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Medicare Could Save Billions By Scrapping Random Drug Plan Assignment
A new study finds that Medicare is spending billions of dollars more than it needs to on prescription drugs for low-income seniors and disabled beneficiaries.
A new study finds that Medicare is spending billions of dollars more than it needs to on prescription drugs for low-income seniors and disabled beneficiaries.
In 2013, an estimated 10 million people who participate in the Medicare prescription drug program, known as Part D, received government subsidies to help pay for that coverage. They account for an estimated three-quarters of the program’s cost. Most of those low-income enrollees are randomly placed in a plan that costs less than the average for the region where the person lives.
But even though these are lower-cost plans, they often end up costing the government and the beneficiary more. If Medicare instead assigned those people to a drug plan based on the actual drugs they took, it could save those patients hassle and money, and potentially save the government billions of dollars, according to the study by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh.
Read the full story here: http://bit.ly/1tEmt1A
Source: Kaiser Health News
Varied Access: The Pharmacogenetic Testing Coverage Divide
February 18th 2025On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with the author of a study published in the February 2025 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® to uncover significant differences in coverage decisions for pharmacogenetic tests across major US health insurers.
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Neurologists Share Tips for Securing Patient Access to Gene Therapies
March 19th 2025Tenacious efforts at every level, from the individual clinician to the hospital to the state to Congress, will be needed to make sure patients can access life-saving gene therapies for neuromuscular diseases.
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The Impact of Cost Sharing on High-Value Care
March 14th 2025Michael Chernew, PhD, professor of health care policy and director of the Healthcare Markets and Regulation Lab, Harvard Medical School, shares how cost-sharing policies shape access to critical health care services and influence value-based insurance design.
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A Focus on MAHA, Lasting Changes to Health Care Programs for Trump’s Second Term
March 13th 2025The second Trump administration is expected to bring changes to Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, and the health insurance exchanges, as well as highlight the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, speakers at the Value-Based Insurance Design Summit said.
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