A national survey about perceptions of and experience with the Medicare Part D formulary reports that 59% of physicians with at least a few patients enrolled in the drug benefit rarely or never check their patients’ formulary when prescribing. This finding comes from an evaluation conducted last spring and early summer by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The organization surveyed 834 randomly selected office-based physicians and separately conducted a similar study of 802 pharmacists. A total of 69% of physician respondents said that they are “not too familiar” or “not at all familiar” with their patients’ drug formularies.
Other findings suggest that Medicare formularies influence prescribing choices. Nearly half (46%) of physician respondents said that they have talked to a patient about switching from a brand to a generic drug in order to save money under a Medicare drug plan.
Pharmacists reported that access problems surface when patients attempt to fill prescriptions. Two-thirds (67%) of responding pharmacists said that customers have left the pharmacy without a medication because the prescribed drug was not on their Medicare drug plan’s formulary. Nearly 6 in 10 (58%) of pharmacists said that customers have paid out-of-pocket for their drugs due to inability to verify whether the customer was enrolled in a Medicare drug plan. Nearly half of pharmacists (49%) reported having customers leave without a prescription because they could not afford the co-pay charged under the Medicare drug plan.
On the whole, Part D received mixed reviews. An overwhelming majority of respondents in both groups said that the Medicare drug benefit is too complicated (91% of pharmacists, 92% of physicians). Among physicians, less than half said that Part D works “very” or “somewhat” well for lowering patients’ out of pocket costs (42%) or for helping patients gain access to needed prescription drugs (43%).
http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/pomr090706nr.cfm
I have not heard much about Part D being a problem in the office setting. In fact most beneficaries seem to like the program. But with all the new orals (cancer) coming on the market will this change?
Posted by: Christian Downs | September 25, 2006 at 03:34 PM