The plans will cover brand-name medicines as well as generic, she said, but the lists of drugs covered under each plan, called formularies, are not spelled out in the handbooks. Medicare recipients must ask insurers or Medicare for that information.

[Denise Transue] also advised all Medicare recipients to have a list of the prescription medicines they take and the pharmacies they use, to help Medicare representatives or to type into the "Plan Finder" program, when it is running.

3 Photos by Don Fisher, The Morning Call; 1. [Dick Thompson] and his wife, Froy Thompson, attend the public meeting on Medicare benefits Friday at First Presbyterian Church on Center Street in Bethlehem. 2. DENISE TRANSUE, top, who coordinates Lehigh County volunteers + trained through the statewide Apprise program, talks about features of the new Medicare plan. Above, Denise Hencheck, Northampton County's Apprise coordinator, also discussed aspects of the new prescription plan on Friday.