a question as well. So how much medication can somebody order at one time? Is there a limit?
Judy: By law, the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) allows a person to order a 90-day supply of their medication. If you have a prescription for a three-month supply we will then fill it with the refills. So anybody can get a three-month supply.
Jonathan: Okay. One last question for you. I know that you have multiple locations in the Sarasota-Bradenton area. Does someone have to come to your office every time they need to refill a prescription?
Judy: No. People don't have to come to our office at all. What happens is we get the prescription faxed to us or the customer can drop it off if they wanted to and we will place the order. Then we do refill reminder calls to remind people that they should be due for their prescription medication and or they can just call us directly and just say hey I want to do a refill on my medication. We have everyone's information at the computer and all we have to do is get a credit card number and we place the order and then it gets sent directly to the person at their house.
Jonathan: Okay. Perfect. Well, listen, Judy. I appreciate you joining us today and thank you so much for this great information.
Judy: Thank you, Jonathan