The Kaiser Family foundation released studies on Thursday showing that most Physicians and Pharmacists believe that the Medicare, prescription, drug benefit is helping people save money but feel that it is overly complex.
Among the findings in the survey of 834 Physicians and 802 Pharmacists:
53% of pharmacists and 27% of physicians believe that the Medicare prescription drug benefit has created administrative burdens;
53% of pharmacists and 46% of physicians believe that the administrative burden of the medicare plans are greater than that of commercial health plans;
27% of independent pharmacists say they have had to take out a loan or line of credit because of cash-flow problems related to the Medicare benefit;
Eight in 10 pharmacists said they have had customers that experienced problems with access to medications under the Medicare prescription drug benefit, and one in five said that such problems affected “most” customers;
45% of pharmacists who serve dual eligibles — beneficiaries whose prescription drug coverage was transferred from Medicaid to Medicare when the prescription drug benefit began — said that those customers experienced more problems with access to medications than other Medicare beneficiaries (Kaiser Family Foundation release, 9/7);
Two in three pharmacists said that customers have left their pharmacies without medications because the treatments did not appear on the formularies of their Medicare prescription drug plans, and nearly six in 10 pharmacists said that customers have paid for treatments out of pocket because they could not verify their enrollment in plans (Carey, CQ HealthBeat, 9/7);
About half of pharmacists said that customers have left their pharmacies without medications because they could not afford copayments (Kaiser Family Foundation release, 9/7);
59% of physicians with patients enrolled in Medicare prescription drug plans said that some of those patients have experienced problems with access to medications, and 15% said that such problems affected “most” of their patients;
One in 10 physicians said they have had a patient experience “serious medical consequences” as a result of problems with access to medications under the Medicare prescription drug benefit (CQ HealthBeat, 9/7);
69% of physicians said that they are not familiar with Medicare prescription drug plan formularies, and 59% said that they rarely or never review formularies before they prescribe medications to beneficiaries; and
85% of pharmacists and 57% of physicians believe that they have “a lot” or “some” responsibility to advise seniors about the Medicare prescription drug benefit (San Francisco Chronicle, 9/8).
For the complete article visit the Kaiser network.
Can anyone say “Nationalized Healthcare?”
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This entry was posted on Saturday, September 9th, 2006 at 12:25 am and is tagged with medicare drug benefit, medicare prescription drug benefit, kaiser family foundation, prescription drug benefit, prescription drug coverage, cash flow problems, medicare prescription drug plans, cq healthbeat, medicare prescription drug, independent pharmacists, medicare beneficiaries, medicare benefit, prescription drug plans, medicare plans, administrative burdens, commercial health, faint praise, formularies, administrative burden, medicare.
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