Saving $ on Medicare Part D
Since Medicare Part D’s inception, there have been those who have argued that if Medicare could negotiate drug prices with manufacturers, doing so would result in significant savings. How much you ask? A lot! McCaskill Report Shows Medicare Could Save Billions with Negotiation on Prescription Drug Prices explains that ” Senator … McCaskill, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee… released her latest report in her ongoing investigation into dramatic increases in prescription drug prices. The report found that drug prices directly negotiated by the government could save the Medicare Part D program $2.8 billion in a single year on the 20 most commonly prescribed brand-name drugs alone.” The article offers these key points from the report
Even when applying the average rebate amount … for Medicare Part D brand-name drugs published by [CMS], and increasing negotiated federal prices by $13.46 to account for dispensing fees and other costs, Medicare and its beneficiaries could save a collective $2.8 billion in a single year under negotiated federal prices for the top 20 most commonly prescribed brand-name drugs alone.
· Negotiated federal drug prices rose at significantly lower rates than list prices for the top 20 most commonly prescribed brand-name drugs in Medicare Part D….
· The federal government spent over $139 billion on prescription drugs in 2016, or 42.3% of the total prescription drug expenditure for the United States. Lower negotiated drug prices suggest the federal government could achieve lower drug prices for other federal agencies and programs, including Medicare Part D, if it successfully leveraged its significant purchasing power.
The full report is available here.