A new Medicare drug discount card program is bringing several hundred temporary jobs to Lawrence’s Pearson Government Solutions.

The company’s East Hills Business Park facility is one of several sites across the country responsible for answering the 1-800-MEDICARE help line. The telephone line has been inundated with calls since federal officials began accepting applications for the new discount drug program May 3.

Pearson officials said the terms of their contract do not allow them to comment on how many employees are working on the Medicare project. The company also declined to comment on the number of facilities involved in the program.

But company spokesman Dave Hakensen confirmed the company had hired a significant number of temporary workers to handle the increase in calls.

“We have definitely increased our employment levels in Lawrence,” Hakensen said. “But it is a short-term thing from what I understand. Our levels will probably stay high through the fall and then start to taper off some after that.”

The company, the city’s largest-private employer, employs 1,600 people at its Lawrence site. That’s up from 1,200 in January. Hakensen wouldn’t say if the increase was attributable to the Medicare program. But other officials at the plant said most of the hiring had been to staff the drug card phone lines.

Lawrence workers don’t answer calls from people looking to sign up for the program, they take calls from those who have questions about the program.

According to national reports, senior citizens with questions about the program have had difficulty getting through on the toll-free information line.

Terry Kroshus, site manager for the Lawrence facility, said employees were struggling to keep up with the high volume of calls.

The average length of each call has doubled, from eight minutes to 16 minutes, because of the number of questions each caller has.

“I can tell you that it is definitely keeping us very busy,” Kroshus said.

Pearson has had the Medicare contract since October 2002.

In addition to the Medicare program, the Lawrence center answers calls related to the federal government’s student loan program and several other smaller government programs.