Administration Attacks The Medicare Drug Benefit – Forbes

2014

I am not familiar with these regulations and admittedly this is one side of the story, but it is an important issue for anyone on Medicare and using Part D benefits. You may want to read the full story at the link below.

Administration Attacks The Medicare Drug Benefit
Robert Book, Contributor

Medicare’s prescription drug program – Medicare Part D – is one of the few government programs that costs far less than originally projected, for both the government and the beneficiaries. It is also one of the few programs that directly harnesses competition between participants to improve quality and reduce costs. All indications are that it works very well.

So naturally, the administration has proposed regulatory changes to the program with the express purpose of limiting competition and choices. The changes will also increase costs – to both patients and the government – and restrict the ability of Part D plans to provide quality service for beneficiaries.

Among the numerous changes proposed to Part D, the most significant is the proposal that limits Part D plan sponsors to a single contract per region, and also to a maximum of two plans – only one of which may provide enhanced benefits beyond the minimum level of coverage. In other words, plan sponsors will no longer be able to offer different plans tailored to the different needs of different types of patients. They will no longer be able to offer different plans with different formularies – which is another way of saying, they will no longer be able to allow patients to choose from among many plans to find the one that covers their drug needs at the lowest cost.

Many patients take multiple drugs on an ongoing basis. If there are more plans available, then there is a higher probability that each patient will find a plan with all or most of his/her medications on formulary. This reduces both patients’ costs and the national average bid, the latter of which reduces the government’s costs as well.

via Administration Attacks The Medicare Drug Benefit – Forbes.