Medicare Part D Brought Savings in 2011

This morning USA Today ran an interesting piece on savings achieved in the Medicare program over the past year. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data show that 2.65 million people with Medicare have saved more than $1.5 billion on their prescriptions – averaging about $569 per person. The article attributes these savings to a provision of the Affordable Care Act that “put a 50% discount on prescription drugs in the ‘doughnut hole,’ the gap between traditional and catastrophic coverage in the drug benefit, also known as Part D.” The article also highlights that Medicare Part D premiums have held steady-despite predictions that they would increase.

You can read the full article by following this link.

-Jaime Venditti, 12/6/11