ANNA VELASCO - Birmingham News staff writer

For months, Medicare patients have been promised a discount drug card this summer to help them with their prescription bills until drug coverage begins in 2006.

But so far, details of the first phase of the Medicare reform bill have been few and sketchy, leaving many to wonder how the discount program will work.

The dearth of details is about to turn into information overload.

Starting May 3, companies can market their Medicare-approved discount cards and are expected to flood seniors and the disabled with promotional information. The cards take effect June 1. In Alabama, Medicare patients will have more than 30 different cards from which to choose, including four cards available only in the state.

"The seniors are going to be hit with all of this, and they're not going to know what's going on," said Bill Eley, executive director of the Alabama Pharmacy Association. "It's going to be real confusing."

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced in March the names of the first wave of companies approved to offer the discount cards, but those companies have been forbidden to talk about their programs except in the broadest of terms until next week. The Bush administration estimates the discount cards will save Medicare patients 10 percent to 25 percent on their medicine, although critics of the program expect smaller savings.

Starting Thursday, the federal government will post all the names of the companies offering discount cards by state on its Web site, www.Medicare.gov. Internet-savvy seniors will be able to compare the cards' prices for the specific drugs they are taking.

Phone helpers hired:

Because many older people don't have access to the Internet or know how to navigate it, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid has hired 1,000 extra employees, for a total of 1,400 taking calls from seniors and the disabled. The employees will compare the plans by phone and mail packets of information to people who request them.

"It's a lot of shopping around, and it's a lot to understand," said Anna Pritchett, state coordinator of the pharmacy assistance program run by the Department of Senior Services.

Pritchett said seniors can turn to their local Area Agency on Aging for help picking, understanding and applying for discount cards.

Another place Medicare recipients are likely to turn is their pharmacist. Because people tend to trust their pharmacist, Eley said druggists expect the program to slow them down at first, as they help their patients sort through the paperwork.

But some consumer advocates have warned that the program has tainted the trustworthiness of that relationship.

The associations for chain and independent pharmacies each have a discount card to offer. Until recently, pharmacists even stood to gain financially for promoting a particular card. But a recent Inspector General opinion from the Department of Health and Human Services seems to have put an end to the monetary incentives.

"Pharmacists are very caring people," Eley said. "They will look out for their patients first."

The discount card program will continue until January 2006, when Medicare patients will be able to get drug coverage. Patients will have to pay monthly premiums, meet a deductible and make co-payments, all based on income levels.

Prescription discount cards are not new to the market. What's different about the Medicare-approved cards is that they're endorsed by the federal government. Pritchett said that brings comfort to many seniors who previously were skeptical about participating in discount programs.

"They don't want to monkey with anything that they think would jeopardize their benefits," she said.