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"We have expressed our concerns that the websites for some of the preferred plans and their preferred providers do not make patients aware they must obtain drugs from a preferred provider in order to obtain the advertised lower co-pays," the group's senior vice president for government affairs, John Coster, wrote in a recent letter to Center for Medicare Director Jonathan Blum. "These website and paper-based advertisements were at best confusing and at worst misleading to beneficiaries. Moreover, the plan finder doesn’t tell a beneficiary that is in a long term care facility that they cannot obtain medications from closed door pharmacies."

The trade group says the federal agency has been "working with us to address individual patient concerns" but is underplaying the scope of the problem.

"CMS has stated to us there are few complaints regarding Part D preferred plans, Medicare Plan Finder or preferred plan marketing practices, but this is simply not true," the letter says. "Merely because patient complaints are not logged into the CMS complaint tracking module … does not mean they do not exist.

"Accordingly, we are requesting that CMS provide us and beneficiaries with a feasible vehicle through which patients can register complaints regarding Part D preferred plans and their related marketing practices."