With 59 Medicare stand-alone prescription drug plans with different drug prices, deductibles, premiums and coverage available to New York state's seniors, it is no wonder so many people are confused about which plan to enroll in.

Although various resources are available online to help seniors sift through the drug plans, research shows that few seniors have used them -- in fact, 72 percent of seniors nationally have never even been online.

Now, user-friendly help is available throughout Tompkins, Seneca, Monroe, Schuyler and Steuben counties, thanks to a pilot project by extension professionals and researchers in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell. Specially developed binders are available for use without charge at Cornell Cooperative Extension offices, Offices of the Aging and other government agencies that work with seniors, as well as at some public libraries in the four counties. The binders contain charts comparing the different stand-alone Medicare prescription drug plans available in New York state.

The charts, for example, compare plans by such factors as co-pays for almost 300 commonly used drugs, by deductibles, monthly premiums and prior authorization rules applied to them.

"While the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has a great Web-based tool to help seniors pick a plan, surveys show that only about 6 percent of seniors actually used the Web site for researching the plans," said Kosali Simon, assistant professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell, who developed the binders with Robert Harris, a Cornell extension specialist who is also a registered pharmacist. "And there is a lot of information for people to sift through. Our goal was to untangle some of this information for people who don't or can't use the Web and who want to look at Part D drug by drug, plan by plan."

The enrollment period for choosing a 2007 Medicare Part D plan ends Dec. 31.

Simon said that experience with Medicare Part D enrollment last year showed that many seniors made poorly informed decisions. Some seniors who are not yet enrolled could benefit from the additional Medicare insurance if counseled about the benefits. Other seniors who are enrolled may not have chosen the most affordable plan for themselves.

Helping seniors conduct an optimal search for a drug plan can lead to substantial savings, as out-of-pocket drug costs vary substantially by plan and by drug, Simon added. Pricing and plan information have been organized to portray plan coverage profiles of individual drugs, plan coverage profiles of sample medication regimens and profiles of insurance plan coverage.

The information in the binders is also available online at http://medicarepartd.human.cornell.edu/.