Whether it's TV ads featuring stars from bygone years or commission-hungry insurance agents camped out in pharmacy stores, the marketing of Medicare prescription drug plans this fall promises to be big business.

Wall Street analysts are projecting that companies will spend as much as $80 million on marketing and operational expenses this year to sell the new Medicare prescription drug plans. The campaign will be huge because of both the complexity of the new program and the need for some companies to introduce themselves to new markets.

Humana Inc., for example, is a Kentucky-based Fortune 200 insurer that is, nonetheless, largely unknown in Pittsburgh and many markets. To increase its profile, the company is selling its prescription drug insurance policies through State Farm's national network of insurance agents.

Insurance companies Cigna HealthCare and Texas-based United American Insurance Co. will employ faded stars Hal Linden and Carol Burnett, respectively, to pitch their prescription drug options. PacifiCare, a California-based insurance company, will reach out with TV ads highlighting characters from the "I Love Lucy" show.

Universal American Financial Corp. is forgoing TV and radio ads, but will deploy a force of 30,000 insurance agents and brokers to CVS stores, among other places. A spokesman says the agents will sit behind card tables and educate seniors about the company's options.

"We will have agents there, not hard-selling, but available -- because the pharmacist is not going to be able to take the time to go through every option," said John Wardle, senior vice president for marketing at PharmaCare, a pharmacy benefit manager that is a partner with Universal American. "We think that [agent] will be able to walk a senior through this, because really it gets down to three things: my pharmacy, my pill, my price,"

CVS owns PharmaCare, but the marketing partnership with Universal American is non-exclusive; United HealthCare, Humana and Aetna will market Part D products in conjunction with the pharmacy chain, too.

Called Part D for short, the new Medicare prescription drug program makes available government-backed prescription drug benefits that are sold to individuals by private companies. Consumers can begin signing up for Part D plans on Nov. 15 and coverage starts Jan. 1.

Prescription drug coverage will be available in two ways:

* Standalone drug plans, which provide pharmacy benefits to seniors who remain in the traditional Medicare program, will be offered for as little as $10.14 a month in Pennsylvania. There are about 50 different stand-alone benefit options in Pennsylvania, with the highest-premium plan coming in at $68 per month.

* Companies also will sell prescription drug plans coupled with Medicare Advantage plans -- Medicare HMOs and PPOs that manage doctor and hospital care. At least eight companies are offering these combined health and pharmacy plans in the Pittsburgh area, and each company is offering up to four options.

The volume of choices is just one of the confusing aspects of the new program.

Many Medicare consumers already have drug coverage from a variety of sources, including retiree benefits, the state's PACE program and the Medicaid public health insurance program for low-income people. They have to weigh those factors when choosing a plan.

The structure of the benefit is complicated, too.

Medicare consumers may be asked to pay an average monthly premium of $32 and a deductible consisting of the first $250 of their drug costs. After that, the standard benefit calls for recipients to pay 25 percent of the next $2,000 of their prescription bills before they fall into a "doughnut hole" that requires them to pay all of the next $2,850 of their drug costs. Once a consumer's out-of-pocket spending reaches $3,600, coverage kicks in again and covers roughly 95 percent of all remaining costs -- catastrophic coverage, in other words, against very high drug expenses.

Competition among the providers is lowering these costs, but expanding options in the process. Some companies, for example, will wave the $250 deductible and cover the cost of generic drugs in the "doughnut hole."

In response to the complexity, the government is making help available through its 1-800-Medicare hot line and a Web site at www.Medicare.gov. In addition, this month the government is mailing a Medicare handbook with information on the new drug benefit to beneficiaries. Pennsylvania consumers can contact the Department of Aging's APPRISE health insurance counseling program at 1-800-783-7067.

While government operators are standing by, companies will be reaching out with a variety of marketing efforts.

Universal American believes seniors will respond to the one-on-one help its agents and brokers can offer in the pharmacies, said Mr. Wardle of PharmaCare, which has operations in suburban Pittsburgh. Called Prescription Pathway, the Part D products from Universal American will be promoted in CVS stores as part of the pharmacy chain's effort to become what Mr. Wardle described as an information center about the new benefit.

Insurance agents will help pitch the Universal American product in another way, Mr. Wardle said. They will be key in reaching out to 312,000 Medicare beneficiaries to whom the agents have already sold Medicare supplement policies.

Beneficiaries who hold these "Medigap" supplements are among the consumers for whom Part D is expected to be a particularly good deal. Seniors buying supplements with prescription coverage, for example, are currently paying monthly premiums of $150 to $200, noted Alan Wheatley, regional president of senior products for Humana. Part D benefits are available at a fraction of the cost, in some cases with no monthly premiums.

Humana's agreement with State Farm means that agents who, in many cases, have sold car and home insurance can now offer the health insurer's Medicare Part D drug plans to their 7.5 million Medicare-eligible customers. In addition to using insurance agents, Humana has dispatched marketers to Wal-Mart stores across the country in 10 RVs, which are providing educational materials in store parking lots.

The PacifiCare ad campaign, which begins Oct. 15, shows Lucy's neighbors, Fred and Ethel Mertz, discussing the benefits of the firm's plans using body doubles, voice impersonators and computer-generated imagery.

"Fred, you still need to choose a drug plan," Ethel says in one spot, noting that a brochure says: "PacifiCare could save you hundreds, even thousands of dollars."

PacifiCare, which is offering drug plans in every state, expects the ads will "create a memorable message that resonates with seniors, an audience that values choice, quality and affordability," chairman and CEO Howard Phanstiel said in a statement. "Fred and Ethel are American icons that capture the essence of a generation and its desire to get the best value for its money."

United American, the Texas insurance company that is offering a plan in Pennsylvania and 47 other states, will air ads that feature Carol Burnett. Ads will run during the day and at other times when Medicare recipients are likely to be watching, said Joyce Lane, a vice president for the company. Paul Harvey also will mention the company's plan on his nationally-syndicated radio show, Ms. Lane said.

Local health plans will be marketing Part D options, too, but their appeals won't be studded with stars.

To market its Part D offerings, Unison Health Plans is "going out to where the seniors are," said Sharon Williams, vice president of marketing and business development for the Monroeville-based company that operates the MedPLUS+ health plan for Medicaid recipients. The firm plans to attend health fairs and other events to meet with Medicare recipients, she said, and will send out thousands of direct-mail flyers.

It also has prepared a TV ad featuring Unison's heartbeat logo. The logo pulses in the ad, which bears the message, "No referrals to specialists" -- a reference to recipients' freedom to visit medical specialists without a referral from their primary care doctors, Ms. Williams said.

Highmark Inc., the region's dominant health insurer, has scheduled more than 100 outreach meetings for current members to learn about how the insurer will make Part D benefits available through existing plans, as well as through new plan options.

The company will run ads to promote its new BlueRx product, which is a stand-alone prescription drug plan that is being offered regionally. Highmark's stand-alone plan is the only one in Pennsylvania and West Virginia that can carry the Blue brand.

"While other insurers are using celebrities to reach a national audience, Highmark has name recognition in the [Pittsburgh] marketplace and the benefit of the Blue brand," said Cynthia Dellecker, senior vice president of senior products.

In other words, don't look for an ad with Myron Cope explaining Part D intricacies.