Estimate your medicare prescription drug savings enter using this tool. Your annual drug costs in the box below and click the "submit" button to see approximately how much you'd pay when medicare's prescription drug benefits take effect.
The following is a statement by Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Chairman and President of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University: "The tragic death of Heath Ledger as a result of the abuse of controlled prescription drugs is sadly a story too familiar to many American...
Byline: GLORIA GONZALEZ As recently as a year ago, the reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada and other countries was being hailed as an effective way to circumvent the high cost of medications in the United States. Not anymore. ...
With annual spending for prescription drugs escalating dramatically and with the percentage of elderly people also increasing, this paper provides a useful guide to the complexities of prescription drug development, testing, approval, coverage, and surveillance which is well timed. It brings considerable skills of the clinician and epidemiological researcher to...
Prescription drug spending has been the fastest growing segment of national health expenditures. As the federal government assumes greater financial responsibility for prescription drug expenditures with the introduction of Medicare part D, federal policymakers are increasingly concerned about prescription drug prices. The report examines the change in retail prices and...
In an effort to balance Medicaid budgets, states use prescription drug cost containment tools in unique ways and in varying combinations. The paper reports on the variability in state-level strategies to control the cost of prescription drugs and describes broad state-to-state differences in per beneficiary spending on drugs. This heterogeneity...
States have been intensifying their efforts to control rising prescription drug costs in their Medicaid programs. This study examines the effects of five Medicaid cost containment policies on enrollees' perceptions of their ability to get prescription drugs. The results show that enrollees in states that have implemented all or almost...
A key component in the strategy to improve the overall health of employees is the prescription drug benefit, since those drugs are important in the prevention and treatment of many diseases. With this in mind, some employers are promoting appropriate prescription drug use by basing their prescription drug benefit plan...
This report examines the purchasing strategies of the three primary departments that contract for prescription drugs- the Department of General Services General Services, the Department of Health Services Health Services, and the California Public Employees' Retirement System CalPERS. These departments procured more than $5 billion in prescription drugs during fiscal...
The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 MMA created a prescription drug benefit for beneficiaries, called Medicare part D, beginning in January 2006. The paper determines the trends in employment-based retiree health coverage prior to the MMA and which MMA prescription drug options plan sponsors said they...
People are living longer, healthier, and more productive lives thanks to prescription drugs. These advances have not come without a price, however. Rising prescription drug costs have placed a growing burden on consumers, employers, and public programs. This has brought the industry under increased scrutiny. Furthermore, the long-term side effects...
This white paper uses detailed data on prescription drug and other services from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey MEPS to examine recent trends in mental health and substance abuse (MH/SA) treatment between 1996 and 2001. While use of ambulatory services remained constant, prescription drug use increased rapidly, with the result...
The purpose of this study is to analyze changes in average retail prices and savings from average retail prices under the new Medicare prescription drug discount program for a 30-day supply of specific drug products commonly used by Medicare beneficiaries. The study compares retail cash prices obtained from Verispan with...
Byline: GLORIA GONZALEZ States' efforts to begin prescription drug reimportation plans were ratcheted up last week when Illinois announced plans to reimport drugs from several countries and Vermont began a legal challenge to the Food and Drug Admi Byline: GLORIA GONZALEZ ...
Patent protection and factors unique to prescription drugs weaken the forces keeping prices near costs for other products. A growing public consensus that affordable drugs should be available to all is likely to increase the upward pressure on prices. To restore competition to all parts of the pharmaceutical industry, this...
Private insurance for prescription drugs is characterized by two regimes: flat copayments and variable co-insurance. The paper develops a simple model to show that patient compliance is lower under coinsurance due to uncertainty in cost-sharing. Empirically, it derives comparable models for compliance behavior in the two regimes. Using claims data...
American consumers are increasingly drawn to the convenience, privacy, and cost advantages that might be accrued by purchasing prescription drugs over the Internet. The Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Customs and Border Protection CBP and the Department of Health and Human Service's Food and Drug Administration FDA are responsible for...
This article reports on the progress that has been made and questions that have been raised about the new Medicare prescription drug benefit that became law in late 2003. The focus is on issues raised during the National Medicare Prescription Drug Congress held in Washington, DC, in February 2004. The...
The Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act the Act, makes prescription drug coverage available to all senior citizens for the first time ever beginning in 2006.Tthe costs of such plans have recently risen by nearly 20 percent a year, causing some companies to limit drug benefits under retiree health...
Medicare is contracting with private companies to offer Medicare-approved drug discount cards. People can choose one of the discount cards offered by these private companies, to help them save on outpatient prescription drugs. Almost anyone with Medicare can get a discount card. The only people who aren't eligible are those...
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