GAO Report on Part D Drug Utilization for Low-Income Subsidy Beneficiaries
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report entitled "Medicare Part D: Changes in Utilization Similar for Randomly Reassigned and Other Low-Income Subsidy Beneficiaries." The report describes how drug coverage and access to pharmacies compared between benchmark (i.e., plans with premiums at or below the benchmark CMS establishes for a given geographic region) and nonbenchmark prescription drug plans (PDPs) from 2007 through 2010. In short, drug coverage was somewhat more limited for benchmark compared to nonbenchmark PDPs and became gradually more restrictive for all PDPs from 2007 through 2010, while pharmacy access was comparable. Benchmark PDPs also imposed utilization management requirements on a similar to slightly greater share of drugs than other PDPs. The extent to which randomly reassigned low-income subsidy (LIS) beneficiaries experienced changes in their drug and pharmacy utilization after reassignment was comparable to the extent of such changes among other LIS beneficiaries from 2007 to 2008. HHS generally agreed with the GAO’s findings.
