PCMA: Primary Purpose of Medicare Drug Benefit is to Lower Seniors’ Prescription Drug Costs

WASHINGTON, April 3 /U.S. Newswire/ — The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) issued the following statement in response to comments made today by the independent pharmacy lobby, the Association of Community Pharmacists Congressional Network:

“Job number one in Part D for Medicare drug plans, drugstores, and other stakeholders is to save money for seniors and make sure they have access to the drugs seniors need. On that score, we are making significant progress.

“In other parts of the system, drugstores have been overpaid for drugs – most notably in the Medicaid program. According to the government’s own data from the HHS Office of Inspector General, Medicaid has been shown to overpay pharmacists for prescription drugs by billions of dollars. The federal government is now trying to avoid making the same mistakes in Medicare.

“So far, it’s working. Medicare drug plans are saving beneficiaries an average of 35 percent on medications purchased at retail pharmacies and 46 percent for drugs dispensed through mail- service pharmacies. Studies conducted by the Government Accountability Office, the Federal Trade Commission, the Congressional Budget Office, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Lewin Group, and others confirm that pharmacy management tools are helping consumers save big on prescription drug costs.

“We cannot comment on drugstores profits other than to say that making sure they are sufficiently high is not a goal of the Medicare Part D program.”

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PCMA is the national association representing pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which administer prescription drug plans for more than 200 million Americans with health coverage provided through small businesses, Fortune 500 employers, health insurers, labor unions, and Medicare.

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