Kathy Dahlkemper for Congress

Many senior citizens in the region are due to receive a $250 check to help with prescription drug prices as part of the recent health-care reform passed by Congress.

The first of those checks are to be mailed Thursday to Medicare beneficiaries who entered the Medicare Part D "donut hole" coverage gap in the first quarter of this year.

About 189,000 Medicare beneficiaries in Pennsylvania will receive a check, according to U.S. Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, of Erie, D-3rd Dist.

The coverage gap is the period in the prescription drug benefit in which the beneficiary pays 100 percent of the cost of his or her drugs until the individual qualifies for catastrophic coverage.

Medicare recipients do not have to do anything to get the check; once their drug costs for the year hit $2,830, the checks will be issued automatically.

- Staff report