The New Medicare Rx Benefit: Challenges for Maintaining Access to Prescription Drugs
July 2004

With the launch of the new Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit less than 18 months away, and growing interest in beneficiaries' access to medications in the future, the Kaiser Family Foundation is pleased to released two new publications that examine issues concerning access to medications raised by the implementation of the new Part D Medicare prescription drug benefit.

• The New Medicare Drug Benefit:  Potential Effects of Pharmacy Management Tools on Access to Medications, by Haiden Huskamp, Ph.D. and Nancy Keating, M.D., M.P.H. of Harvard Medical School, describes the pharmacy benefit management tools that will be available to private plans administering the new Medicare drug benefit, including formularies, the definition of categories and classes, and cost sharing requirements. The authors observe that the new law gives plans substantial flexibility in designing management tools to control both utilization and spending, and conclude that these provisions could have significant implications for beneficiaries' access to needed medications and out-of-pocket spending.
  
• The New Medicare Prescription Drug Law:  Issues for Dual Eligibles with Disabilities and Serious Conditions, by Jeff Crowley, M.P.H. Health Policy Institute, Georgetown University, discusses the challenges the new Medicare drug program faces in meeting the needs of dual eligible individuals with disabilities, who tend to have extensive, complex and varying needs.  The brief examines four key questions about how the new benefit will serve dual eligibles with disabilities and profiles some individuals from this population for whom prescription drugs are vital.

These reports are available online.

| Benefits | Info | Join | Other Sites | News | Feedback | Calendar | Home |