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  • Medicare Prescription Drug Enrollment Update

    Issue Brief

    Medicare Drug Benefit Enrollment Update This enrollment update breaks down and explains the statistics related to enrollment under the new Medicare drug benefit and the separate low-income subsidy program that provides additional assistance. The enrollment update summarizes the latest enrollment figures released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Social Security Administration and compares them with earlier enrollment projections. Issue Brief (.pdf)

  • Tracking Prescription Drug Coverage Under Medicare:  Five Ways to Look at the New Enrollment Numbers

    Issue Brief

    Tracking Prescription Drug Coverage Under Medicare: Five Ways to Look at the New Enrollment Numbers This new analysis, which assesses Medicare drug benefit enrollment statistics released Feb. 22 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, examines five different approaches to understanding the Medicare drug coverage numbers: What share of the total Medicare population has creditable prescription drug coverage? What share of the total Medicare population is enrolled in a Medicare drug plan? How…

  • Voices of Beneficiaries: Early Experiences with the Medicare Drug Benefit

    Report

    The Medicare Modernization Act established a voluntary prescription drug benefit for Medicare’s elderly and disabled beneficiaries provided by private plans that is open to all beneficiaries. This paper focuses on the decision-making process and the factors that influence decisions about Medicare drug plans, as well as beneficiaries’ early experiences and future concerns related to their prescription drug coverage. It is based on in-depth interviews held in March 2006 with diverse beneficiaries in four cities: Baltimore;…

  • Retiree Health Benefits Examined: Findings from the Kaiser/Hewitt 2006 Survey on Retiree Health Benefits

    Report

    This includes the full report on the 2006 Kaiser/Hewitt survey of large businesses that provide retiree health benefits to their workers. The Kaiser/Hewitt study, the fifth joint survey since 2002, analyzes responses from a non-probability sample of 302 businesses with 1,000 or more employees that offer retiree health benefits. These large firms collectively provide health benefits for 5.2 million retirees and dependents, including 3.4 million Medicare-eligible retirees. Together they account for more than one quarter…

  • Private Plans In Medicare: A 2007 Update

    Issue Brief

    This March 2007 issue brief, commissioned by the Kaiser Family Foundation, examines changes between 2006 and 2007 in the availability of and enrollment in Medicare Advantage and Medicare prescription drug plans overall and in urban and rural areas. It also focuses on the firms that are offering various types of Medicare plans. Marsha Gold of Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., prepared the brief. Issue Brief (.pdf)

  • Medicare Part D 2008 Data Spotlights

    Issue Brief

    To better understand changes in the private plans providing drug coverage to Medicare beneficiaries under the program's Part D benefit, the Kaiser Family Foundation is issuing a series of data spotlights analyzing key elements of Medicare's private drug plans. Each spotlight will focus on a key aspect of the drug plans that will be available to Medicare beneficiaries in 2008 and examine relevant trends since the Medicare drug benefit took effect in 2006. >>More Recent…

  • Methodology Appendix to the Medicare Part D 2008 Data Spotlights

    Issue Brief

    The Kaiser Family Foundation has also posted an appendix detailing the methodology used in the Medicare Part D 2008 Data Spotlight series. The series analyzes key aspects of the 2008 Medicare Part D prescription drug plan choices. All of the spotlights in this series were prepared by a team of researchers at Georgetown University, NORC and the Kaiser Family Foundation. Data Spotlight Appendix (.pdf)

  • The Federal Government’s Authority To Regulate Advertising in Medicare

    Issue Brief

    This policy brief, prepared for the Kaiser Family Foundation by Vicky Gottlich at the Center for Medicare Advocacy, explains the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ legal authority to regulate advertising and other information issued by the private companies that contract with the government to provide Medicare benefits. The brief also suggests additional steps the agency could take to enhance consumer protections with respect to advertising and marketing practices under its current authority. Issue Brief…

  • Medicare Part D 2009 Data Spotlight: Ten Most Common Brand-Name Drugs

    Issue Brief

    This Data Spotlight focuses on Part D plan coverage of the ten brand-name drugs that were most commonly prescribed for Medicare beneficiaries in 2006 and lack generic equivalents in 2009. Findings are based on an analysis of data for the 44 unique, national and near-national stand-alone prescription drug plans. The list of the top ten brand-name drugs is based on the number of prescriptions filled in 2006 in all Part D plans. The list includes…

  • Analysis of Medicare Prescription Drug Plans in 2011 and Key Trends Since 2006

    Report

    This report presents findings from an analysis of the Medicare Part D marketplace in 2011 and changes in drug coverage and costs since 2006. It presents key findings related to Medicare drug plan premiums, the subsidy for low-income beneficiaries, the coverage gap, benefit design and cost sharing, formularies, and utilization management, based on data from CMS for all plans participating in Part D. The analysis was conducted jointly by Jack Hoadley and Laura Summer of Georgetown…