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A recent study found that over one in four seniors cut back on their use of medications after their health plan stopped covering brand-name drugs.
This has implications for the 23 million elderly people enrolled in the new Medicare Drug Benefit plan, where some health plans are trying to bridge a "coverage gap" in the benefit by providing coverage for generic but not brand-name drugs.
The gap occurs when seniors have spent $2,250 for drug costs, then lose all drug coverage and must pay the next $3,100 out-of-pocket until the beginning of the next calendar year when coverage begins again.
This study shows that generic- only drug benefits, while better than no coverage, are not complete solutions to the coverage gap.
Dr. Chien-Wen Tseng, currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and a researcher at the Pacific Health Research Institute, conducted the study with UCLA and RAND investigators Drs. Mangione, Keeler, and Brook while she was a UCLA Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar.
Dr. Tseng says that this study shows that, "Physicians and health plans must actively help Medicare patients find ways to adjust to a switch from brand-name to generic-only drug benefits.
The need to make prescription medications affordable for patients is a critical health issue for Hawai`i as well as nationally.
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Posted on September 24, 2006 10:40 PM
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