Tag: Medicare Part D

Medicare Drug Plans Are Getting Better Next Year. Some Will Also Cost More. 

Improvements to Medicare drug coverage required by the  IRA are the most sweeping changes since Congress added  the benefit in 2003, but most voters don’t know about them. And some beneficiaries may be surprised by a downside: premium increases.

By Susan Jaffe | KFF Health News | October 21, 2024

When Pam McClure learned she’d save nearly $4,000 on her prescription drugs next year, she said, “it sounded too good to be true.” She and her husband are both retired and live on a “very strict” budget in central North Dakota.
By the end of this year, she will have spent almost $6,000 for her medications, including a drug to control her diabetes.
McClure, 70, is one of about 3.2 million people with Medicare prescription drug insurance whose out-of-pocket medication costs will be capped at $2,000 in 2025 thanks to the Biden administration’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act….
“It’s wonderful — oh my gosh. We would actually be able to live,’’ McClure said. “I might be able to afford fresh fruit in the  wintertime.”    [Continued in KFF Health News, CBS NEWS, Los Angeles Times, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.]
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US pharmaceutical companies sue to halt cuts in drug prices

Volume 402, Issue 10399
29 July 2023 

 

WORLD REPORT  Medicare will soon be able to negotiate some drug prices to reduce costs for patients and taxpayers. Susan Jaffe reports from Washington, DC.

The first set of ten drugs subject to price negotiations by the US Medicare programme will be unveiled on Sept 1, 2023, but some pharmaceutical companies and their allies are not waiting to find out which products will be on the list. So far, four manufacturers and two trade associations are suing to stop the process before it begins. [Continued here.] 

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Medicare Steps Up Efforts To Monitor Seniors’ Prescriptions

By Susan Jaffe | KAISER  HEALTH  NEWS | March 23, 2010

This story was produced in collaboration with

Irene Mooney survived four heart attacks and still copes with high cholesterol, persistent indigestion and heart problems. Recently, she developed some dangerous new symptoms – suspicious bruising all over her body and severe fatigue. “I could barely put one foot in front of the other,” she says. A pharmacist discovered the culprit: Some of the very medications Mooney was taking to manage her medical conditions.

The pharmacist met with Mooney, examined her 13 medications and then contacted her doctor, who cut the dosage of one drug and replaced another, reducing her risk of uncontrollable bleeding. Mooney, 82, one of the devoted card players at her seniors’ complex, soon noticed the change. “I’ve been so much better,” she says.

The help Mooney got – called “medication therapy management” – was provided by Senior PharmAssist, a Durham, N.C., non-profit group that makes sure seniors use the right prescription drugs and take them correctly to prevent harmful side effects or drug interactions.

Now, medication management is coming to nearly 7 million seniors and disabled Americans enrolled in Medicare drug plans. [Continued at Kaiser Health News and USA Today

 

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