Medicare Part D is the Governments version of prescription coverage for those eligible for medicare, not only those who are low-income. Low-income recipicients can get it for free and there are other benefits they receive which equates to I believe less monetary liability when it comes to the drug purchase. Other than those folks, there is an annual fee that is paid per month, and the skeleton breakdown of it is:
250 deductible
250-2200 Medicare pays 75% and beneficiary pays 25%
2200-5200 beneficiary pays 100%
anything above 5200 medicare pays 95% and benificiary 5%
I think it might be helpful to those that either pay an enourmous amount of money per year for their prescriptions or fall in the 0-2200 range, but we'll see how it pans out next year. Another thing that is going to really hurt seniors is the fact that discount plans i.e. AARP etc are pulling those plans in favor of the medicare coverage, so now these folks really don't have a choice.
When it comes to pharmacists, I've read that the government is pushing MTM or medication therapy management, and have instituted 3 pay codes for pharmacists that enable those who engage in MTM to bill medicare for their time. How they expect this to happen in a retail environment is beyond me, due to the fact that the pharmacist usually doesn't have time to hit the head let alone sit for 15min to an hour and help people with their medication choices, even though I think this is a great idea and is where the profession should be heading.
