Report Faults Responses to Medicare Calls

Federal investigators posing as senior citizens found that Medicare’s operators routinely failed to give callers accurate and complete information about the government’s new drug benefit, prompting Democratic critics of the Bush administration program to repeat their demand for an extension of an approaching enrollment deadline.

The Government Accountability Office investigators said that about one-third of their calls resulted in faulty responses or no response at all because of disconnected calls. The accuracy rates varied a great deal, but when it came to one of the most important questions -- which drug plan cost the least for a beneficiary based on certain drug needs -- operators gave the right answer only 41% of the time.

“These findings also point to larger problems,” said Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.). “The president should extend the May 15th enrollment deadline and not penalize seniors for the administration’s errors.”