Tom Murphy
RedwoodAge.com

As if the choices among Medicare Part D drug plans aren't mind-boggling enough, now consumers have a wide choice of web sites to help them compare the plans. 

Those sites should make it easier, right? Well, not so much. As it turns out, not all web sites provide the same choices, not even the government's official site: Medicare.gov.

RedwoodAge.com checked four different sites using the same criteria and came up with four very different recommendations, with annual cost estimates ranging from $408 to $900. It also found 2008 information on at least one of the sites that are supposed to help consumers make well-informed choices for 2009 when open enrollment starts November 15.

This was hardly a comprehensive analysis of all the sites available. Rather, we tried to simulate the experience a typical boomer might have in trying to find the best plan for an aging parent. 

In our fictitious case, "mom" was in her late 60s, living near us in Northern California and taking Crestor daily for her high cholesterol. When asked similar questions, we gave the same responses. For example, some sites wanted to know if she had other insurance, and we said we weren't sure. 

Now, each person's results are likely to differ based on the patient, the drugs and their location. And we encourage readers to do their own research to find the best plan available. 

Many local doctors, health agencies, pharmacies and others will eagerly help. But beware! They are more likely than not to have vested interests.

In our limited trial, Rite Aid drug stores suggested the lowest-costing plan - United Healthcare Medicare Direct Rx Plan 56 - at $408. Other drug chains may offer the same plan, or may not. DestinationRX.com finished last; the cheapest plan it could offer would cost about $900 a year.

'Don't Assume'
We started with Medicare.com, which bills itself as "the premier destination for information related to Medicare." We began there partly because it sent out a news release touting its "user-friendly" comparison tool. 

"Seniors should take Open Enrollment seriously," Bill Kimberlin, CEO of Medx Publishing, which owns the site, said in the release. "Don't assume your current plan remains the best for you as costs will go up in 2009."  

However, the lowest-cost plan Medicare.com could recommend was a United Healthcare plan estimated at $761.98 a year. The most expensive was a Cigna plan at $1,381.20.

Asked why Medicare didn't recommend a cheaper plan, Kimberlin told RedwoodAge that the data in the Medicare.com selector was still based on 2008 plans - not the higher priced 2009 plans. He said the new data will be added before the open enrollment period actually begins. 

So, why did his company rush out a news release before the updated info was available? "Good question," Kimberlin said. 

In a second conversation, he explained the release was intended to announce a partnership with DestinationRX, the company that provides data for its search tool. However, the release made no mention of the stale data, instead boasting the tool was "an easy way for seniors to compare the cost and coverage of the plans."

Next Destination
While Medicare.com uses data from DestinationRX, the two sites offered different results. DestinationRX suggested the Freedom Blue Plan 1 at $900 a year along with other options ranging up to $1,911.

Nate Murray, the vice president for affiliate marketing, said his site was using the 2009 data that Medicare.com will show soon. DestinationRX also provides the data to the government's Medicare site, which is already using the 2009 estimates, he said.

Murray said his company collects data from about 80 percent of the plans available, but doesn't have information, for example, on regional plans or from Kaiser. The list we got from DestinationRX also omitted United Healthcare - a major healthcare insurer that offered the lowest-cost plan we found elsewhere. Murray said they'll add United's data later.

When told RedwoodAge repeatedly came up with a lowest-cost plan of $900 on DestinationRX, Murray tried using the same criteria, but came up with $577 - still far above the United Healthcare plan listed by Rite Aid. So we tried again, but still got a $900 plan.

The Government
While many consumers might think the government would create the most comprehensive and independent site to get info, Murray pointed out that Medicare.gov also gets data from DestinationRX.

There were things we liked and didn't like about the government site. It was tricky to navigate and filled with jargon. But it also gave us the clearest choices and background info about generic alternatives and the arcane world of Medicare. The site was balky, but eventually pointed to a First Health Part D-Premier plan for $577 - the same plan Murray found on his search at DestinationRX.

Again, the government list - apparently because it uses the DestinationRX data - didn't include any United Healthcare plans, like the low-cost option we found at Rite Aid.

Drug Chains
Rite Aid, which also issued a news release, not only came up with the cheapest plan, but offered free printouts of the three lowest-cost plans to seniors at their 4,900 stores in the US. It turns out Rite Aid and some other drug chains - including Wal-Mart - use data from PlanPrescriber.com, a site that competes with DestinationRX.

Rite Aid noted it also offers a frequent-shopper discount program, giving seniors 20 percent off on the first Tuesday of each month, and 10 percent off on a number of other items - not an inconsiderable amount to elders living on a tight budget.

Again, the RedwoodAge survey was very limited, and we recommend that each person shopping for a Part D plan consider their choices carefully heading into the 2009 open enrollment season, which runs through December 31.