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  • Key Facts About Medicare Part D Enrollment and Costs in 2023

    Issue Brief

    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. This brief analyzes Medicare Part D enrollment and costs in 2023 and trends over time. The analysis highlights the substantial growth of Medicare Advantage drug plans in the marketplace for Part D drug coverage, where enrollment overall is concentrated in a handful of large plan sponsors.

  • 10 Prescription Drugs Accounted for $48 Billion in Medicare Part D Spending in 2021, or More Than One-Fifth of Part D Spending That Year  

    News Release

    A new KFF analysis finds that the 10 top-selling prescription drugs under Medicare Part D comprised less than 1 percent of all covered drugs in 2021, but accounted for 22 percent, or $48 billion, of gross Medicare Part D drug spending that year. The analysis provides context for understanding the federal government’s new authority under the Inflation Reduction Act to negotiate prices for some high-spending drugs covered by Part D, Medicare’s outpatient prescription drug benefit…

  • A Small Number of Drugs Account for a Large Share of Medicare Part D Spending

    Issue Brief

    The Inflation Reduction Act requires the federal government to negotiate the price of certain high-spending drugs covered by Medicare. This analysis provides context for understanding the potential impact of negotiating prices for a limited number of Medicare-covered drugs by identifying the 10 top-selling Part D drugs in 2021, measuring the share of total Part D drug spending accounted for by top-selling drugs that year, and examining changes in spending and use of these drugs since…

  • What is the Potential Impact of New Drugs for Obesity and Alzheimer’s Disease on Medicare Costs, Coverage and Beneficiaries? 

    News Release

    Two new KFF analyses examine the potential impact of Medicare coverage of new prescription drugs for obesity and Alzheimer’s disease on program spending and beneficiary out-of-pocket costs, as well as the role that the Inflation Reduction Act could play in mitigating these effects. Manufacturers of both types of drugs are lobbying for broad Medicare coverage of them, though they face different challenges. The availability of effective weight-loss drugs, including Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy (semaglutide)…

  • What Could New Anti-Obesity Drugs Mean for Medicare?

    Policy Watch

    In this piece, we discuss Medicare coverage of obesity treatments, the potential cost implications if Medicare covers anti-obesity drugs, and how the Inflation Reduction Act could potentially address these cost concerns.

  • Changes to Medicare Part D in 2024 and 2025 Under the Inflation Reduction Act and How Enrollees Will Benefit

    Issue Brief

    The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 includes several provisions to lower prescription drug costs for people with Medicare and reduce drug spending by the federal government, including a number of changes to the Medicare Part D drug benefit. This brief provides an overview of the Part D benefit design and Part D enrollee cost-sharing requirements in 2023 and changes coming in 2024 and 2025.

  • What Happens When COVID-19 Emergency Declarations End? Implications for Coverage, Costs, and Access

    Issue Brief

    This brief provides an overview of the major health-related COVID-19 federal emergency declarations that have been made since early on in the pandemic, summarizes the flexibilities triggered by each, and identifies the implications for their ending, related to coverage, costs, and payment for COVID-19 testing, treatments, and vaccines; Medicaid coverage and federal match rates; telehealth; access to medical countermeasures through FDA emergency use authorization (EUA); and other Medicaid, Medicare and private health insurance flexibilities.