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More than 80% of Medicare beneficiaries say their prescription drug plan is not hard to use, and 70% say they pay less for their medications under the new prescription program, according to a recent Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive poll.

Three-fourths of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in the prescription drug benefit are satisfied with their plans, a Wall Street Journal Online report said. Although the poll included 2,766 responses from adults, only a small number of them, 177, were Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Part D.

In other Part D news, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid report that problems with billing beneficiaries for premiums persist. Some 50,000 of the 4.7 million beneficiaries who have requested that their premiums be automatically withdrawn from their Social Security checks still are having incorrect amounts deducted, CMS officials told USA Today.