The National Medicare Prescription Drug Congress
نویسنده
چکیده
With a deadline of June 1, 2004, looming for the beginning of the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan (PDP) Discount Card program, a consortium of more than 30 organizations cosponsored the National Medicare Prescription Drug Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, from February 25–27, 2004. The main objective was to assess the various areas of health care that will be affected by the new Medicare Modernization Act (MMA), formerly called the Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (DIMA). Major goals of the congress were to summarize the new legislation (including the Drug Discount Card program); to explain its implementation and time frame, as set forth by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); and to discuss the effect of the MMA on pharmaceutical manufacturers, health insurance plans, pharmacy benefit management (PBM) companies, state Medicaid plans, and health care professionals. The three-day meeting featured many health care experts from various government and private sectors. This article summarizes the main perspectives of the congress as echoed by six selected speakers from different areas of health care:
منابع مشابه
Options for Assisting Vulnerable Populations With Rising Costs and Declining Insurance Coverage for Prescription Drugs
While Congress debates proposals to add a prescription-drug benefit to Medicare, many states are taking steps to better protect vulnerable residents, predominantly the elderly and disabled, from rising out-of-pocket costs and declining insurance coverage of prescription drugs. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), over 35 states considered legislation in 1999-2000 t...
متن کاملThe role of PBMs in implementing the Medicare prescription drug benefit.
In creating the Medicare prescription drug benefit and stipulating that it be managed by private-sector prescription drug insurance plans, Congress opened a huge business opportunity for pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). Although hardly noticed by the general public, PBMs already administer prescription drug benefits for nearly everyone with employer coverage and for many Medicaid recipients. T...
متن کاملPrescription Drug Coverage and Spending for Medicare Beneficiaries
Outpatient prescription drug coverage is not a Medicare covered benefit. Debate continues in Congress and elsewhere on modernizing the Medicare benefit package, including proposals that would help the Nation's seniors pay for prescription drugs. Very little is known about which persons within the Medicare population have drug coverage from other sources. Using 1995 data from the Medicare Curren...
متن کاملOutpatient prescription drug spending by the Medicare population
Legislation proposed in the 100th Congress and debated during the summer of 1987 would cover prescription drug spending by Medicare enrollees after the enrollee had met a deductible. However, at the time that the legislation was proposed, there were no comprehensive estimates of the extent of current expenditures for prescription drugs by that population, nor of the expected cost of the propose...
متن کاملOne pill, many prices: variation in prescription drug prices in selected government programs.
This paper updates a June 2002 National Health Policy Forum Issue Brief, "Average Wholesale Price for Prescription Drugs: Is There a More Appropriate Pricing Mechanism?" Since the release of that paper, Congress enacted the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003, which created a new, comprehensive outpatient prescription drug benefit and reduced Medicare's ...
متن کامل