The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
KFF’s policy research provides facts and analysis on a wide range of policy issues and public programs.
KFF designs, conducts and analyzes original public opinion and survey research on Americans’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with the health care system to help amplify the public’s voice in major national debates.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the organization’s core operating programs.
The Medicare Part D program provides an outpatient prescription drug benefit to older adults and people with long-term disabilities in Medicare who enroll in private plans, including stand-alone drug plans and Medicare Advantage drug plans. This analysis provides the latest data about Part D enrollment, premiums, and cost sharing in 2021 and trends over time.
This issue brief provides an overview of the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit plan landscape for 2021, with a focus on stand-alone drug plans. It includes national and state-level data on plan availability, premiums, benefit design, cost sharing, information about premium-free plans for low-income beneficiaries, and information about the national Part D drug plans available in 2021.
Using Medicare Advantage encounter data, this analysis finds that 62% of Medicare Advantage enrollees have at least one chart review record and that diagnoses added from chart reviews increase payments from CMS to insurers for 17% of enrollees. The use of chart reviews varies across the largest Medicare Advantage insurers.
This brief looks at premium changes for Medicare Part D stand-alone prescription drug plans between 2025 and 2026. For plans that were offered nationwide in 2025 and will continue to be offered in 2026, Part D enrollees in many states will see lower monthly premiums in 2026.
To understand the role of Medicare Part D stand-alone prescription drug plans in serving rural Medicare beneficiaries, this data note analyzes 2025 Part D enrollment in PDPs and Medicare Advantage drug plans by geographic area nationally and at the state level.
In a new analysis, KFF finds that 3.6 million people with Medicare could be eligible for coverage of Wegovy (semaglutide) now that the Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of the anti-obesity drug to reduce the risk of heart attacks and stroke in certain patients. This change potentially allows access to Wegovy for just over 1 in 4 of the 13.7 million people on Medicare diagnosed with obesity or overweight, based on data…
Medicare Part D is a voluntary outpatient prescription drug benefit for people with Medicare provided through private plans, including stand-alone prescription drug plans and Medicare Advantage plans that offer drug coverage. This analysis provides an overview of Medicare Part D plan availability, premiums, and cost sharing in 2025 and key trends over time.
This report projects the impact of the new Medicare drug benefit on out-of-pocket spending for people who enroll in 2006. This analysis from November 2004 estimates that 6.9 million beneficiaries are projected to be affected by the coverage gap (the so-called "doughnut hole") in the standard Part D drug benefit. This estimate is based on projected enrollment in Part D plans of 29 million (Congressional Budget Office, July 2004), prior to implementation of the drug…
This brief presents current monthly data on Medicare Advantage plan participation, enrollment and penetration. It also summarizes recent activities by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), participating health plans, and the research community pertaining to the Medicare Advantage program and prescription drug plans that began serving the Medicare population in January 2006. The report was prepared by researchers at Mathematica Policy Research Inc. May 2010 Report (.pdf) Previous Tracking Reports
This data spotlight examines trends in benefits and cost-sharing for Medicare Advantage plans in 2010, including the wide variations found across plans and the rapid increase in cost sharing requirements for some benefits, including stays in skilled nursing facilities. It also examines the annual limits on out-of-pocket spending set by most Medicare Advantage plans and the availability of coverage for drugs in the Medicare drug benefit's coverage gap, or "doughnut hole." This data spotlight is…
© 2026 KFF