Specialty drugs strain gov't, patients

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WASHINGTON, April 19 (UPI) -- Enrollees in Medicare drug plans are feeling the pressure of rising U.S. specialty prescription drug costs and are helping fill industry coffers, analysts say.

That is because many of the leading pharmacy benefit managers and drug insurers also offer Medicare Part D coverage to seniors, which allows them to profit from patients' payments as well as from federal spending, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The prices of medicines heavily used by the elderly have risen more than 24 percent since June 2006, according to two senior health economists at Harvard.

In an article published in January in the journal Health Affairs, economists Richard Frank and Joseph Newhouse said single-source unique drugs have the potential to present "important new pressures on the federal budget."

...

Under that arrangement, patients quickly reach the $5,726 cap on out-of-pocket spending, after which the patient pays only 5 percent. From that point, the drug plan sponsor pays 15 percent, while Medicare pays 80 percent of the cost, the newspaper reported.

UPI

[kickysnana]

1. In our senior building people hit the cap, stop drugs and die n/t

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2. Given its probably widely known sudden withdrawals can be deadly, a forethought re affordability

should be part of healthcare consideration before prescribing those drugs.