It is with a thankful heart during Valentine's week that we THANK YOU for making 2024 - Senior PharmAssist's 30th Anniversary - another successful year. With your generosity, we met our Fox Family Foundation challenge grant two months before the deadline. We raised $45,348 from three specific groups that counted towards the $20k challenge: new donors, lapsed donors, and those of you who contributed more since December 1, 2024, than the entire previous fiscal year. Amazing, especially since this doesn't include those of you who contribute every year and are the backbone of our mission. Fox Family Foundation also featured our work in their recent newsletter ensuring that more people know about our collective work. They began supporting our work in 1996 and have been critical to our success.

This generosity allows us to "take heart" in changing and challenging times. If the last month is any indication of our near future, we believe that governmental funding sources that support older adults and individuals who struggle financially will continue to decline, especially if related to public health and other governmental safety net supports. Fortunately for Senior PharmAssist, only one of our funding sources is primarily passthrough funding from the federal government. 

Other local safety net clinics and nonprofit and academic organizations in Durham are more reliant on federal grants and contracts to accomplish their missions. If the news continues to be bleak - many programs that our participants depend upon will be very challenged. We will keep you posted as best we can.

We also want to share that the Medicare Part D benefit in 2025 is the "law of the land," and executive orders cannot undo it; it would take an act of Congress. One major piece of the legislation - drug price negotiations - while well underway, may be administratively redirected. Time will tell. Senior PharmAssist has no plans to shrink our program; frankly, the opposite is true. We plan to reach more individuals who need our services, and we want to help them in new and creative ways. We rely on you to help spread the word to others who don't know about our work.

Equity work is the basis of our existence. We believe that all individuals - regardless of political affiliation, skin tone, or anything else - deserve the right to age with dignity. We believe that in order to serve the Durham community with any level of credibility, we need a diverse staff and board of directors that guide and implement our programs so that everyone feels welcome and included. This will not change. 

Your long-standing endorsement and support for our work has kept us strong and with your continued support, we have no plans to slow down!

Every year, we have shared our findings from our counseling efforts during the Medicare Open Enrollment Period (OEP), when from Oct 15 - Dec 7, Medicare beneficiaries can change many of their coverage decisions for the following year. The findings from year to year are very consistent - most people can save a LOT of money and have "peace of mind" by reviewing their options because - It Pays to Compare!

Sadly, only 30% of people with Medicare review their options any given year in the US. It is easy to be overwhelmed and confused by all of the options or to be steered to plans that sound too good to be true - and often are when someone becomes sick. In addition, sometimes people selling plans can steer beneficiaries to plans that benefit the seller more than had other plans been selected. This is particularly true with Medicare Advantage sales.

Senior PharmAssist is the Seniors' Health Insurance Information Program (SHIIP) for Durham and our well-trained staff and volunteers offer unbiased information in ways that we hope are as clear as possible to the decision-makers - Medicare beneficiaries. 

At the end of 2024, when helping Medicare beneficiaries - of all incomes and ages - make coverage decisions for 2025, we had our busiest OEP yet. A summary of our work is below:

• 1,419 appointments for 1,355 people (compared to 1,225 appointments for 1,208 people during the OEP in 2023) 
• 50% of participants changed plans vs. staying in their current plan, which was true for stand-alone drug plans and Medicare Advantage plans with drug benefits.
• Half of the 576 people with stand-alone drug plans switched coverage saving an average of $1,498 (median of $613); this translates into $428,565 back into the pockets of older adults and adults with disabilities in Durham!
• Those enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans who often have a drug benefit included in their health plan received help not only understanding their medication coverage and should save a projected $352 on average, but as important - their providers are in-network (will take their insurance), and what they pay for services during the year are understood as much as possible, plus, the additional benefits that are not included in traditional Medicare (e.g. dental and vision) are basically understood.
• Our pharmacists provided 191 interventions that went beyond the basic Medicare counseling - i.e. medication safety, other savings ideas, etc.
• Our staff and volunteers offered 97 interventions to tap additional community resources or assistance programs - i.e. help paying Part D and B premiums, food assistance, etc.

As a reminder, 2025 brought major changes to the Part D benefit, including limiting the total spending for medications covered by an individual's plan to $2,000 a year. See the graphic below for details. 

Finally, we are sharing what we are learning at the national level. Our executive director was the lead author in a paper published in January in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Geriatrics Society titled Medicare Part D: Major Shifts With the Inflation Reduction Act and a Way Forward. In the article, Gina argues that we need to keep an eye on the new benefit as insurers, manufacturers, the pharmacy middle men - Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), pharmacies, Medicare (taxpayers), and Medicare beneficiaries will all shift their cost-sharing responsibilities for the drug benefit. She also argues that more needs to be done to ensure the appropriate use of medications as "medication overload" is a growing public health problem; pharmacists' skills in every community should be leveraged. Finally, the article points out that "late enrollment penalties" have created unfair barriers to participation for individuals who have used safety net pharmacies in the past. See the redesigned Medicare Part D drug benefit below.

Outreach Materials!

Senior PharmAssist wants your help to share our materials with folks who may not be familiar with our programs. If you'd like to distribute some to your faith community, work colleagues, community group, or other networks, please send us an email at info@seniorpharmassist.org.

We also have staff and volunteers who can speak to your community groups about our work, Medicare, and medication issues in older adults, or attend your health fairs. Thanks for helping us reach our neighbors in Durham.

Happy 20th Anniversary Jessica and keep up the amazing work!

Photo by: Satsuki Scoville Photography

In February 2005, we hired Jessica Visco - one of our best moves ever!

Jessica grew up in New York state and found her way to NC with her husband and two young boys in 1997. She then completed her PharmD degree and her residency in geriatric pharmacy practice at UNC-CH and is now a board certified geriatric pharmacist. In addition to being a medication expert, she is literally one of the best Medicare counselors in the World (our humble and accurate opinion), and a tremendous advocate for our participants. She is our safety officer and her attention to details keeps us on top of our game. Jessica has done all of this while raising three amazing boys - now men - with her equally brilliant and kind husband. 

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