Jianhui Xu
Doctoral Student, USC Price School of Public PolicyResearch Assistant, USC Schaeffer Center
Researchers evaluate the effects of preferred pharmacy networks—a tool that Medicare Part D plans have recently adopted to steer patients to lower cost pharmacies—on the use of preferred pharmacies and factors underlying beneficiaries’ decisions on whether to switch to preferred pharmacies.
More than one million Part D enrollees who were not eligible for cost assistance reached the catastrophic coverage in 2015.
For high-cost specialty drug users, lack of an out-of-pocket cap in Part D has eaten savings from donut hole closure.