Patients’ annual financial burden under Medicare Part D is ‘too much too soon’

Medical advances have offered an increasing number of treatment options to patients with serious and chronic illnesses such as cancer, but these “specialty drugs” often come with a high price tag. A study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania documents the patient out-of-pocket cost burden under Medicare prescription drug plans (known as Medicare Part D) and finds that despite having insurance, Medicare patients using specialty drugs paid thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs in a calendar year. Study authors also propose policy changes that would help patients better predict monthly bills for critical medications. The study appears online in a special issue of The American Journal of Managed Care and was selected as the runner-up in the 2016 PAN Challenge, which asked researchers to offer “sustainable strategies for providing access to critical medications.”