Coinsurance trend means seniors likely to face higher out-of-pocket drug costs

(By – Michelle Andrews, Kaiser Health News)

Medicare beneficiaries may get hit with higher prescription drug bills this year (2016) because more than half of the covered drugs in standalone plans require seniors to pay a percentage of the cost rather than a flat fee, a new analysis found.

Fifty eight percent of covered drugs in Part D drug plans are subject to “coinsurance” instead of flat fee compared to 35 percent in 2014 and 45 percent in 2015. However, this is not the trend with Medicare Advantage managed care plans; in 2016 only 26 percent of covered drugs in those plans required coinsurance. Read the article here….

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Notice: The link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; medicarereport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link’s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or medicarereport.org.