“It’s not a big deal for me to pay the $720 that is due,” said Holmes. “But what aggravates me is most people don’t put money aside, and it could create a serious problem for some of them.”
“It’s conceivable that members could owe 12 months of premiums,” said Chris Murphy , a Blue Cross spokesman. “If anybody wants to pay the amount due immediately, that’s fine, but we’ll also let people pay monthly increments through the first quarter of 2007.”
The Centers for Medicare and medicaid services, or CMS, said it sent letters Oct. 31 to seniors who will see changes in their November Social Security payments. The agency calls them “premium withhold issues.”
“The vast majority of these issues have been resolved,” said Roseanne Pawelec , a spokeswoman for CMS. “At no time was anybody’s drug coverage compromised by these billing glitches.”
Bill Dillon of Randolph said he received a call this week from Wellpoint about his Blue Cross drug plan. “We didn’t know the bill was due,” he said. “Our assumption was the payments had been taken out.”

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