News : LaGrange offers free, comprehensive Medicare Part D assistance

Dan at work

LaGrange staff at the prescription counter

SHIIP location at 309 1st Avenue in Vinton

“We really want people to understand three things about Medicare Part D,” Dan LaGrange recently shared. “We want people to know they need to carefully evaluate their plan every year, that it doesn’t cost them anything to change plans, and that regardless of the pharmacy they eventually choose we will do all we can to help them select the best plan for them without charging for our help.”

Dan recently joined his father at LaGrange Pharmacy after working as a pharmacist for a pharmacy in Wenatchee, Washington. Dan’s wife Ali is a Nurse Practitioner at Virginia Gay’s Vinton Family Medical Clinic.

According to Dan, it takes less than 15 minutes for one of the local pharmacies to do a sophisticated scan and report the best options for a patient.

“Just walk in, you don’t need an appointment. All we need are your prescriptions, though the bottles would be helpful it isn’t essential as long as you know your drugs and the dosage. We will input all the information into a program built specifically to analyze Part D plans, and what you get is the very best information we can provide”, said Dan.

Mert and Claudette Alpers recently relied on Dan for advice and were quite pleased with the result. “Dan showed us a variety of options and he really helped make our choice much easier. Dan is a great young man and an asset to our community, and it shows in how careful he was in providing the assistance we needed.”

There are three ways to compare plans. Dan believes a visit to an independent pharmacy like LaGrange’s offers the most comprehensive evaluation of options. Another option he says patients can use is to visit medicare.gov and input the prescription information on their own. The third option is to utilize SHIIP (Senior Health Insurance Information Program), a free program sponsored by the State of Iowa and staffed with volunteers. SHIIP, located in space provided by Virginia Gay in the former location of VGH Home Health, provides a variety of other types of assistance as well as Medicare.gov guidance.

“The step your pharmacist can take that can’t be done just by consulting Medicare.gov,” explained Dan, “is the evaluation of each drug the patient takes and comparing options with the drug plans that match. For example, there might be an alternative drug able to deliver the same result for the patient that fits their plan better than what the patient may have been taking. It’s a smart change but one only a trained pharmacist using the computer program is going to see.”

“Here’s an example”, Dan said, “of how confusing this whole thing can be. An individual’s monthly cost could be the same, their deductible could be the same, the co-pay could be the same, but one particular drug they take could have been moved from tier one, which covers most of the cost, to another tier that doesn’t. With only a quick look it appears that nothing has changed, when in fact the actual cost for the patient can be a lot higher.”

“If people want to avoid driving out of town to fill their prescriptions we’ll find a plan that lets them affordably do that. If they want to stay with a chain, or if they have to because their plan requires it, we’ll help them do that. If they just want the lowest cost and don’t care where they have to go to get it, we’ll help them find the right plan,” said Dan. “We tailor the information to meet the needs and desires of the patient because we believe that as a professional, that’s what we should do.”

To get the best advice concerning your medications and your plans, visit your local, independent pharmacist.